CABANIS, PIERRE JEAN OFORGES (1757 1808 ). A French physician and philosopher. Ile was born in Cosmic; studied in Paris. and in the year 1773 went to Warsaw as secretary to a Polish magnate. On hi. return to lie was for some time engaged in literary pursuits, from which he turned his attention to the study of medicine. During the 1:evolution. whose ten dencies he fully approved, lie became the warm friend and physician of Mirabeau. After the death of the latter, in order to refute the charge of having poisoned him, Cabanis pub lished the Journal do In maladie ct de lit snort de Honors de Mirabcan (1791). Among the papers of Mirabeau was found an extensive work on pub lic education in the handwriting of Cabanis. This had been used by Mirabeau in his public dis courses. Cabanis took a leading part in the re organization of the French schools of medicine and held several professorships in them. He was one of the Council of Five Hundred, and after wards a member of the Senate. The contribu tions of Cabanis to philosophy and science may be briefly summed up as follows: In the first place, he was the first to demonstrate empirical ly the reciprocal influence and the ultimate unity of life and mind, a unity which Herbert Spencer presents as the fundamental principle of inductive psychology. Further, Cabanis was the first to prove that the newly born living being is not "like a musicial instrument which in itself contains neither sounds nor harmony." but that it has more or less well-defined instincts and in •linations; that the form and development of ideas are caused not only by physical agents front without. but also by internal (visceral) impres
sions—a principle which is at the very founda tion of an important part of psychology. In his psychological investigations Cabanis steered clear of metaphysics. Thus he remained strictly within the domain of experiment when inquiring into the origin of psychological impressions and into the influence of age, sex, temperament, disease, diet, climate. etc., on the development of ideas, instincts, and passions. His seientific views on subjects of this nature have led many to believe that Cabanis was a materialist and an atheist. It must he borne in mind, however, that when thought is studied in its dependence on the brain. it could not possibly be treated but as a function of that organ. And if Cabanis speaks of the brain from a physiological point of view as assimilating impressions and secreting thought, just as the stomach digests food. lie is not there fore nee•ssarily a materialist. As a matter of fact, in his metaphysical Letirrs suit• less causes p•rmiires, in which he formulates his dreams of the ultimate nature of the ego. lie clearly ex presses his belief in a spiritual and immortal soul and in a personal (mod. The best edition of rabanis's chief work, the llapports dii physique et du moral de l'hommr, was published by Piesse (l'aris, S44). Consult Dubois, Examen des doe :trines fie Cabanis (2 vols., Paris, 1842).