Essai de philosophie morale

First edition, rare. A title vignette by Eisen.
Contemporary full glazed and marbled calf binding. Smooth spine decorated with grotesque ornaments. Red morocco title label. Headcaps worn. Rubbing to joints and corners.
The moral philosophy essay is one of the two main philosophical texts (and chronologically the first) by Maupertuis, who, like all scholars of his era, was multidisciplinary. The second work in this field would be the Essay on Cosmology published in 1750. One should not be misled by the classical title given to this treatise; if the Essay is a reflection on good and evil, it is a vision of good and evil that is primarily sensualist, based on the sensible experience of an event, considering that all events are merely phenomena. The work was published in Berlin, the philosopher's adopted homeland at that time.