This powerful essay, for which La Mettrie expressed warm appreciation in 1751, revolves around a remarkable deathbed scene in which a dying blind philosopher, Saunderson, rejects the arguments of a deist clergyman who endeavours to win him around to a belief in a providential God during his last hours. Saunderson's arguments are those of a neo-Spinozist Naturalist and fatalist, using a sophisticated notion of the self-generation and natural evolution of species without creation or supernatural intervention. The notion of "thinking matter" is upheld and the "argument from design" discarded (following La Mettrie) as hollow and unconvincing.
this powerful essay for which la mettrie expressed warm appreciation in 1751 revolves around a remarkable deathbed scene in which a dying blind philosopher saunderson rejects the arguments of a deist clergyman who endeavours to win him around to a belief in a providential god during his last hours saunderson's arguments are those of a neo-spinozist naturalist and fatalist using a sophisticated notion of the self-generation and natural evolution of species without creation or supernatural intervention the notion of "thinking matter" is upheld and the "argument from design" discarded (following la mettrie) as hollow and unconvincing