Note 87 — NOTES.1

Matter, according to La Mettrie, is endowed with extensity, the power of movement, and the faculty of sensation. As La Mettrie says, this conception was not held by Descartes, who thought that the essential attribute of matter is extension. “The nature of body consists not in weight, hardness, color, and the like but in extension alone—in its being a substance extended in length, breadth and height.”101 Hobbes’s conception of matter is very similar to that of La Mettrie. He specifically attributes motion to matter: “Motion and magnitude are the most common accidents of all bodies.”102 He does not name sensation as an attribute of matter, but he reduces sensation to motion. “Sense is some internal motion in the sentient.”103 Since motion is one of the attributes of matter, and since matter is the only reality in the universe, sensation must be attributed to matter.