Helvetius's Scandalous Book with Voltaire's Notes Appears Online

The electronic collection of the Russian National Library (RNL) has been expanded with a unique publication, included in the section "Book Monuments. Top 100". We are talking about an electronic image of the treatise of the famous French philosopher Claude Adrien Helvetius "On the Mind" ("De l"esprit").

As the RNB clarified, the book was published in 1758. This is Helvetius's main work, which immediately after its publication aroused not only broad public interest, but also a loud scandal.

It is known from historical sources that the treatise incurred the wrath of government and church circles, was immediately banned and sentenced to be burned by a parliamentary court. Despite this, it was repeatedly republished, including in Russia, where Helvetius had supporters.

For example, in 1773, in The Hague, with the assistance of the Russian envoy to Holland, Prince Golitsyn, the book "On Man, His Mental Abilities, and His Education" was published. The main idea was as follows: "People are born either without predispositions, or with predispositions to the most opposite vices and virtues. This means that they are only a product of education."

The book "On the Mind" digitized by the National Library of Russia was part of Voltaire's library, purchased by Empress Catherine II immediately after the philosopher's death in 1778. In 1779, the library was delivered to St. Petersburg and placed in the Hermitage.

"By purchasing the library, Catherine wanted to show her commitment to the ideas of the Enlightenment, but at the end of her life, frightened by the events of the French Revolution, she cooled towards Voltaire," the RNB clarified.

Under Nicholas I, Voltaire's library was closed to visitors; in 1861, under Emperor Alexander II, it was transferred to the Imperial Public Library.

The Russian National Library notes that Voltaire's library contains few rare and valuable publications, but it is his only library that has been preserved as a separate collection. What makes it valuable is that two thousand books bear Voltaire's notes, the so-called marginalia.

"Notes are the movement of the great man's thoughts without censorship. They are actively studied by researchers," explained the RNB. The digitized book by Helvetius, its first edition, is precisely this type of publication. Voltaire's notes can be used to judge how he treated Helvetius's thoughts.

An analysis of the notes suggests that Voltaire disagreed with Helvetius in many ways – unlike him, Voltaire did not reduce knowledge to sensations alone. His critical notes on Helvetius's book are largely related to this.

"Characterizing the title of the book "On the Mind" ("De l"esprit"), reflecting on the concept of "esprit", which in French means "mind", "spirit", but above all "wit", Voltaire writes in the margins: "The word "esprit" is unclear, it is wit (le wit) in English, Locke's title is much better, as is his book" (this is about Locke's book "An Essay concerning human understanding"), – they say in the Russian National Library.

At the same time, Voltaire approved of Helvetius's idea that recollection is a sensation. "… this state must indisputably produce a sensation: hence it is clear that to remember is to sense," wrote Helvetius. Voltaire noted in the margins of the edition: "Good." But Voltaire criticized Helvetius's idea of the pleasure principle as the basis of knowledge.

In particular, Helvetius wrote: "In this case, if the desire for pleasure is the beginning of all your thoughts and actions, if all people strive incessantly for their happiness, real or apparent, then all manifestations of our will are only consequences of this desire. But every consequence is necessary. In this sense, therefore, it is impossible to connect an exact idea with the word freedom."

Voltaire answered him again in the margins: “The desire for pleasure is not the beginning of the idea that you involuntarily receive when you see a tree, a cat, a dog, when you hear a noise.”