PHILOS 2F03 Lecture Notes - Lecture 17: Julien Offray De La Mettrie, Man A Machine, Tabula Rasa
14 Sep 2016
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His book is of atheist materialism: a mechanical transaction (a mechanical perspective) The mind grows from actions of sin on the blank slate. The more he reflected upon his own experience as a doctor in the war lead him to his theory. First thesis: all attempts to clarify the nature of mind have failed. The problem of mind or soul is a problem of physics and not theology. Second thesis: organic matter possess an inherit power of purposive movement. He appealed to the phenomenon of muscular irritability (the persistence of movement in isolated muscle fibres) Muscles severed from an animal"s body continues to twitch. This flesh doesn"t need a brain or soul to move. This muscle has its own power to move. All living matter is like the severed, still functional and lively muscle. All manifestations of consciousness in animals and people alike is explained by this organic machine. Mechanical means it can be demonstrated in the lab experimentally.
