Helvétius, Claude Adrien

Japanese: エルベシウス（英語表記）Helvétius， Claude Adrien

Born: January 26, 1715, Paris
Died December 26, 1771. French philosopher of Versailles. One of the ideological pioneers of the French Revolution. An Encyclopedist thinker of the Enlightenment, he was a representative of the sociological and political aspects of 18th-century French materialism. After studying at a school managed by the Jesuits, he became a tax collector at the age of 23, and with the huge income he earned from this job, he opened a salon, where he became friends with d'Holbach, Diderot, and d'Alembert. He also devoted himself to the study of philosophy, starting from the sensualism of Locke and Condillac and arriving at materialism. His main work, De l'esprit (1758), argues that all the activities of the human mind are based on physical sensations, but it was banned due to its materialistic and atheistic tendencies. De l'homme (1772) is an even bolder theory of humanity and education, presented from the standpoint of De l'esprit. His other works include the poetry collections Le Bonheur (Happiness) (1772) and Vrai sens du système de la nature (The True Meaning of the System of Nature) (1774).

Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica Concise Encyclopedia About Encyclopaedia Britannica Concise Encyclopedia Information

Japanese:

[生]1715.1.26. パリ
[没]1771.12.26. ベルサイユ
フランスの哲学者。フランス革命の思想上の先駆者の一人。百科全書派啓蒙思想家で，フランス 18世紀唯物思想の社会学的，政治学的方面の代表者。イエズス会経営の学校で学んだのち，23歳で徴税官になり，この職から得た莫大な収入でサロンを開き，ドルバック，ディドロ，ダランベールらと親交を結ぶとともに，哲学研究に専念，ロックやコンディヤックの感覚論から出発して唯物論に到達。主著『精神論』 De l'esprit (1758) は，人間精神のすべての営為は身体的感覚に基づくと説いているが，その唯物論的，無神論的傾向のために禁書にされた。『人間論』 De l'homme (1772) は『精神論』の立場から述べた一層大胆な人間論，教育論。ほかに，詩集『幸福』 Le Bonheur (1772) や『自然の体系の真の意味』 Vrai sens du système de la nature (1774) など。

出典　ブリタニカ国際大百科事典小項目事典ブリタニカ国際大百科事典小項目事典について　情報

<<: Erberfelt, Pieter

>>: Elbe [river] - Elbe