Abstract

The article reveals the connection between the ideas of the Enlightenment and the modern direction of scientific knowledge, urban studies. Urban studies as a concept of the social development of the city has, among other things, the understanding of interest in the interpretation of Helvetius. He thinks that interest is the driving force of society, the nature of which he considers from the standpoint of sensationalism and utilitarianism. Urban studies solve the problems of interaction between a person and a city, which are based on the philosophical problem of interaction between the individual and the general. The purpose of the work is to trace in the ethics of Helvetius the combination of reasonable egoism and the principles of public benefit; the irremovability of natural prerequisites in man preserves the individual in society, and the irremovability of contractual principles makes it necessary to observe the public interest. The article determines that the recognition of the right to personal interest is a great merit of Helvetius and one of the philosophical foundations of urban studies.