Among the Hellenistic schools, Jonas attributes a decisive role to Stoicism. The new position held by ancient Stoicism should be considered crucial, because (over, above and better than Aristotle) it seems to represent the first philosophy, that examines the idea of freedom from a strong, systematic, holistic point of view.
In The Man Machine (1738) La Mettrie criticizes the received view of Descartes’s portrait as radically devaluing the body in favour of the mind. Descartes’ bête-machine theory, according to La Mettrie, laid the groundwork for medical materialism. In this chapter I will focus on the work of an early Dutch proponent of Cartesian physiology, Hendrik Le Roy (Henricus Regius, 1598-1679), who saw the mental activity and moral character as functions of the human body and the brain.
© Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza" - Piazzale Aldo Moro 5, 00185 Roma
