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IN DEFENCE OF A PURELY UTILITARIAN ETHIC
A KEY WORK OF THE RADICAL ENLIGHTENMENT
HELVETIUS, Claude Adrien. De l'homme, de ses facultés intellectuelles et de son éducation. Ouvrage posthume.
London [= France?], La Société Typographique, 1773. 8vo. 2 parts in 1 volume. Contemporary marbled calf, gold-tooled spine.
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Third (or second?) edition of one of the key works of the Radical Enlightenment, published in the same year as the original edition. The author had evoked huge outcry with the publication of De L'esprit (1758), a carefully argued essay on the mind, in which he roundly rejected metaphysics and the idea of Truth, replacing Christian morals by a purely utilitarian ethic and stressing the importance of education as the key to moral behaviour. In De l'homme, Helvétius expanded and clarified his views, provoking even Diderot to write a Réfutation.
The first edition was published in London and The Hague, 18 months after the author's death. It was immediately translated into several languages and reprinted 13 times in the 18th century alone. "Like De L'esprit it was duly condemned by the Paris Parlement and hunted by the police, it thus enjoyed a minor succès de scandale" (Smith). The present edition was most likely printed in France, and, as Smith argues, it was probably this edition which was condemned by the Paris Parliament on 10 January 1774.
Fine copy. Binding slightly rubbed; top of spine slightly worn.
