The Long ConversationA timeline of world philosophy

Philosopher

Antoinette Deshoulières

1638–1694

Also known as Madame Deshoulières, Antoinette du Ligier de la Garde

French poet who, following Lucretius and her friend Gassendi, used verse to defend naturalism: thought, choice and love explained by matter and instinct.

Print of a woman with dark ringlets and a loose wrap over her shoulders
Print from a French collection of portraits of famous men and women, made long after her death.Public domain · See the original

Madame Deshoulières, née Antoinette du Ligier de la Garde, came from a noble Paris family and was born in 1638; her father was a courtier in the service of Queen Anne of Austria. She became a major poet of Louis XIV’s reign, a friend and disciple of Pierre Gassendi, and took Lucretius as her model in using verse to argue philosophy.

She belongs to the naturalism of the French Renaissance in its struggle against Aristotelianism and Cartesianism. She died in 1694.

Key ideas

Matter explains the mind
Reality consists of forms of matter, and material causes explain what we observe; material organs, not a spiritual soul, produce thought and choice.
Animals differ only in degree
The difference between animals and humans is one of degree, not kind.
Instinct beneath virtue and love
Instincts such as self-preservation govern the behaviour usually credited to free will and virtue, and love owes far more to instinctive attraction and repulsion than rationalist philosophers admit.
Tradition
Western
Region
Paris

Influences

Influenced by

Antoinette Deshoulières1638–1694

Influenced by

Antoinette Deshoulières1638–1694

Where these links come from
  • Antoinette Deshoulières drew on Lucretius. Source: John J. Conley, Antoinette Deshoulières, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Sources

  1. John J. Conley, Antoinette Deshoulières, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy