CABANIS, PIERRE-JEAN-GEORGES. - Physician and philosopher, born at Cosnac (Corrèze) on 5 June 1757, died at Rueil on 5 May 1808. He began his studies at the college of Drives and completed them in Paris. In the salon of Madame Helvétius he met the philosophers and scientists of the time, and adopted the principles of the Revolution. He was Mirabeau’s physician and described his illness and death.
In 1802 he published Rapports du physique et du moral de l'homme (2 vols.), in which he examines the influence exerted upon individual character by the physiological conditions of the organism. The work, rich in accurate and perceptive observations, nevertheless does not appear to rise above materialism, since the brain is described therein as the actual organ of thought. It is, however, possible that in this work C. did not intend to propose an adequate and definitive solution: indeed, in the last years of his life, in a celebrated letter to Fauriel, he declared himself, at least probably, in favour of the existence of a transcendent God and a spiritual soul.