La Mettrie ou les morts de Monsieur Machine

Abstract

This article, after evoking the hostile fictitious account of La Mettrie’s death in which he is described as a machine, studies first of all how this doctor discussed death in his own works, in particular in Système d’Epicure. Here La Mettrie also refers to his own death, claiming that he has no doubt he will die as a philosopher. A study of the diverse accounts of and reactions to his untimely death shortly afterwards lead to the conclusion that he did not perhaps die as he had hoped but that he died as a physician, with no deathbed conversion.