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Jozef Jasinski
Jasinski Jozef
(the second half of XVIII century – 22.09.1833)
Physician, anthropologist, enlightener and humanist; author of the first book on anthropology in Polish
Jozef Jasinski was born in the suburbs of Grodno. He finished medical school in Grodno; in 1789 he graduated from Wilno University. He had a degree of a Doctor of philosophy, medicine and surgery. Jasinski worked as a doctor at Obukhovich magnates’ place, and then he worked in Novogrudok. In 1810 he wrote a book “Anthropology of the physical and moral qualities of a human being” (published in Wilno in 1818) in which he outlined anthropology as the study of a human in general, using knowledge from anatomy, physiology, medicine and philosophy. Jasinski was a supporter of Wilno evolutionary school and believed that physical and biological existence of a human was subject to the natural organic cycle. Explaining the evolution of all alive his position was between deism and natural-scientific materialism. Jasinski interpreted problems of society and morality in terms of ideas of the Enlightenment, including the contractual theory of the origin of the state. Jasinski argued that moral, civil and political laws were derived from natural law. He considered morality as the volitional sphere, that’s why good deeds made under compulsion were not truly moral. Jozef Jasinski believed that God was the highest supervisor of morality, and conscience was impossible without God’s ideas. Following Rousseau, he distinguished customs from laws, thinking that the first were the characteristic of uncivilized peoples, the latter ? the enlightened ones. He agreed with S. L. Montesquieu that laws were more inherent in the public and social sphere, and customs were inherent in the personal one. Jozef Jasinski was a member of the Wilno Medical Society. He died and was buried in Novogrudok.
Works:
1. Anthropologia o wlasnosciach czlowieka fizycznych i moralnych. Wilno, 1818.
Literature:
1. Ясінскі Юзаф // Асветнікі зямлі Беларускай: Энцыклапедычны даведнік. Мінск: Беларуская Энцыклапедыя, 2001. С. 488–489.
© National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, 2011
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