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Julien Offray de La Mettrie (1709–1751)
La Mettrie, Julien Offray de (lä-met-trē’). A French philosopher; born at St. Malo, Dec. 25, 1709; died at Berlin, Nov. 11, 1751. A fever while he was army surgeon led him to study the question of the parallel decline of mental force and bodily strength; his conclusions, those of materialism and atheism, he states in ‘The Natural History of the Soul’ (1745). Next he attacked the medical profession in ‘The Politics of Dr. Machiavel’ (1746). Both works were burnt by the common hangman. In numerous other works, as ‘Charlatans Unmasked’ (1747); ‘The Machine-Man’ (1748); ‘The Plant-Man’ (1748); ‘The Metaphysic Venus, or Essay on the Origin of the Soul’ (1752); he provoked the enmity of the clergy and of medical men. Frederick the Great had an edition of La Mettrie’s ‘Philosophical Works’ published (1751) at the cost of the royal privy purse.