기계론에서 행복론으로- 라메트리의 기계론과 생명, 죽음, 그리고 행복

Abstract

La Mettrie is generally regarded as a radical mechanist and materialist. In that sense, he is often contrasted with Descartes who was a mechanist, but a theist. While his mechanistic philosophy is based on Descartes, his materialism is based on that of his time, which in turn was strongly influenced by ancient materialism, in particular, Epicurean’s. Epicurean natural philosophy, in other words ancient atomism, did not only aim at explaining the nature by the movements of atoms. Its main concern was to establish an ethical attitude toward life and death on the ground of atomism La Mettrie is inherited with ancient atomists’ natural philosophy and ethics. He talks about life and death in two dimensions: the materialistic and the ethical. These two dimensions are closely intertwined. That is, the materialistic dimension of life and death consists of the foundation of ethical dimension. The main concern of ethical dimension is the problem of happiness. It was happiness that he attempted to attain when he proposed living organisms as machines, making it the materialistic foundation of organisms’ life and death. La Mettrie’s mechanistic philosophy and materialism was not the philosophy which solely aimed at explaining nature. The ultimate goal of his philosophy was arriving at a happy life as his ancient predecessors. It should be remembered that La Mettrie established his ethical attitudes toward life and death on this mechanistic philosophy and materialism.