Claude-Arien Hélvetius

Robert Clark (The Literary Encyclopedia)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.05: English Writing and Culture from the Glorious Revolution to the French Revolution, 1689-1789.
Vol. editors: Paul Baines (University of Liverpool), Daniel Cook (University of Dundee), Pat Rogers (University of South Florida), Nicholas Seager (University of Keele)

Dates

Born 26 Jan 1715
Died 26 Dec 1771
Activity 1750-1771

Places

Born in France
Active in England; France; Germany

Activities

Primary

Philosopher

Resources

As the son of the Queen's physician, Hélvetius was well-connect in royal circles and given the prestigious office of fermier général (collector of taxes) at the early age of 23. He cultivated relations in intellectual circles of the Englightenment, notably with Diderot, Voltaire and others who would be involved in the Encyclopédie, married in 1751 and retired to his lands at Voré where he wrote a poem Le bonheur which would be published posthumously and a philosophical treatise De l'esprit [On the mind] (1758) which, because it was a relatively simple-minded and unoriginal repetition of ideas which were becoming generally current, would become one of the most widely-read philosophical works in the last …

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

389 words

Citation: Clark, Robert. "Claude-Arien Hélvetius". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 15 September 2002 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5192, accessed 23 November 2024.]

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here