fragments and portraits generated with AI come from the book “100 Masons Who Changed the World“
The laws owe power to customs.
The President
Claude Adrien Helvétius (1715-1771), French philosopher and economist, made a crucial contribution to the past of the planet with his views on education and human nature. He repeated behind Locke that the head has no innate ideas, and that man is born as a pure plaque, or “tabula breed”, and that is why education plays a key role. He so promoted the thought of equality and equal opportunities for all people. He claimed that the driving force of human action was selfishness, he criticized morality based on religion, and introduced into doctrine and economics the notion of utilitarianism. He laid out the principles of his doctrine in the book “About Mind” (“De l’esprit”) which sparked strong opposition from the Church and university authorities and was publically burned. At the same time, they welcomed the Enlightenment Circles, and Helvetius was gladly invited to discuss them (e.g. in 1765 he visited Prussia, at the individual invitation of Frederick II). Helvétius was 1 of the most crucial philosophers of the 18th century and his views had a crucial impact on the improvement of philosophy, economics and political theory.
According to the Masonic Encyclopedia C.Lenning, Locke was admitted to the lodge in 1696, 20 years before the beginning of organized freemasonry. Nevertheless, there are discussions about his belonging, but given that there is simply a letter in which he admits to it, and many of his contemporaries considered him a Brother, we think that we can put him in this book with a clear heart.
We besides recommend:
Freemasonry Philosophy: Helvetius
