“A Man of ‘Fire and Flame’”. On the 250th Anniversary of D.M. Vellansky

Abstract

Today, we return to the history of Russian philosophy not so much to once again emphasize its dependence on European methodological frameworks, but rather to comprehend its cognitive value and positively evaluate its contribution to the development of Russia's intellectual culture, the Russian philosophical language, and Russian speech. In December 2024, the philosophical and scientific communities will celebrate the anniversary of the natural philosopher, scholar, and Doctor of Medicine and Surgery, Daniil Mikhailovich Vellansky, whose original works and translations influenced the development of 19th-century Russian philosophy and science. Vellansky’s passionate methodological call for the theorization and philosophical systematization of medical knowledge was notably different from the practice-focused Russian medicine of his time, which sought to understand the human organism through "experimental" approaches. Although Vellansky’s natural philosophical reflections—drawing from but not merely replicating Schelling—were criticized among medical scientists, his philosopher colleagues, such as Moscow University professors I.I. Davydov and M.G. Pavlov, showed genuine interest in his attempts to apply Schelling’s teachings to "physical subjects." By placing the intellectual legacy of D.M. Vellansky in the broader context of contemporary issues in philosophy and the methodology of science, particularly in the epistemology of medicine, we gain a fresh perspective on his idea of the "wholeness of Man",which he established as the foundation of medicine as an science. This thought of Vellansky’s is particularly relevant today in the context of modern interdisciplinary research programs (for example, the ecologization of medical practice), which take into account the human-sized character of scientific knowledge.