LA METTRIE'S ANTHROPIC REASONING
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Abstract
Julien Offray de La Mettrie is considered a representative philosopher of materialism and hedonism in the Age of Enlightenment. His seminal work Man a Machine bears many hallmarks of the Enlightenment: faith in ratinality and progress, turning away from traditional figures of authority and towards the authority of natural sciences, and placing great value in the individual and self-improvement. Certain paragraphs of the work, however, contain claims that seemingly advocate that one ought to remain wholly ignorant when it comes to questions pertaining to reasons for man's existence. This appears to contradict the usual intelectual optimism of the Enlightenment. However, if we read these paragraphs through the lens of contemporary anthropic reasoning, it shows that this is just La Mettrie's attempt to counter certain theistic arguments, and fully in the spirit of the Enlightenment.
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