Man a Machine · Julien Offray de La Mettrie
NOTES ON MAN A MACHINE.
82. "The nature of motion is as unknown to us as that of matter." Unlike La Mettrie, Toland holds that it is possible to know the nature of matter, and declares that motion and matter can not be defined, because their nature is self-evident. [151] Holbach, resembling La Mettrie, teaches that it is futile to seek to know the ultimate nature of matter, or the cause for its existence. "Thus if any one shall ask whence matter came, we shall say that it has always existed. If any one ask, whence came movement in matter, we shall answer that for this same reason matter must have moved from eternity, since motion is a necessary consequence of its existence, its essence, and of its primitive properties, such as extent, weight, impenetrability, shape, etc.... The existence of matter is a fact; the existence of motion is another fact." [152] 83. Huyghens (Christian) was born at The Hague, 1629, and died there in 1695. He was a Dutch physicist, mathematician, and astronomer. He is celebrated for the invention of the pendulum clock which could measure the movements of the planets, for the improvement of the telescope, and for the development of the wave-theory of light. His principal work is "Horologium Oscillatorium" (1673). [153] 84. Julien Leroy (1686-1759) was a celebrated French watchmaker. He excelled in the construction of pendulums and of large clocks. Some have attributed the construction of the first horizontal clock to him, but this is doubtful. Among many other inventions and improvements of clocks, he invented the compensating pendulum which bears his name. [154]
85. Jacques de Vaucanson (1709-1782) was a French mechanist. From his childhood he was always interested in mechanical contrivances. In 1738 he presented to the French Academy his remarkable flute player. Soon after, he made a duck which could swim, eat, and digest, and an asp which could hiss and dart on Cleopatra's breast. He later held the position of inspector of the manufacture of silk. In 1748 he was admitted to the Academy of Sciences. His machines were left to the Queen, but she gave them to the Academy, and in the disturbances which followed the pieces were scattered and lost. Vaucanson published: "Mécanisme d'un flûteur automate" (Paris, 1738). [155] 86. "[Descartes] understood animal nature; he was the first to prove completely that animals are pure machines." Contrast this with La Mettrie's former reference in "L'histoire naturelle de l'âme" to "this absurd system 'that animals are pure machines.' Such a laughable opinion," he adds, "has never gained admittance among philosophers.... Experience does not prove the faculty of feeling any less in animals than in men." [156] It is evident that La Mettrie's opposition to this 'absurd system' was based upon his insistence on the similarity of men and animals. In "L'homme machine" he argues from the same premiss, that animals are machines, that men are like animals, and that therefore men also are machines.
NOTES ON THE EXTRACTS FROM "L'HISTOIRE NATURELLE DE L'AME." 87. Matter, according to La Mettrie, is endowed with extensity, the power of movement, and the faculty of sensation. As La Mettrie says, this conception was not held by Descartes, who thought that the essential attribute of matter is extension. "The nature of body consists not in weight, hardness, color, and the like but in extension alone--in its being a substance extended in length, breadth and height." [157] Hobbes's conception of matter is very similar to that of La Mettrie. He specifically attributes motion to matter: "Motion and magnitude are the most common accidents of all bodies." [158] He does not name sensation as an attribute of matter, but he reduces sensation to motion. "Sense is some internal motion in the sentient." [159] Since motion is one of the attributes of matter, and since matter is the only reality in the universe, sensation must be attributed to matter. 88. La Mettrie always insists that matter has the power of moving itself, and resents any attempt to show that the motion is due to an outside agent. In this opinion he is in agreement with Toland. Toland says that those who have regarded matter as inert have had to find some efficient cause for motion; and to do this, they have held that all nature is animated. This pretended animation, however, is utterly useless, since matter is itself endowed with motion.
89. "This absurd system ... that animals are pure machines." (See Note 86.) (An asterisk indicates the edition to which reference is made.) 1745 "L'histoire naturelle de l'âme." The Hague. (This work appears as "Traité de l'âme" in La Mettrie's collected works.) 1748 "L'homme machine." Leyden. "L'homme machine par La Mettrie, avec une introduction et des notes." J. Assézat. Paris, 1865. 1751 "OEuvres philosophiques." London (Berlin). 1764 * "OEuvres philosophiques de Monsieur de la Mettrie," Amsterdam. Besides "L'homme machine" and "Traité de l'âme," the "OEuvres philosophiques" contain the following (dates of first publication added in parentheses): "Abrégé des systèmes." "L'homme plante" (1748). "Les animaux plus que machines" (1750). "L'Anti-Sénèque" (1748). "L'art de jouir" (1751). "Système d'Epicure." 1748 "L'homme plus que machine." London (Leyden). * "Man More than a Machine," translated from the French of Elie Luzac, and printed with the translation of "Man a Machine" for G. Smith, 1750. 1637 "Essais philosophiques," including "Discours de la méthode." * "The Discourse on Method," translated by John Veitch. Open Court Publishing Co., 1903. 1641 "Meditationes de prima philosophia." 1644 "Principia philosophiae." * "The Meditations and Selections from the Principles of Philosophy," translated by John Veitch. Open Court Publishing Co., 1905. 1650 "Les passions de l'âme." * "OEuvres de Descartes," Vol. IV. Edited by Victor Cousin, Paris, 1824. 1704 * "Letters to Serena." London. Printed for Bernard Lintot.
1650 "Human Nature or the Fundamental Elements of Policie." London. 1651 "Leviathan; Or the Matter, Form, and Power of a Commonwealth, Ecclesiastical & Civil." London. 1655 "Elementorum Philosophiae Sectio Prima: De Corpore." London. * English Works edited by Sir William Molesworth, 1839-45. Volume III. Leviathan. Volume IV. Human Nature. 1690 "An Essay Concerning Human Understanding." London. * Edition of Books II and IV (with omissions) preceded by the English version of Le Clerc's "Eloge historique de feu Mr. Locke," ed. M. W. Calkins. Open Court Publishing Co., 1905. 1754 "Traité des sensations." Paris and London. 1755 "Traité des animaux." Paris and London. * "OEuvres complètes," 23 vols. Edited by Guillaume Arnoux and Mousnier. Paris, 1798. Vol. III. "Traité des sensations." "Traité des animaux." 1770 "Système de la nature," par M. Mirabaud [really Von Holbach]. * Nouvelle edition avec des notes et des corrections par Diderot. Paris, 1821. 1758 "De l'esprit." Paris. * "De l'esprit, or Essays on the mind and its several faculties," translated from the French by William Mulford. London, 1810. 1772 "De l'homme, de ses facultés, et de son éducation." 2 vols. London. * "A Treatise on Man; His Intellectual Faculties and His Education," translated from the French, with notes, by W. Hooper, M. D., 1810. * "OEuvres de Frederic II., Roi de Prusse, publiées du vivant de l'auteur." Berlin, 1789: "Eloge de Julien Offray de la Mettrie," Vol. III, pp. 159 ff.
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