PHILOSOPHER

Julien Offray de La Mettrie

1709 - 1751

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Julien Offray de La Mettrie (French: [ɔfʁɛ də la metʁi]; November 23, 1709 – November 11, 1751) was a French physician and philosopher, and one of the earliest of the French materialists of the Enlightenment. He is best known for his 1747 work L'homme machine (Man a Machine). La Mettrie is most remembered for taking the position that humans are complex animals and no more have souls than other animals do. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Julien Offray de La Mettrie has received more than 228,985 page views. His biography is available in 41 different languages on Wikipedia. Julien Offray de La Mettrie is the 182nd most popular philosopher (down from 172nd in 2019), the 409th most popular biography from France (down from 353rd in 2019) and the 21st most popular French Philosopher.

Julien Offray de la Mettrie is most famous for his philosophical work L'homme machine, in which he argues that humans are like machines and that the mind is nothing more than a function of the brain.

Memorability Metrics

  • 230k

    Page Views (PV)

  • 69.21

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 41

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 12.38

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 1.94

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Among PHILOSOPHERS

Among philosophers, Julien Offray de La Mettrie ranks 182 out of 1,267. Before him are Proclus, Karl Kautsky, Posidonius, Pierre Bayle, Paul Ricœur, and José Ortega y Gasset. After him are Marquis de Condorcet, Apollonius of Tyana, Moses Mendelssohn, Bernard Bolzano, Ibn Tufail, and Nicolas Malebranche.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1709, Julien Offray de La Mettrie ranks 2. Before him is Elizabeth of Russia. After him are Samuel Johnson, Jacques de Vaucanson, Louise Élisabeth d'Orléans, Anne, Princess Royal and Princess of Orange, Wilhelmine of Prussia, Margravine of Brandenburg-Bayreuth, Franz Benda, Gabriel Bonnot de Mably, Georg Wilhelm Steller, Andreas Sigismund Marggraf, and Tokugawa Ietsugu. Among people deceased in 1751, Julien Offray de La Mettrie ranks 2. Before him is Tomaso Albinoni. After him are Frederick I of Sweden, William IV, Prince of Orange, Frederick, Prince of Wales, Louise of Great Britain, Tokugawa Yoshimune, Jacques I, Prince of Monaco, Peter Lacy, Christopher Polhem, Jean Philippe Loys de Cheseaux, and Robert Maynard.

Others Born in 1709

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Others Deceased in 1751

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In France

Among people born in France, Julien Offray de La Mettrie ranks 409 out of 6,770. Before him are Pierre Bayle (1647), Patrice de MacMahon (1808), Jean Lannes (1769), Paul Ricœur (1913), Jean-Baptiste Say (1767), and Baldwin II of Jerusalem (1060). After him are Marcel Marceau (1923), Louis, Duke of Burgundy (1682), André Masséna (1758), Jean Fouquet (1420), Marquis de Condorcet (1743), and Lucien Bonaparte (1775).

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Among PHILOSOPHERS In France

Among philosophers born in France, Julien Offray de La Mettrie ranks 21. Before him are Jean Buridan (1295), Jean Baudrillard (1929), Claude Adrien Helvétius (1715), Ernest Renan (1823), Pierre Bayle (1647), and Paul Ricœur (1913). After him are Marquis de Condorcet (1743), Nicolas Malebranche (1638), Pierre Gassendi (1592), Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1908), Étienne Bonnot de Condillac (1714), and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881).

French born Philosophers

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