Why did La Mettrie believe that it was inappropriate to separate the mind and body?

According to La Mettrie, mind is much more related to the body and whatever influences the body, influences the thought processes. He was one of the first modern philosophers who suggested, “You are what you eat”.

Like Hobbes and Gassendi, was also a materialist who believed that the universe consists of nothing but the matter and motions. He also believed that man work like a machine because mental thoughts are dependent on bodily actions.

He did not believe the existence of God, while Descartes’s thoughts were on God. He also argued that the complex motions of matter results in the human thought.

In his works, La Mettrie mentioned that man is a machine and man is the only substance in the universe, which is differently modified. He believed that every substance in the universe including human is made up of matter and hence, he was considered as a physical monist.

He felt silly about the existence of immaterial mind given by Descartes. According to him, the mind depends on the body and it works in response to the bodily actions.

After gathering enough information in both medical and psychological fields, he concluded that mind and body are not separate and mind depends on body for every emotion such as thoughts and feelings.

He believed that humans as machines follow laws of nature and disagreed the hedonistic approach to human behavior. He concluded that human mind works with bodily action and human use the complex matters as possible as they can.