O physiologii / About physiology

The author essays to outline the history of physiology. The neologism phisiologia hidden in the title is used to emphasize both the history of the term as well as the development of practices, which are immediately connected with a specific understanding of physis, rules of the world, nature and “internal” human nature seized by “bloody practices” – phlebotomy so wildly spread in bygone ages. The author also emphasizes the interconnections of medicine and philosophy in 17th and 18th century and the beginnings of 19th-century physiology as a separate branch of medicine. Nowadays physiology is mostly connected to proceeding medicalization and technicality which pose questions about the boundaries of nature, culture and humans and the ways to transgress them. The way Cultural Studies, Culture Studies and Anthropology are understood still remains persistently important.