Ernst Platner (; ; 11 June 1744 – 27 December 1818) was a German

anthropologist An anthropologist is a scientist engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropologists study aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms, values ...

, physician and Rationalist

Frederick Beiser Frederick Charles Beiser (; born November 27, 1949) is an American philosopher who is professor emeritus of philosophy at Syracuse University. He is best-known for his work on German idealism and has also written on the German Romantics and 19th ...

, ''The Fate of Reason: German Philosophy from Kant to Fichte'', Harvard University Press, 2009, p. 214.

philosopher Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

, born in

Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...

. He was the father of painter

Ernst Zacharias Platner Ernst Zacharias Platner (1 October 1773, Leipzig - 14 October 1855, Rome) was a German painter, writer, and diplomat. Biography His father was the physician, Ernst Platner. He began studying art in Leipzig, with Adam Friedrich Oeser, then went ...

(1773–1855).

Life

Following the death of his father in 1747, the philologist

Johann August Ernesti Johann August Ernesti (; ; 4 August 1707 – 11 September 1781) was a German Rationalist Lutheran theologian and philology, philologist. Ernesti was the first who formally separated the hermeneutics of the Old Testament from those of the New Test ...

became his foster father. He received his early education at the gymnasium in

Altenburg Altenburg () is a city in Thuringia, Germany, located south of Leipzig, west of Dresden and east of Erfurt. It is the capital of the Altenburger Land district and part of a polycentric old-industrial textile and metal production region betw ...

, the

Thomasschule St. Thomas School, Leipzig (; ) is a co-educational and public boarding school in Leipzig, Saxony, Germany. It was founded by the Augustinians in 1212 and is one of the oldest schools in the world. St. Thomas is known for its art, language and m ...

in Leipzig and at the gymnasium in

Gera Gera () is a city in the German state of Thuringia. With around 93,000 inhabitants, it is the third-largest city in Thuringia after Erfurt and Jena as well as the easternmost city of the ''Thüringer Städtekette'', an almost straight string of ...

.Prof. Dr. med. Ernst Platner
Professorenkatalog der Universität Leipzig Afterwards, he studied at the

University of Leipzig Leipzig University (), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 December 1409 by Frederick I, Electo ...

, where in 1770 he became an associate professor of medicine. Later at Leipzig, he was appointed a full professor of

physiology Physiology (; ) is the science, scientific study of function (biology), functions and mechanism (biology), mechanisms in a life, living system. As a branches of science, subdiscipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ syst ...

(1780) and philosophy (1811). In 1783/84 and 1789/90 he served as university rector.

Work

Platner was a follower of the teachings of

Leibniz Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (or Leibnitz; – 14 November 1716) was a German polymath active as a mathematician, philosopher, scientist and diplomat who is credited, alongside Sir Isaac Newton, with the creation of calculus in addition to many ...

. He was the author of ''Anthropologie für Aerzte und Weltweise'', one of the more important anthropological works of the ''Spätaufklärung'' (an epoch of German literature). This work was influential to scholars that included

Johann Gottfried Herder Johann Gottfried von Herder ( ; ; 25 August 174418 December 1803) was a Prussian philosopher, theologian, pastor, poet, and literary critic. Herder is associated with the Age of Enlightenment, ''Sturm und Drang'', and Weimar Classicism. He wa ...

Friedrich Schiller Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (, short: ; 10 November 17599 May 1805) was a German playwright, poet, philosopher and historian. Schiller is considered by most Germans to be Germany's most important classical playwright. He was born i ...

and Karl Philipp Moritz. He believed in treating modern anthropology as a medical-philosophical science of the whole individual — a viewpoint that can be considered as a precursor of

psychosomatic medicine Psychosomatic medicine is an interdisciplinary medical field exploring the relationships among social, psychological, behavioral factors on bodily processes and quality of life in humans and animals. The academic forebearer of the modern field o ...

. Platner is credited with originally coining the term ''Unbewußtseyn'' (

unconscious Unconscious may refer to: Physiology * Unconsciousness, the lack of consciousness or responsiveness to people and other environmental stimuli Psychology * Unconscious mind, the mind operating well outside the attention of the conscious mind a ...

). He is also credited for coining the phrase "pragmatic history of the human faculty of cognition" (''pragmatische Geschichte des menschlichen Erkentnißvermogens''), later appropriated by

Johann Gottlieb Fichte Johann Gottlieb Fichte (; ; 19 May 1762 – 29 January 1814) was a German philosopher who became a founding figure of the philosophical movement known as German idealism, which developed from the theoretical and ethical writings of Immanuel Ka ...

as "pragmatic history of the human spirit" (''pragmatische Geschichte des menschlichen Geistes''). g

Selected publications

* ''Anthropologie für Aerzte und Weltweise'' (Anthropology for Physicians and the Worldwise), 1772 * ''Neue Anthropologie für Aerzte