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Man a machine by Julien Offray de La Mettrie The aspiration to consistently materialistic decision of the mans problem has received bright expression in works of La Mettrie. A leitmotif of his philosophical anthropology is the regulations about material unity of the person, dependences of "abilities of soul ", all mental processes, beginning with sensation and ending with thinking, of nervous system and brain, conditions of "a corporal substance." According to such point of view the death of a body was considered as the reason of the termination of all mental activity of a man, as natural end of a terrestrial life, unique and real. The materialistic decision of a psychophysical problem rejected theological spiritualism and religious and philosophical dualism. It has the best reflection in the composition "Man a machine." However mechanician of the French materialists should not be treated literally in order to simplify their views on a man. Latter was understood not as the usual mechanism or the machine, but as a tool of nature allocated by the ability to feel and to think. Therefore philosophers-materialists had special interest to physiology, to nervous system and brain as material substratum of mentality studying.
La Mettrie (25. 12. 1709, Saint-Malo, Brittany, - 11. 11. 1751, Berlin), was a French philosopher - materialist. He was born in rich merchants family, studied theological sciences, physics and medicine; in Leaden practiced under the direction of the doctor G. Burgave. La Mettrie was a regimental doctor; when, having been ill with fever, on the basis of supervision over the illness came to the conclusion, that spiritual activity of the person is determined by his corporal organization.
This idea became a basis of his first philosophical composition "Natural history of soul (1745, or "Treatise about soul "), which caused animosity in the environment of clergy and was burnt under the order of parliament. La Mettrie was compelled to emigrate to Holland. There he anonymously published the composition "Man a machine" (1747, new edition 1960) which also was publicly burnt. In 1748 at the invitation of Prussian king Fredrick II, he has moved to Berlin where issued the works "Man a plant" (1748), Man is more, than a machine " (1748) and " Epicure System " (1751). La Mettrie died during the test on himself of a new method of treatment La Mettrie was the first in France who gave a consecutive statement of mechanistic materialism system. According to him, there is the only uniform material substance; abilities to feel and think inherent in it are found out in the organized bodies"; a body state entirely causes a soul state via sensual perceptions.
La Mettrie denied opinion about animals as simple automatic devices, deprived the abilities of sensation. According to La Mettrie, the person and animals are created by the nature from the same "clay" and only a lot of needs and, hence, bigger brain distinguishes the person from animals. La Mettrie considers human body as independently started machine similar to clockwork: The human body is a machine which winds its own springs. It is the living image of perpetual movement. Nourishment keeps up the movement which fever excites.
Without food, the soul pines away, goes mad, and dies exhausted. The soul is a taper whose light flares up the moment before it goes out. But nourish the body, pour into its veins life-giving juices and strong liquors, and then the soul grows strong like them, as if arming itself with a proud courage, and the soldier whom water would have made to flee, grows bold and runs joyously to death to the sound of drums. Thus a hot drink sets into stormy movement the blood which a cold drink would have calmed.
La Mettrie stated that the science should make a choice and either accept materialistic view on reality, or continue to adhere theistic positions. The similar ultimatum finds the basis in the philosophical argument, instead of the scientific data or historical reality. This argument states that if the sciences continue to adhere to Christian outlook, it, finally, will comprehend stagnation because such outlook removes any stimulus to the sanction of disturbing problems of life. Thus La Mettrie was excited not by the view on the reality itself, but by many Christian judgment of this view. If the God created the universe and mankind, then only he can control all that is happening on the Universe. From this the general idea was generated, which the accepted Christian outlook considers as logic consequence of their belief: any misfortunes, illnesses and vital disasters occur on Divine will.
In opinion of opponents it led to the position that the science should not interfere with the similar things. This reduces any scientific researches and scientific progress. If the science make its choice for the benefit of a materialistic sight on the reality it ostensibly can freely resolve riddles of a nature because then needs will not address to the supreme being (so to say, to " the unknown God ") to receive the decision from it. It is uneasy to notice, that this argument was not based on the scientific data, and had a philosophical substantiation which, alas, appeared weak both historically, and philosophically. Despite of it, in due course the given argument turned to habitual intellectual game and put the basis to the following basic event in division of Christianity and Science. Here is the result in a few words of all their reflections.
If there is a God, he is the Author of nature was well as of revelation. He has given us the one to explain the other, and reason to make them agree To distrust the knowledge that can be drawn from the study of animated bodies, is to regard nature and revelation as two contraries which destroy each other, and consequently to dare uphold the absurd doctrine, that God contradicts Himself in His various works and deceives us... If there is a revelation, it can not then contradict nature. By nature only can we understand the meaning of the words of the Gospel, of which experience is the only truly interpreter. In fact, the commentators before our time have only obscured the truth. We can judged of this by the author of the Spectacle of Nature This was the new outstanding concept that became the beginning of the new views on God and origin of mankind; moreover it did it very carefully, not disproving the previous theories.
Break the chain of your prejudices, arm yourselves with the torch of experience, and you will render nature the honor she deserves, instead of inferring anything to her disadvantage, from the ignorance in which she has left you... First the given philosophical concepts did not liquidate understanding of that the universe was created by the God up to the end, it only demanded not to perceive Him interested in the universe and in mankind or directly involved in its life. Generally speaking, the God might be accepted from a tacit consent as the reason of life, but only conditionally, instead of logic necessity. Such position held on down to second half of XIX century, until the Darwinian theory of evolution became the reason of final break between Christianity and Science.
The evolutionary theory excluded any need for that the God was the reason of occurrence of a man and, finally, of the whole universe. From this moment a Science (in the degree it accepted evolution) and Christianity really expressed a nature of the world oppositely. So, the break between Christianity and Science was finally finished. The science accepted a philosophical position, having chosen naturalism as ontological basis. After this, basing on naturalistic ontology, the naturalistic scientific methodology was produced; and at this stage the science began to apply for individual knowledge of the truth. However this change of a philosophical position was made so thinly, that it was the impression that the given change is the consequence inevitably caused by the scientific facts.
The science appeared included in a circle of philosophical representations where its authority affirmed, that all the real is material. Really, in the frameworks of actually scientific terminology such statement is impossible, as a science, by its own definition, has no the relation to the sphere of metaphysical. But this statement about the nature of a reality already rejected metaphysical, making, thus, itself and the whole position pseudo scientific as a whole. Unfortunately, only the few disputed this shaky basis of a modern science which puts it in the relation of rivalry with Christianity; and Christianity, as a result, is considered to be something unscientific, anti-intellectual and even anti human. La Mettrie's method was soft unobtrusive, he called: Let us then conclude boldly that man is a machine, and that in the whole universe there is but a single substance differently modified. This is no hypothesis set forth by dint of a number of postulates and assumptions; it is not the work of prejudice, nor even of my reason alone; I should have disdained a guide which I think to be so untrustworthy, had not my senses, bearing a torch, so to speak, induced me to follow reason by lighting the way themselves.
Experience has thus spoken to me in behalf of reason; and in this way I have combined the two. The philosopher tried to find the golden mean between the Science and Religion and at the same time he showed the close connection between them. Really it is no need to look for the false in the Christianity or Science, we just should give them an opportunity to work together, and the result we may get would be much more productive. In his last works La Mettrie approached to the ideas of evolution, stating ideas about unity of the vegetative and fauna origin, about gradual perfection of material and animal empire.
La Mettrie put forward the assumption of existence of zoophyte, plants and animals, subsequently confirmed with a science. Developing the point of view of sensationalism, La Mettrie considered, that the external world is reflected on "the brain screen." In ethics, reasoning from positions of hedonism, at the same time he gave a significant role to public interest. According to La Mettrie development of the society is determined by activity of outstanding people and successes of education. He was the supporter of educated absolutism, philosophical ideas of La Mettrie rendered significant influence on many great philosophies. Bibliography Winsled, Carl and Davis, Martha, The Soul of Science, (Wheaton: Crossway Books, 2000) Black, Linda, The Accidental Universe, (Cambridge: University Press, 2001) Black, Linda, The Mind of God, (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001)
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