Claude-Adrien Helvétius
People are not born fools or geniuses, good or bad: education, broadly understood, makes the person.
Life
Claude-Adrien Helvétius (1715-1771) was a French Enlightenment philosopher. A tax farmer and so a wealthy man, he left his post to write and to host philosophers in Paris. His book De l'esprit (1758) argues that all our ideas come from sensations and that we act from self-interest; it was condemned and burned by the Parlement. He sees in education and laws, more than in nature, the source of the differences between people. His De l'homme appeared after his death.
Main works
Our ideas come from sensations and our actions from self-interest; morality must rest on public utility.
Education, more than natural constitution, makes the differences of mind between people (published after his death).
In his own words
« Education makes us what we are. »
« Man is born ignorant: he is not born stupid, and it is not even without effort that he becomes so. »
« In men, mind and talents are never anything but the product of their desires and of their particular position. »
Positions
click a row to see the evidenceAll our ideas come from sensations; even judgment is a kind of sensing.
Helvétius, De l'esprit (1758)
Virtue is whatever serves the public interest; self-interest is guided toward it by good laws.
Helvétius, De l'esprit (1758)
People are not born good or bad: education and laws shape them, so they can be improved.
Helvétius, De l'homme (1773)