The socio-anthropic idealization of objects and natural phenomena as a precondition for modern period science and medicine

Geor­gy H. Shin­garov
Mod­ern Uni­ver­si­ty for the Human­i­ties

The socio-anthrop­ic ide­al­iza­tion of objects and nat­ur­al phe­nom­e­na as a pre­con­di­tion for mod­ern peri­od sci­ence and med­i­cine

Abstract. The arti­cle demon­strates that the essen­tial back­ground for the for­ma­tion of the Mod­ern peri­od sci­ence was the “socio-anthrop­ic ide­al­iza­tion” of objects and nat­ur­al phe­nom­e­na. Pla­to assumed that exact meth­ods would enable us to study only man-made objects – a ship, a build­ing, etc.; there­fore, if we want to apply pre­cise meth­ods for study­ing nat­ur­al objects or phe­nom­e­na, they must be pre­sent­ed as some­thing cre­at­ed, con­struct­ed. The author indi­cates that, fol­low­ing this idea, A. Vesal­ius likened a liv­ing organ­ism to a fac­to­ry, R. Descartes saw it as a mech­a­nism, W. Har­vey com­pared the work of the heart with the work of a mechan­i­cal pump, and I.P. Pavlov con­sid­ered the work of the stom­ach through the work of a chem­i­cal plant. The basic method of the Mod­ern peri­od Nat­ur­al sci­ence, the exper­i­ment, is noth­ing more than iso­lat­ing from the chaos of nat­ur­al phe­nom­e­na the stud­ied sides or process­es in their pure form and pre­sent­ing them in a way they would be amenable to obser­va­tion and accu­rate mea­sure­ment. E. Tori­cel­li, for instance, dis­cov­ered atmos­pher­ic pres­sure by arti­fi­cial­ly con­struct­ing it. In this way, as the author con­cludes, the exact knowl­edge of nat­ur­al phe­nom­e­na and the human organ­ism relies on the human con­struct­ing activ­i­ty.

Key­words: socio-anthrop­ic ide­al­iza­tion, body-fac­to­ry, liv­ing-mech­a­nism, arts, nat­ur­al phi­los­o­phy, nat­ur­al sci­ence, med­i­cine.

DOI: 10.5840/dspl20181448

Ref­er­ences:

  1. Bernard, C. Progress v fizio­logich­eskikh naukakh [Progress in the Phys­i­o­log­i­cal Sci­ences], in: R. Virk­hov, C. Bernard, J. Moleschott. Obshchii vyvod polozhitelno­go meto­da [Gen­er­al Con­clu­sion of the Pos­i­tive Method] / ed. by N. Nek­lyu­dov. Saint Peters­burg: Izd. N. Nek­lyu­do­va Publ., 1866, pp. 27–72. (In Russ­ian)
  2. Descartes, R. Strasti dushi [Pas­sions of the Soul], in: R. Descartes. Sochi­neniya [Com­plete Works] / ed. by V.V. Sokolov, vol. 1. Moscow: Mysl Publ., 1989, pp. 481–572. (In Russ­ian)
  3. Hip­pocrates. Izbran­nye kni­gi [Select­ed Books] / transl. by V.I. Rud­nev. Moscow: Swarog Publ., 1994. 736 pp. (In Russ­ian)
  4. Pavlov, I.P. Lek­t­sii o glavnykh pishchevaritel­nykh zheleza­kh [Lec­tures on the Main Diges­tive Glands], in: I.P. Pavlov. Pol­noe sobranie sochi­nenii [Com­plete Works], vol. 2, book 2. Moscow, Leningrad: Soci­ety of the USSR Publ., 1951, pp. 7–215. (In Russ­ian)
  5. Pavlov, I.P. Pre­disloviye k russko­mu izdaniyu trak­ta­ta Andreya Veza­liya “O stroyenii che­lovech­esko­go tela” [Pref­ace to the Russ­ian Edi­tion of Andreas Vesal­ius’ Trea­tise “De Humani Cor­poris Fab­ri­ca”], in: I.P. Pavlov. Pol­noe sobranie sochi­nenii [Com­plete Works], vol. 6. Moscow: Soci­ety of the USSR Publ., 1952, p. 438. (In Russ­ian)
  6. Pla­to. Gosu­darst­vo [Repub­lic], in: Pla­to. Sochi­neniya v 4 tomakh [Works in 4 Vol­umes], vol. 3, part 1 / ed. by A.F. Losev, V.F. Asmus. Saint Peters­burg: Izd. S.-Peterb. Un-ta, Izd. Ole­ga Abyshko Publ, 2007, pp. 97–493. (In Russ­ian)
  7. Pla­to. Fileb [Philo­laus], in: Pla­to. Sochi­neniya v 4 tomakh [Works in 4 Vol­umes], vol. 3, part 1 / ed. by A.F. Losev, V.F. Asmus. Saint Peters­burg: Izd. S.-Peterb. Un-ta, Izd. Ole­ga Abyshko Publ, 2007, pp. 11–96. (In Russ­ian)
  8. Pla­to. Timej [Timaeus], in: Pla­to. Sochi­neniya v 4 tomakh [Works in 4 Vol­umes], vol. 3, part 1 / ed. by A.F. Losev, V.F. Asmus. Saint Peters­burg: Izd. S.-Peterb. Un-ta, Izd. Ole­ga Abyshko Publ, 2007, pp. 495–587. (In Russ­ian)
  9. Vesal­ius, A. O stroenii che­lovech­esko­go tela v semi kni­gakh [On the Fab­ric of the Human Body (Latin “De Humani Cor­poris Fab­ri­ca”)], vol. 1. Moscow: Soci­ety of the USSR Publ., 1950. 1058 pp. (In Russ­ian)

Comments are closed.