Oeuvres philosophiques. Tome prémier [!] [- second].

2 vol.,12mo: [2]-78-[20]-109-[1 bl.]-198 pp. (sm. marg. stain to the 1st ff., tear without lack of paper to the title of "L'homme machine", a few pp. or quires brown.), [2]-58-[2 bl.]-77-[1 bl.]-34-56-114-[2 bl.]-70 pp.

Contemp. mottled sheep (sl. rubbed, tiny worm holes on upper cover vol. II), gilt flat spines, red edges. Good copy.

Rare 2nd edition of the 1st collected ed. (Berlin 1751) of the writings of the French physician and philosopher at the court of Frederick the Great, La Mettrie (1709-1751). It consists of 9 tracts that were also publ. separately. He is best known for "L'homme machine" (here in 2nd ed. with separate title page with name "Luzac" and date 1748) wherein he rejected the Cartesian dualism of mind and body, and proposed the metaphor of the human being a machine. This book marks the starting point of modern materialism and was the most forceful expression of the anti-religious sentiment of the Enlightenment. Also included are e.g. "Traité de l'âme", "Les animaux plus que machines", "L'homme plante", "Anti-Sénèque ou Discours sur le bonheur", "L'art de jouir" (praising pleasure and suggesting a hierarchy of pleasures).
Ref. BnF. - Cioranescu 36358. - Tchemerzine/Scheler III:952. - Cp. Conlon 51:767 (Berlin ed.). - Cp. En français dans le texte 151. - Not in STCN.