Man a Machine

He was a physician by profession.

His two important contributions were Histoire Naturelle de l'Âme, 1745, and L'Homme Machine, 1748.

The titles are sufficient to indicate the scope of these works.

That of the latter points back to Descartes, who had applied the mechanical theory to animals only and not to man.

Diderot, however, did not obtrude in the Encyclopedia the definitely anti-religious opinions which he had developed and which are revealed in his correspondence.

Holbach A disciple of the Encyclopedist, Holbach, a young German settled in Paris, was bolder than his master, and published, under the name of a savant who had recently died, a book which became widely notorious and has been called the Bible of Materialism, the Système de la Nature, 1770.

Like Voltaire's Éléments and Lamettrie's L'Homme Machine, it was published in Holland.

The book is materialism reduced to a system.