Helvétius, Claude Adrien (1715–71)

Abstract Helvétius, a wealthy tax‐farmer of the French ancien régime , is the author of poetry and of two philosophical treatises: De l'esprit (1758) and De l'homme (1773, posthumous), leaving manuscript notes and a vast correspondence. De l'esprit , part of a memorable scandal, was one of the most widely read and most often republished works in eighteenth‐century France. Among French Enlightenment ideas, Helvétius's political thought, based on his anthropology, is noteworthy as a nonutilitarian policy of interest, which one may call issues of public interest, and as an original version of republicanism, centered on the reduction of wealth inequalities.