Theory of organic being by Jędrzej Śniadecki. Revolutionary look at phenomenon of life

Abstract

In 2018 we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Jędrzej Śniadecki’s birth. This work aims to show the importance of his thoughts for the development of natural sciences. He studied at some of the largest universities in Europe, where he met great scientists of the Enlightenment. The effects can be seen in his works. He was remembered as a founder of Polish biochemistry, anthropology and pathology, also as the author of chemical terminology and  language. The essence of his thoughts is Theory of organic being, which is an attempt to answer the question: „what is life?”. Jędrzej Śniadecki introduced a new definition of life based on the term „organic power”. This work shows how import are the thoughts of Jędrzej Śniadecki in the context of the times in which he lived, as well as the following development of natural sciences, what makes him and his theories worth memory.