Claude Adrien Helvetius 1715 – 1771
Claude Adrien Helvetius was a French Enlightenment philosopher, tax-farmer, and patron of the philosophes. His treatise On the Mind, published in 1758, applied Locke's empiricism to a sweeping theory of human nature according to which all our thought is derived from sensation and all our action from self-interest. The book was condemned by the Sorbonne, the Pope, and the French parlement and became one of the most discussed works of the high Enlightenment. His posthumous A Treatise on Man developed his thesis that education rather than nature is the source of the differences between human beings.
Key facts
- Nationality
- French
- Era
- Modern
- Movements
- Enlightenment
Selected quotes
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Attributed to Claude Adrien Helvetius:
“Education makes us what we are.”
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Attributed to Claude Adrien Helvetius:
“Self-interest is the spring of every action.”
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Attributed to Claude Adrien Helvetius:
“The variations among men are not natural, but the result of education.”
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Attributed to Claude Adrien Helvetius:
“All knowledge comes from sensation.”
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Attributed to Claude Adrien Helvetius:
“The greatest happiness of the greatest number is the foundation of morals and legislation.”