On the Mind

Claude Adrien Helvétius — a French materialist philosopher, an outstanding thinker of the Enlightenment era, one of the authors of the famous «Encyclopedia» by Diderot and d'Alembert. The theory of personal interest developed by him in the treatises «On the Mind» and «On Man» as the most important anthropological principle, determined by human nature itself, laid the foundations of utilitarian philosophy and became the starting point for the later intellectual constructions of renowned philosophers such as Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill. Helvétius's treatise «On the Mind», included in this edition, is the main work of the outstanding French thinker. After its publication in 1758, the treatise aroused great interest and unprecedented scandal: the book incurred the wrath of government and church circles, was immediately banned, and sentenced to be burned by parliamentary court. Since then, the treatise has withstood countless reprints and has become one of the most significant works of philosophical literature.