Pamfil Yurkevich

Pamfil Danilovich Yurkevich (Ukrainian: Памфі́л Дани́лович Юрке́вич; Russian: Памфи́л Дани́лович Юрке́вич; February 28, 1826 in Poltava – October 16, 1874 in Moscow) was a Ukrainian idealist philosopher and teacher.
Yurkevich in 1851-1861 was a professor of Philosophy at the Kiev Theological Academy, also taught at the Academy of the German language, was an assistant inspector of the Academy. In 1861, he was transferred from Kiev to Moscow and was appointed a professor of Philosophy at the University of Moscow though his training previous to this position was mostly from Orthodox theological schools. Specifically the Poltava Seminary and the Kiev Theological Academy. Yurkevich was remembered for his critical stance against materialism in specific modern materialism. Yurkevich mentored Vladimir Soloviev.

Yurkevich was in 1851, appointed the position of instructor in Philosophical Sciences at the Kiev Theological Academy. In 1852 he received his master's degree in philosophy (from 1861 - professor). Then in 1857 Yurkevich also began to teach German at the University. Based on the decision of the Ministry of Education in 1861 Yurkevich was transferred from Kiev to Moscow and received the rank of full Professor and was invited to the philosophy department at Moscow University. Yurkevich also taught pedagogy in the seminary for the Russian military. Through 1869—1873 Yurkevich was the Dean of History and Philology Faculty of the Moscow University .

Yurkevich's more well known positions and the works that reflected them (The Heart and Its Significance in the Spiritual Life of Man) revolved around the expression and rationalization of essentialism. In this Yurkevich concerned himself with the philosophical clarification of what material and the observable world are. Though Yurkevich was an idealist in a Platonic Realism sense, he was thoroughly Christian in his approach rejecting that the mind of a person as reason was the basis for the essences of things or beings and instead saying that essentialism was idealist (from conscious beings inline with Plato) but it was from the rational part of the being (their mind) and also from the emotional center and that the heart of the person was the complete expression of the person. Person or soul (hypostasis) is heart, mind and body, as the rational part of a person was but a part of the larger whole which as a heart or soul each person gave meaning to the things they experienced. Yurkevich was continuing the work that had been set out before him by his famous mentor Vladimir Soloviev.