人是机器 (1748)

《人是机器》（法语：L'homme Machine）是十八世纪法国医生和哲学家朱利安·奥弗雷·拉·美特利的唯物主义哲学著作，于1747年首次出版 。在这部作品中，拉美特利否认二元论和灵魂作为与物质分离的实体的存在，扩展了笛卡尔关于动物机器的论点，认为人类也只是机器；宇宙中只有物质实体，只是其组织形式各有变化。

观点

拉梅特利引用了身体和灵魂如何在睡眠中成为一体，人类如何必须滋养身体，以及药物对身体和灵魂或思想的强烈影响，指出“灵魂的种种状态总是与身体的种种状态密切相关的。”从而提出“既然心灵的一切作用是这样依赖着脑子和整个身体的组织，显而易见，这些作用不是别的，就是这个组织本身：这是一架多么聪明的机器！”他认为人体的组织比最完善的动物更加精密，大脑接受的血液更充足，于是理性就诞生了。

评价

卡尔·波普尔讨论了拉美特里的观点与进化论和量子力学的关系。“在进化论远未被普遍接受的1751年，拉美特利对人是机器这一学说给出了最有力的论证。后来的进化论将这一问题推进到更尖锐的层面，认为活物质和死物质之间也没有明显区别。尽管新量子理论取得了胜利，并且许多物理学家转变为非决定论，但拉美特利关于人是机器的学说在物理学家、生物学家和哲学家中可能比以前有更多的捍卫者；尤其是以人是计算机这一观点的形式。”

Man a Machine (French: L'homme machine) is a work of materialist philosophy by the 18th-century French physician and philosopher Julien Offray de La Mettrie, first published in 1747. In this work, de La Mettrie extends Descartes' argument that animals are mere automatons, or machines, to human beings. He denies dualism and the existence of the soul as a substance separate from matter.

Writing on the effects of physical conditions on the soul

La Mettrie cites how the body and soul are one in sleep, how humans must nourish their bodies, and the intense effects of drugs on both the body and the soul, or mind, noting that "diverse states of the soul are always correlated with those of the body."

Materialism in relation to evolution and quantum mechanism

Karl Popper discusses de La Mettrie's claim in relation to evolution and quantum mechanics.

Yet the doctrine that man is a machine was argued most forcefully in 1751, long before the theory of evolution became generally accepted, by de La Mettrie; and the theory of evolution gave the problem an even sharper edge, by suggesting there may be no clear distinction between living matter and dead matter. And, in spite of the victory of the new quantum theory, and the conversion of so many physicists to indeterminism, de La Mettrie's doctrine that man is a machine has perhaps more defenders than before among physicists, biologists and philosophers; especially in the form of the thesis that man is a computer.