Referring to Radl, P. A. Novikov-^ also considered Wolff 

 an idealist, calling his system of opinions physiological 

 vitalism. Novikov said that Wolff's opinions, from the 

 philosophical viewpoint, oppose Cartesian ideology and are 

 related to Leibnitz's teachings about monads. At the same 

 time they are in opposition with other conditions of the 

 latter, particularly with the teachings about pre-established 

 harmony. Somewhat later, Novikov remarked that Wolff's 

 theory is vitalistic only from the formal point of view 

 and undoubtedly could have been favorably accepted in France 

 where "materialism, at that time, was becoming a popular 

 philosophy and where Diderot, applying the epigenesis of 

 Maupertuis, has placed the materialistic foundation under 

 it." In another place in his book, Novikov placed the 

 vitalistic epigenesis of Stahl and van Helmont against the 

 ideas of Wolff and Blumenbach, which he characterized by the 

 absence of animism. 



B. E. Raikov, in the book repeatedly cited here, has 

 made an attempt to review Wolff's theoretical ideology. 

 Translating the corresponding parts from Wolff's different 

 works, especially from both books devoted to the theory of 

 generation, and from the article "On the special essential 

 force," Raikov concluded that Wolff's scientific method is 

 materialistic, that his "essential force" is contrary to 

 Stahl 's "soul" and does not have a mystical supernatural 

 character. Raikov referred also to Wolff's handwritten work, 

 "First outline of the theory of the soul," in which Wolff 

 confirmed that the soul does not precede the body; Wolff 

 acknowledged what is expressed in modern language as the 

 primacy of the material over the soul. "Therefore," Raikov 

 wrote, "Wolff cannot by any means be listed in the category 

 of the vitalists — he has many idealistic ideas."! 1 Wolff's 

 opinion against "The mechanical medicine" Raikov considered 

 as Wolff's opposition to "This diverse materialism, which 

 has got the name of mechanism. "12 This conclusion, in 



10. P. A. Novikov, THEORY OF EPIGENESIS IN BIOLOGY 

 (1926), pp. 18 - 19, and 62. 



11. B. E. Raikov, OUTLINES OF THE HISTORY OF EVOLU- 

 TIONARY IDEAS IN RUSSIA BEFORE DARWIN, 1947, 

 p. 72. 



12. Ibid., p. 73. 



118 



