De l'esprit
E351068
De l'esprit is an 18th-century philosophical treatise by Claude Adrien Helvétius that argues human behavior and morality are shaped primarily by sensation, self-interest, and social conditions.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| De l'esprit canonical | 3 |
| De l'esprit was placed on the Index of Forbidden Books | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T3364169 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: De l'esprit Context triple: [Helvétius, notableWork, De l'esprit]
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A.
Pensées philosophiques
Pensées philosophiques is an early 18th-century philosophical work by Denis Diderot that challenges religious dogma and advocates for deism and rational inquiry.
-
B.
Pensées
Pensées is a posthumously published collection of philosophical and theological reflections by Blaise Pascal, best known for its exploration of faith, reason, and the famous “Pascal’s Wager.”
-
C.
Jacques le fataliste et son maître
Jacques le fataliste et son maître is an 18th-century philosophical novel by Denis Diderot that playfully explores fate, free will, and storytelling through the conversations and adventures of a servant and his master.
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D.
Système de la nature
Système de la nature is an influential 1770 philosophical treatise that presents a thorough materialist and atheist view of the universe, rejecting religious explanations in favor of natural laws.
-
E.
Mirour de l’Omme
Mirour de l’Omme is a lengthy Middle French moral and allegorical poem by John Gower that explores human sin, virtue, and the nature of society.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: De l'esprit Target entity description: De l'esprit is an 18th-century philosophical treatise by Claude Adrien Helvétius that argues human behavior and morality are shaped primarily by sensation, self-interest, and social conditions.
-
A.
Pensées philosophiques
Pensées philosophiques is an early 18th-century philosophical work by Denis Diderot that challenges religious dogma and advocates for deism and rational inquiry.
-
B.
Pensées
Pensées is a posthumously published collection of philosophical and theological reflections by Blaise Pascal, best known for its exploration of faith, reason, and the famous “Pascal’s Wager.”
-
C.
Jacques le fataliste et son maître
Jacques le fataliste et son maître is an 18th-century philosophical novel by Denis Diderot that playfully explores fate, free will, and storytelling through the conversations and adventures of a servant and his master.
-
D.
Système de la nature
Système de la nature is an influential 1770 philosophical treatise that presents a thorough materialist and atheist view of the universe, rejecting religious explanations in favor of natural laws.
-
E.
Mirour de l’Omme
Mirour de l’Omme is a lengthy Middle French moral and allegorical poem by John Gower that explores human sin, virtue, and the nature of society.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (47)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
book
ⓘ
philosophical treatise ⓘ |
| author |
Helvétius
ⓘ
surface form:
Claude Adrien Helvétius
|
| bannedIn | France ⓘ |
| causedReaction |
censure by the Parlement of Paris
ⓘ
condemnation by the Catholic Church ⓘ public burning of the book in Paris ⓘ |
| centralClaim |
all ideas derive from sensation
ⓘ
differences in talents are largely due to education and environment ⓘ human actions are motivated by self-interest ⓘ legislation and institutions shape morals and character ⓘ moral judgments depend on social utility and education ⓘ |
| controversial | yes ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin | France ⓘ |
| criticizedBy |
Catholic theologians
ⓘ
conservative Enlightenment figures ⓘ |
| defendedBy | some radical philosophes ⓘ |
| genre |
epistemology
ⓘ
moral philosophy ⓘ political philosophy ⓘ |
| hasPart | four books (sections) in its structure ⓘ |
| historicalContext | French Enlightenment debates on religion and morality ⓘ |
| influenced |
Claude Adrien Helvétius’s reputation as a radical thinker
ⓘ
Jeremy Bentham ⓘ utilitarianism ⓘ |
| influencedBy |
French Enlightenment
ⓘ
John Locke ⓘ |
| mainTopic |
human behavior
ⓘ
morality ⓘ self-interest ⓘ sensation ⓘ social conditions ⓘ |
| originalLanguage | French ⓘ |
| philosophicalMovement |
Age of Enlightenment
ⓘ
surface form:
Enlightenment
|
| philosophicalPosition |
empiricism
ⓘ
psychological egoism ⓘ sensationalism ⓘ |
| publicationCentury | 18th century ⓘ |
| publicationYear | 1758 ⓘ |
| publisherLocation | Paris ⓘ |
| theme |
education as a tool for social reform
ⓘ
equality of natural faculties ⓘ hedonism as a basis of motivation ⓘ relationship between interest and virtue ⓘ role of legislation in shaping virtue ⓘ |
| titleTranslation | On Mind ⓘ |
| workInAuthorCorpus | major work of Claude Adrien Helvétius ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: De l'esprit Description of subject: De l'esprit is an 18th-century philosophical treatise by Claude Adrien Helvétius that argues human behavior and morality are shaped primarily by sensation, self-interest, and social conditions.
Referenced by (4)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
subject surface form:
Claude Adrien Helvétius
subject surface form:
Claude Adrien Helvétius
this entity surface form:
De l'esprit was placed on the Index of Forbidden Books