The Hedonist Alternative: Anti-Seneca and Other Texts

If we accept this world as the only real one, and that all we are and all we do is predetermined by the mechanical laws of nature, what will become of our morals, what will be the meaning of life? How can we find happiness in a world like that?

Julien Offray de la Mettrie (1709-51) explores these issues, drawing on his experience and training in medicine. His conclusions were too radical even for his fellow Enlightenment thinkers; Voltaire once wrote that "there's a great difference between...