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HELVÉTIUS, Claude-Adrien.
De l'esprit (On the Mind).
Paris: Durand, 1758. SECOND EDITION Half title + TP + i-xxii + [1]-643 + [644] = Approbation and Privilege du Roi, Quarto. (Smith "C" Tirage [1964], E.2 [2001]). DETAILED BIBLIOGRAPHIC INFORMATION AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST (this book has a very complicated printing history!) "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. Spine with five raised bands and gilt lettering and devices. A very beautiful book. PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.
- USD 2,250.00 > other currencies
- ordernr.: 153
- bookseller: Athena Rare Books (USA)
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