Note 32 — LA METTRIE’S RELATION TO HIS PREDECESSORS AND TO HIS SUCCESSORS.
Gertrude Carman Bussey translation
Like La Mettrie and Condillac, Helvetius teaches that all the faculties of the mind can be reduced to sensation.32 Unlike La Mettrie, he specifically distinguishes the mind from the soul, and describes the mind as a later developed product of the soul or faculty of sensation.33 This idea may have been suggested by La Mettrie’s statement that reason is a modification of sensation. Helvetius, however, unlike La Mettrie, does not clearly decide that sensation is but a result of bodily conditions, and he admits that sensation may be a modification of a spiritual substance.34 Moreover, he claims that climate and food have no effect on the mind, and that the superiority of the understanding is not dependent on the strength of the body and its organs.35