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How did Julien de La Mettrie apply mechanical explanations to human beings?

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Bronze bust of Epicurus with a full beard and draped clothing, displayed on a round inscribed base at the National Archaeological Museum of Naples. — Materialism Epicurus, bronze bust from a Greek original, c. 280–270 bce; in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples.

In his influential work L’Homme-machine (1747), the French physician and philosopher Julien Offroy de La Mettrie applied mechanical explanations to human beings by extending the Cartesian view of animals as automata to include humans.12

La Mettrie argued that psychic phenomena were directly related to organic changes in the brain and nervous system, effectively rejecting the dualistic separation of mind and matter. By treating the human body as a complex machine, he sought to provide a purely materialistic and physiological account of human existence. This perspective was part of a broader 18th-century movement that utilized scientific and physiological evidence to reduce human nature to matter and motion, laying significant groundwork for the development of modern materialism and behaviourism.312