Pavlov, Mikhail Grigorevich

Pavlov, Mikhail Grigor’evich 

Born 1793 in Voronezh; died Apr. 3, 1840, in Moscow. Russian philosopher, physicist, and agrobiologist.

Pavlov graduated from Voronezh Seminary and Moscow University (1816), with university degrees in mathematics and medicine. In 1820 he became a professor at Moscow University, teaching mineralogy, agriculture, physics, and other subjects. He published the journals Atenei (1828–30) and Russkii zemledelets (The Russian Farmer; 1838–39) and was director of the agricultural school. He played an important role in the development of agricultural science.

In philosophy, Pavlov was a follower of F. W. von Schelling and developed principles of idealist dialectics and a general theory of substance (matter) in the spirit of the natural philosophy concepts of Schelling and L. Oken. His pedagogic and journalistic activity greatly influenced the younger generation in Russia in the late 1820’s and in the 1830’s, as was noted by A. I. Herzen, V. G. Belinskii, N. V. Stankevich, and other progressive Russian thinkers.

WORKS

“O poliarno-atomicheskoi teorii khimii.” Novyi magazin estestvennoi istorii, 1821, part 2, nos. 3–4.
“O sposobakh issledovaniia prirody.” In the collection Mnemozina, part 4. Moscow, 1825.
Zemledel’cheskaia khimiia. Moscow, 1825.
Osnovaniia fiziki, parts 1–2. Moscow, 1833–36.
Kurs sel’skogo khoziaistva, vols. 1–2. Moscow, 1837.

REFERENCES

Mikulinskii, S. R. Razvitie obshchikh problem biologii v Rossii. Moscow, 1961.
Kamenskii, Z. A. Filosofskie idei russkogo prosveshcheniia. Moscow, 1971.

Z. A. KAMENSKII