Epistemologia e política em Helvétius

Abstract

This dissertation aims to present and analyze the theses of the philosopher Claude-Adrien Helvétius (1715-1775), under an epistemological approach. His philosophical theory is part of the context of the 18th century French Enlightenment movement. It is also part of the tradition of the knowledge theory of English empiricism of the previous century. According to this philosophical school, human knowledge has its origin in the sensations or experiences of the five senses, with no innate ideas - which, according to the rationalist school, underlie all human knowledge. Helvétius' theory is also part of the movement called materialism, although the philosopher does not explicitly assume himself as such. With her own arguments and developments, she adheres to that assumption highlighted by the philosopher Julien Offray de la Mettrie (1709-1751), according to which mental contents, such as ideas and feelings, are an effect of matter. Helvétius' theory demonstrates how man's mental life originates from sensations and how the peculiar organization of man, which he calls physical sensitivity, determines human capacities and faculties. This sensitivity is entirely material, as it is distinguished only by its peculiar organization, which in man acquires a complexity that is outside the scope of philosophy to investigate, and is therefore related to empirical sciences. The philosopher uses the method of reduction to demonstrate that ideas and feelings can be reduced to physical sensations and that pleasure and pain underlie all behavior. Ethics and epistemology can be explained from the principles that determine human conduct.