HELVÉTIUS, Claude-Adrien.

De l'esprit (On the Mind).

Paris: Durand, 1758. FIRST EDITION, SECOND ISSUE 1 blank leaf + half-title + TP + i-xxii + [1]-643 + [644] = Approbation and Privilege du Roi, Quarto [bound with] Gazette Deleyde (22 Aout 1758); [1]-8, small Quarto [bound with] Lettre au Reverend Pere ***; 1-7, Octavo. (Smith "B" Tirage [1964], E.1B [2001]), First Editions of the other two pieces. DETAILED BIBLIOGRAPHIC INFORMATION AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST (this book has a very complicated printing history!) The two pieces inserted at the end of this copy are (a) a contempory account reporting on the revocation of the original privledge which had been obtained on August 10, 1758 and (b) a copy of Helvètius's first (of two) retractions of statements made in his own work. Both retractions were in the form of a letter addressed to Helvètius's` friend, the Jesuit Père Plesse."The publication in 1758 of his principal work, De l'esprit was noisily condemned by the authorities, both ecclesiastical and ministerial, for its dangerously heretical and subversive opinions. Suppression of the book signaled a grave - but fortunately temporary - setback for the party of philosophes and Encyclopedists. Despite the recantations that Helvétius was forced to make regarding De l'esprit, he reaffirmed his ideas even more strongly in De L'Homme, de ses facultes intellectuelles, et se son education, published posthumously in 1772." (EP, Vol. 3, p. 472) Helvétius continued the work of Condillac by reducing all human understanding to sensation or sense-perception. He then took this reductionist psychology and erected a utilitarian theory of morality based upon it - making him "one of the chief pioneers and promoters of utilitarian moral theory" (Copelston, VI, 1, p. 51). Helvétius was a strong defender of the benefits of education and also extremely political - attacking all forms of despotism and, in particular, French despotism. Bound in a lovely and well-preserved contemporary full leather binding with boards that are marked in an even pattern. Spine with five raised bands and gilt lettering and devices. The small armorial plate of M. Ducas on the inside front cover and three lines of small, neat script on the verso of the half-title. Overall, a very beautiful book. PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.

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• ordernr.: 152

• bookseller: Athena Rare Books (USA)