Mikhail Pavlov (scientist)

Mikhail Grigoryevich Portrait

Mikhail Grigoryevich Pavlov (Russian Михаил Григорьевич Павлов) (November 12 [O.S. November 1] 1792 – April 21 [O.S. April 9] 1840) was a Russian academic, largely responsible for spreading the philosophical ideas of the Naturphilosophie of Schelling in Russia.[1] He was a professor at Moscow University.

He graduated from Moscow University in 1815.[2] After a doctorate in medicine, and two years travelling in Europe to study science, he was given a chair in Moscow in 1821, in Agriculture, Mineralogy and Forestry. Subsequently he wrote textbooks in agriculture and chemistry, and lobbied for changed agricultural practices.[3]

Schelling appears as a kind of absentee grand master of a new higher order. The most popular university lecturer of the period, Professor Pavlov, was master of ceremonies, greeting students at the door of his lecture hall with his famous question: "You want to know about nature, but what is nature and what is knowledge?"[4]

Notes

  1. ^ Dissertation (PDF) p.25.
  2. ^ p.27
  3. ^ p.28
  4. ^ Billington, James H., The Icon and the Axe (New York: Vintage Books), p. 312.

References