According to La Mettrie, what should be possible to compare directly between humans and animals?

La Mettrie, a philosopher and early materialist, proposed that humans and animals share a continuity in their physical and mental processes. His work emphasized the idea that both humans and animals are fundamentally similar in their behavioral responses to the environment, suggesting that the distinctions often drawn between them are primarily a matter of degree rather than kind.

This perspective aligns with the notion that observing behaviors in both humans and animals can yield insights into their underlying cognitive processes. La Mettrie's view supports the idea that we can understand human behavior by examining animal behavior, as he believed that the same principles of mechanistic functioning govern the actions of both groups.

On the other hand, comparing cognitive abilities or emotional responses tends to invoke arguments about the complexity of higher-order thought processes and subjective experiences, which La Mettrie would argue are more uniformly distributed along a spectrum rather than creating a strict divide. Language capabilities, while significant in distinguishing humans, would also not be an area where La Mettrie sought to draw direct comparisons, given that language is a particularly human trait that doesn't apply in the same manner to non-human animals.

By focusing on behavior, La Mettrie's philosophical stance highlights an empirical approach that foregrounds observable actions as the basis for comparison, reinforcing his