Cabanis: between medicine, revolution and philosophy

Abstract

The article is concerned with quite forgotten character and work of Pierre
Jean Georges Cabanis, a physician and philosopher, but also a strong
supporter of the French Revolution from the turn of the 18th and 19th
centuries. His main scientific opus was the dissertation On the relations
between the physical and moral aspects of man (Rapports du physique et du
moral de l’homme) first published in 1802 and then repeatedly resumed
in the 19th century, but virtually unknown in Poland. His medical points
of view originally corresponded with materialistic philosophy; however,
they also took into account the role of the spiritual and mental aspects
of a human – this “biological, thinking mechanism”, as Cabanis thought.
An important role in his book was played by theories related to sensualism.
Using modern terms, Cabanis created something like physiological psychology. According to him, the body, or more precisely its organs, take part in the creation of human thoughts which seem to be only the physiological
result of brain perception. This classic work was often invoked by successive generations of doctors and thinkers; it even appeared in artistic prose. Cabanis himself has had a fixed position in research and scientific studies for over two centuries.