Gabriela
Schmidt: Rokitansky als
Patho-Philosoph
In memory of the 200th anniversary of the eminent Austrian
pathologist Carl von Rokitansky (1804–1874) this paper deals with his
outstanding thoughts on general pathology as well as his own papers on different
aspects of organised matter and some other general problems of life. In the
first line Rokitansky wanted to be a medical practitioner, but the
insufficiency of the medical practice of his time led him to seek a way of
reform by putting pathology on a new rationalistic basis. Thus he eliminated
all speculative elements, which had dominated pathology up to his time.
Opposite to Rudolf Virchow, Rokitansky used materialistic methods only as
working tools in order to bring about new results in research, but never became
himself a materialist in thinking. Being influenced by Kant and Schopenhauer,
Rokitansky’s private philosophy tended more to idealism.