John H. Zammito - Médecin-philosoph: Persona for Radical Enlightenment

In 1772 Ernst Platner published Anthropologie für Ärzte und Weltweise. I want to consider how that combination of “physicians” and “philosophers” got into his title by recovering a peculiar mode of philosophical self-presentation that became crucial in Europe in the middle of the 18^th century, the médecin-philosoph. I will connect the idea with the “paradigm shift” to “vital materialism” in French life science around mid-century in the works of Buffon, Maupertuis, La Mettrie and Diderot, stressing how the last two figures, in particular, took up the stance of the médecin-philosoph. I will then show how a parallel tradition took shape in Germany, culminating in Platner’s book.

John H. Zammito (Rice University): Médecin-philosoph: Persona for Radical Enlightenment

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Roberto Palaia - Ernst Platner avversario della Filosofia critica (1985)

Ernst Platner avversario della Filosofia critica

• Autores: R. Palaia
• Localización: Nouvelles de la Republique des Lettres, ISSN 0392-2332, Nº 1, 1985 , pags. 7-26

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Ernst Platner: Anthropologie für Ärzte und Weltweise (1772)

Anthropologie für Aerzte und Weltweise. Leipzig 1772

Ernst Platner’s Anthropologie für Aerzte und Weltweise (1772) became the focus of a new intellectual fashion during the period of the late Enlightenment, where anthropology denotes a concept explaining the interaction of body and soul through physical influence. This theory was advocated by the so called ’philosophical doctors‘, who combined metaphysics with medicine. Platner, professor of both discip-lines in Leipzig, was the leading figure of the movement.

The imoprtance of Platner’s work within the intellectual history was recently rediscovered by several historians of both medicine and literature. Its innovative image of the human being can be found not only in the science of psychology, but also in the ’anthropological novel’, in autobiographical characterisations as well as in the ’natural theater‘ of Lessing’s time.

Only a few copies of Platner’s Anthropologie exist in library collections today. [source]

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