219 works selected for the 40 candidate questions. Selections approved by Ben Breen, 29 September 2026. Arguments are unverified. Quotations were chosen by machine and are unchecked.
28 of 219 works
1637DescartesDescartes,Discourse on MethodFrenchTreatiseFull text
René Descartes
Discours de la méthode
French · Treatise
Full text · No English translation
Open source →- Q02Would a machine's ability to converse appropriately be sufficient evidence that it thinks?
No. A machine could utter words but could never arrange them to answer the sense of whatever is said to it, as the dullest human can; this shows it lacks reason.
- Q03Can a machine exercise judgment when faced with circumstances its maker did not anticipate?
No. Machines act only from the disposition of their organs, which must be arranged for each particular action, while reason is a universal instrument usable in any circumstance.
- Q15Should extending human life indefinitely be a goal of technical progress?
Yes. Hopes that a practical science of nature will free people from countless diseases and perhaps from the infirmities of old age.
- Q28Would the capacity to suffer give an artificial being a claim to humane treatment?
No. Argues animals are machines made by God whose actions follow from the disposition of their organs, and that they lack reason and a rational soul.
- Q40Can an artificial companion satisfy the need for companionship if it has no feelings of its own?
No. A machine might utter words in response to a touch, but it could never arrange words to answer the meaning of whatever is said to it, as even the dullest person can.
- Q02Would a machine's ability to converse appropriately be sufficient evidence that it thinks?
1664DescartesDescartes,The Description of the Human BodyFrenchTreatiseFull text
René Descartes
La Description du corps humain
French · Treatise
Full text · No English translation
Open source →- Q09Can the development of an organism from an egg be explained as the operation of a machine?
Yes. Explains the living body's functions by the motion of matter alone, and states that explaining them requires explaining how the animal forms from its beginning by the same mechanical laws.
- Q09Can the development of an organism from an egg be explained as the operation of a machine?
1668CordemoyCordemoy,A Philosophicall Discourse Concerning SpeechFrenchTreatiseFull text
Géraud de Cordemoy
Discours physique de la parole
French · Treatise
Full text · No English translation
Open source →- Q02Would a machine's ability to converse appropriately be sufficient evidence that it thinks?
Yes. I know other bodies have minds like mine because their speech is new, fitting and cannot be explained by mechanical principles alone.
- Q02Would a machine's ability to converse appropriately be sufficient evidence that it thinks?
1670PascalPascal,PenséesFrenchTreatiseFull text
- Q10Can a fixed procedure for reasoning settle a disagreement when the participants accept the same premises?
No. Distinguishes the geometrical mind, which reasons from explicit principles, from the intuitive mind (esprit de finesse), which grasps principles too many and subtle to state, and says the two cannot be reduced to each other.
- Q10Can a fixed procedure for reasoning settle a disagreement when the participants accept the same premises?
1674MalebrancheMalebranche,The Search after TruthFrenchTreatiseFull text
Nicolas Malebranche
De la recherche de la vérité
French · Treatise
Full text · No English translation
Open source →- Q04Does conscious intention help cause bodily action?
No. There is no necessary connection between my will to move my arm and its motion; I do not know how to move it, so God is the true cause and my will only the occasion.
- Q04Does conscious intention help cause bodily action?
1747La MettrieLa Mettrie,Man a MachineFrenchTreatiseFull text
Julien Offray de La Mettrie
L'Homme machine
French · Treatise
Full text · Period translation
Open source →- Q02Would a machine's ability to converse appropriately be sufficient evidence that it thinks?
Yes. Proposes that an ape could be taught language by Amman's method for the deaf, after which it would be a little gentleman; speech is a trained bodily capacity, not proof of an immaterial soul.
- Q05Can human choices be fully explained by physical causes?
Yes. The soul's faculties vary with the state of the brain, body, food and illness, so the whole person is a self-winding machine whose states follow from its organization.
- Q02Would a machine's ability to converse appropriately be sufficient evidence that it thinks?
1748MontesquieuMontesquieu,The Spirit of the LawsFrenchTreatiseFull text
- Q11Should a judge follow a general rule when it produces an unjust result in a particular case?
Yes. Says judges should be only the mouth that pronounces the words of the law, inanimate beings who cannot moderate its force or severity.
- Q11Should a judge follow a general rule when it produces an unjust result in a particular case?
1755RousseauRousseau,Discourse on the Origin of InequalityFrenchTreatiseFull text
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Discours sur l'origine et les fondements de l'inégalité parmi les hommes
French · Treatise
Full text · No English translation
Open source →- Q38When a person accomplishes something through a machine, should the machine's power count as that person's capability?
No. The savage's body is his only instrument and is stronger for it; had he an axe, a sling or a horse he would lose the strength and speed he now has.
- Q38When a person accomplishes something through a machine, should the machine's power count as that person's capability?
1762RousseauRousseau,EmileFrenchTreatiseFull text
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Émile, ou De l'éducation
French · Treatise
Full text · No English translation
Open source →- Q20Does making an action habitual increase a person's freedom to act?
No. The only habit a child should form is to have no habits, so that he keeps control of his liberty and strength.
- Q22Does organizing daily life by fixed schedules strengthen or weaken self-government?
Weakens. A child should not want to eat, sleep or do anything at fixed hours, so he keeps control of his own liberty.
- Q24Does using calculating devices weaken the ability to calculate without them?
Yes. The more ingenious our apparatus, the coarser our senses; instruments like the theodolite let us neglect judging angles and distances ourselves.
- Q20Does making an action habitual increase a person's freedom to act?
1764VoltaireVoltaire,Philosophical Dictionary, 'Animals'FrenchTreatiseFull text
- Q28Would the capacity to suffer give an artificial being a claim to humane treatment?
Yes. Attacks the Cartesian view of animals as machines: a dog dissected alive has all the organs of feeling, and nature did not give it nerves in order that it should not feel.
- Q28Would the capacity to suffer give an artificial being a claim to humane treatment?
1770ThiryThiry,The System of NatureFrenchTreatiseFull text
Paul-Henri Thiry, baron d'Holbach
Système de la nature
French · Treatise
Full text · No English translation
Open source →- Q05Can human choices be fully explained by physical causes?
Yes. Man is part of nature and every act of will is determined by motives that act on the brain, so free agency is an illusion.
- Q05Can human choices be fully explained by physical causes?
1795CondorcetCondorcet,Outlines of an Historical View of the Progress of the Human MindFrenchTreatiseFull text
Condorcet
Esquisse d'un tableau historique des progrès de l'esprit humain
French · Treatise
Full text · No English translation
Open source →- Q15Should extending human life indefinitely be a goal of technical progress?
Yes. Asks whether the interval between birth and decay might have no assignable limit, and expects medicine and better living to lengthen life indefinitely.
- Q15Should extending human life indefinitely be a goal of technical progress?
1798CondillacCondillac,The Language of CalculationFrenchTreatiseNo text yet
Étienne Bonnot de Condillac
La Langue des calculs
French · Treatise
No text yet · No English translation
Open source →- Q10Can a fixed procedure for reasoning settle a disagreement when the participants accept the same premises?
Yes. Argues that reasoning is calculation and that a well-made language of signs would make every science as exact as algebra.
- Q10Can a fixed procedure for reasoning settle a disagreement when the participants accept the same premises?
1800BichatBichat,Physiological Researches upon Life and DeathFrenchTreatiseFull text
Xavier Bichat
Recherches physiologiques sur la vie et la mort
French · Treatise
Full text · No English translation
Open source →- Q07Does living activity require a principle beyond physical and chemical processes?
Yes. Vital powers vary constantly in intensity while physical laws are fixed and uniform, so living bodies must be studied by different principles from inanimate ones.
- Q07Does living activity require a principle beyond physical and chemical processes?
1819SismondiSismondi,New Principles of Political EconomyFrenchTreatiseFull text
J.-C.-L. Simonde de Sismondi
Nouveaux principes d'économie politique
French · Treatise
Full text · No English translation
Open source →- Q17Does introducing labor-saving machinery improve workers' lives?
No. Sismondi locates the calamity in unjust distribution, not improved machinery. A self-employed worker could take the productivity gain as leisure, whereas a dependent worker may work longer for the same wage.
- Q19Who should receive the benefits when machinery increases the amount a worker can produce?
The worker, as shorter hours. Sismondi argues that greater output per unit of labor ought to increase enjoyment or rest; his self-employed worker stops after two hours, while the dependent worker does not receive the benefit.
- Q17Does introducing labor-saving machinery improve workers' lives?
1825Saint-SimonSaint-Simon,New ChristianityFrenchTreatiseFull text
Henri de Saint-Simon
Nouveau Christianisme
French · Treatise
Full text · No English translation
Open source →- Q30Should technological invention be understood as carrying out a divine purpose?
This answer is hidden while the authors build this question’s position key.
- Q30Should technological invention be understood as carrying out a divine purpose?
1840TocquevilleTocqueville,Democracy in America, vol. 2FrenchTreatiseFull text
Alexis de Tocqueville
De la démocratie en Amérique
French · Treatise
Full text · No English translation
Open source →- Q18Does operating machinery develop or diminish a worker's skill and judgment?
This answer is hidden while the authors build this question’s position key.
- Q18Does operating machinery develop or diminish a worker's skill and judgment?
1859BiranBiran,Essay on the Foundations of PsychologyFrenchTreatiseFull text
Maine de Biran
Essai sur les fondements de la psychologie
French · Treatise
Full text · No English translation
Open source →- Q04Does conscious intention help cause bodily action?
Yes. The primitive fact of consciousness is the feeling of willed effort meeting the body's resistance; in it we directly experience ourselves as a cause.
- Q04Does conscious intention help cause bodily action?
1862BouillierBouillier,Du principe vital et de l'âme pensanteFrenchTreatiseFull text
- Q07Does living activity require a principle beyond physical and chemical processes?
Yes. Defends animism: the vital principle is the same as the thinking soul, against both mechanist physiology and Montpellier vitalism's separate vital force.
- Q07Does living activity require a principle beyond physical and chemical processes?
1878BernardBernard,Leçons sur les phénomènes de la vie communs aux animaux et aux végétauxFrenchTreatiseFull text
- Q07Does living activity require a principle beyond physical and chemical processes?
Neither. Rejects vitalism because a vital force can do nothing except through physical and chemical forces, and rejects materialism because those conditions alone do not explain the ordering of vital phenomena.
- Q08Does an organism's ability to repair itself distinguish it fundamentally from a machine?
This answer is hidden while the authors build this question’s position key.
- Q07Does living activity require a principle beyond physical and chemical processes?
1889BergsonBergson,Time and Free WillFrenchTreatiseFull text
Henri Bergson
Essai sur les données immédiates de la conscience
French · Treatise
Full text · No English translation
Open source →- Q05Can human choices be fully explained by physical causes?
No. Determinism treats conscious states as separate things in space; a free act comes from the whole self in real duration and cannot be predicted or explained by physical causes.
- Q05Can human choices be fully explained by physical causes?
1892KropotkinKropotkin,The Conquest of BreadFrenchTreatiseFull text
- Q19Who should receive the benefits when machinery increases the amount a worker can produce?
Everyone in common. Machinery and all accumulated wealth are the work of past generations in common, so no one can claim them privately; all belongs to all.
- Q19Who should receive the benefits when machinery increases the amount a worker can produce?
1899GényGény,Method of Interpretation and Sources in Private Positive LawFrenchTreatiseNo text yet
François Gény
Méthode d'interprétation et sources en droit privé positif
French · Treatise
No text yet · No English translation
Open source →- Q11Should a judge follow a general rule when it produces an unjust result in a particular case?
No. Argues that the code cannot supply every answer and that where it is silent the judge must use custom and 'free scientific research' rather than force the text.
- Q11Should a judge follow a general rule when it produces an unjust result in a particular case?
1907BergsonBergson,Creative EvolutionFrenchTreatiseFull text
- Q07Does living activity require a principle beyond physical and chemical processes?
Yes. Neither mechanism nor finalism explains evolution; life is a vital impetus that physics and chemistry do not capture, though he criticizes the older vital-principle theories.
- Q13Can machines undergo a process of evolution even when humans build and reproduce them?
No. Distinguishes instinct, which makes organized instruments, from intelligence, which makes unorganized tools, placing machines outside the evolution of life.
- Q37Should tools used to perform bodily functions be understood as parts of the human body?
No. Instinct uses organized instruments that are part of the body, while intelligence makes inorganic tools that stay separate from it and can be varied without limit; this separateness defines homo faber.
- Q07Does living activity require a principle beyond physical and chemical processes?
1907MetchnikoffMetchnikoff,The Prolongation of Life: Optimistic StudiesFrenchTreatiseFull text
- Q15Should extending human life indefinitely be a goal of technical progress?
Qualified. Metchnikoff defines orthobiosis as prolonged active, healthy old age followed by satiety of life and a wish for death, expressly distinguishing this ideal from simple prolongation.
- Q15Should extending human life indefinitely be a goal of technical progress?
1908PoincaréPoincaré,Science and MethodFrenchTreatiseFull text
- Q10Can a fixed procedure for reasoning settle a disagreement when the participants accept the same premises?
No. Poincaré argues that blind adherence to rules would require infallibility, whereas logicians have encountered contradictions and are revising their rules.
- Q10Can a fixed procedure for reasoning settle a disagreement when the participants accept the same premises?
1909BinetBinet,Modern Ideas About ChildrenFrenchTreatiseFull text
Alfred Binet
Les idées modernes sur les enfants
French · Treatise
Full text · No English translation
Open source →- Q12Can numerical measures adequately determine a person's fitness for a position of responsibility?
Qualified. Binet argues that distraction, discomfort or boredom can cause failure on a test, making measurement of a child’s intelligence from very few tests absurd. This is a qualification of testing, not a rejection of all tests.
- Q12Can numerical measures adequately determine a person's fitness for a position of responsibility?
1945Merleau-PontyMerleau-Ponty,Phenomenology of PerceptionFrenchTreatiseIn copyright
Maurice Merleau-Ponty
Phénoménologie de la perception
French · Treatise
In copyright · No English translation
Open source →- Q37Should tools used to perform bodily functions be understood as parts of the human body?
Yes. The blind man's cane stops being an object in his hand and becomes an extension of his bodily reach; habit incorporates the tool into the body schema.
- Q37Should tools used to perform bodily functions be understood as parts of the human body?