Christian Wolff | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | (1679-01-24)24 January 1679 |
| Died | 9 April 1754(1754-04-09) (aged 75) |
| Education | |
| Education | University of Jena (1699–1702)[1] University of Leipzig (Dr. phil. habil., 1703) |
| Thesis | Philosophia practica universalis, methodo mathematica conscripta (On Universal Practical Philosophy, Composed from the Mathematical Method) (1703) |
| Academic advisors | Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus Gottfried Leibniz (epistolary correspondent) |
| Philosophical work | |
| Era | 18th-century philosophy |
| Region | Western philosophy |
| School | Age of Enlightenment Rationalism |
| Institutions | Leipzig University University of Halle University of Marburg |
| Notable students | Mikhail Lomonosov A. G. Baumgarten |
| Main interests | Philosophical logic,metaphysics |
| Notable ideas | Theoretical philosophy has for its partsontology (alsophilosophia prima orgeneral metaphysics) and threespecial metaphysical disciplines (rationalpsychology, rationalcosmology,rational theology) Coining the philosophical term "idealism"[2] |
Christian Wolff (/vɔːlf/; less correctlyWolf,[3]German:[vɔlf]; also known asWolfius; ennobled asChristianFreiherr von Wolff in 1745; 24 January 1679 – 9 April 1754) was aGerman philosopher. Wolff is characterized as one of the most eminent German philosophers betweenLeibniz andKant. His life work spanned almost every scholarly subject of his time, displayed and unfolded according to his demonstrative-deductive, mathematical method, which some deem the peak ofEnlightenmentrationality in Germany.[4]
Wolff wrote in German as his primary language of scholarly instruction and research, although he did translate his works intoLatin for his transnational European audience. A founding father of, among other fields, economics andpublic administration as academic disciplines,[citation needed] he concentrated especially in these fields, giving advice on practical matters to people in government, and stressing the professional nature of university education.[citation needed]
Wolff was born inBreslau,Silesia (nowWrocław, Poland), into a modest family. He studied mathematics and physics at theUniversity of Jena, soon adding philosophy.
In 1703, he qualified asPrivatdozent atLeipzig University,[5] where he lectured until 1706, when he was called as professor of mathematics andnatural philosophy to theUniversity of Halle. By this time he had made the acquaintance ofGottfried Leibniz (the two men engaged in an epistolary correspondence[6]), of whose philosophy his own system is a modified version.
At Halle, Wolff at first restricted himself to mathematics, but on the departure of a colleague, he added physics, and soon included all the main philosophical disciplines.[3]
However, the claims Wolff advanced on behalf ofphilosophical reason appeared impious to his theological colleagues.Halle was the headquarters ofPietism, which, after a long struggle againstLutherandogmatism, had assumed the characteristics of a new orthodoxy. Wolff's professed ideal was to base theological truths on mathematically certain evidence. Strife with the Pietists broke out openly in 1721, when Wolff, on the occasion of stepping down as pro-rector, delivered an oration "On the Practical Philosophy of the Chinese" (Eng. tr. 1750), in which he praised the purity of the moral precepts ofConfucius, pointing to them as an evidence of the power of human reason to reach moral truth by its own efforts.[3]
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On 12 July 1723, Wolff held a lecture for students and the magistrates at the end of his term as a rector.[7] Wolff compared, based on books by theFlemish missionariesFrançois Noël (1651–1729) andPhilippe Couplet (1623–1693), Moses, Christ, and Mohammed with Confucius.[8]
According toVoltaire, Prof.August Hermann Francke had been teaching in an empty classroom but Wolff attracted with his lectures around 1,000 students from all over.[9]
In the follow-up, Wolff was accused by Francke offatalism and atheism,[10] and ousted in 1723 from his first chair atHalle in one of the most celebratedacademicdramas of the 18th century. His successors wereJoachim Lange, a pietist, and his son, who had gained the ear of the kingFrederick William I. (They claimed to the king if Wolff's determinism were recognized, no soldier who deserted could be punished as he would have acted only as it was necessarily predetermined that he should, which so enraged the king that he immediately deprived Wolff of his office, and ordered Wolff to leave Prussian territory within 48 hours or be hanged.)[3]
The same day, Wolff passed into Saxony, and presently proceeded toMarburg,Hesse-Kassel, to whose university (theUniversity of Marburg) he had received a call even before this crisis, which was now renewed. TheLandgrave of Hesse received him with every mark of distinction, and the circumstances of his expulsion drew universal attention to his philosophy. It was everywhere discussed, and over two hundred books and pamphlets appeared for or against it before 1737, not reckoning the systematic treatises of Wolff and his followers.[3]
According toJonathan I. Israel, "the conflict became one of the most significant cultural confrontations of the 18th century and perhaps the most important of the Enlightenment in Central Europe and the Baltic countries before the French Revolution."[11]
Prussian crown prince Frederick defended Wolff againstJoachim Lange and ordered the Berlin minister Jean Deschamps, a former pupil of Wolff, to translateVernünftige Gedanken von Gott, der Welt und der Seele des Menschen, auch allen Dingen überhaupt into French.[12] Frederick proposed to send a copy ofLogique ou réflexions sur les forces de l'entendement humain toVoltaire in his first letter to the philosopher from 8 August 1736. In 1737, Wolff'sMetafysica was translated into French by Ulrich Friedrich von Suhm (1691–1740).[13] Voltaire got the impression Frederick had translated the book himself.[citation needed]
In 1738, Frederick William began the hard labour of trying to read Wolff.[14] In 1740, Frederick William died, and one of the first acts of his son and successor,Frederick the Great, was to acquire him for the Prussian Academy.[15] Wolff refused,[16] but accepted on 10 September 1740 an appointment in Halle.[citation needed]
His entry into the town on 6 December 1740 took on the character of a triumphal procession. In 1743, he became chancellor of the university, and in 1745, he received the title ofFreiherr (Baron) from the Elector ofBavaria, possibly the first scholar to have been created hereditary Baron of theHoly Roman Empire on the basis of his academic work.[citation needed]
When Wolff died on 9 April 1754, he was a very wealthy man, owing almost entirely to his income from lecture-fees, salaries, and royalties. He was also a member of many academies. His school, the Wolffians, was the first school in the philosophical sense to be associated with a German philosopher. It dominated Germany until the rise ofKantianism.[citation needed]
Wolff was married and had several children.[17]
Wolffian philosophy has a marked insistence everywhere on a clear and methodic exposition, holding confidence in the power of reason to reduce all subjects to this form. He was distinguished for writing copies in both Latin and German. Through his influence,natural law and philosophy were taught at most German universities, in particular those located in the Protestant principalities. Wolff personally expedited their introduction inside Hesse-Cassel.[18]
The Wolffian system retains thedeterminism and optimism ofLeibniz, but themonadology recedes into the background, the monads falling asunder into souls or conscious beings on the one hand and mere atoms on the other. The doctrine of the pre-established harmony also loses itsmetaphysical significance (while remaining an importantheuristic device), and theprinciple of sufficient reason is once more discarded in favor of theprinciple of contradiction which Wolff seeks to make the fundamental principle of philosophy.[3]
Wolff had philosophy divided into a theoretical and a practical part. Logic, sometimes calledphilosophia rationalis, forms the introduction orpropaedeutics to both.[3]
Theoretical philosophy had for its partsontology orphilosophia prima as ageneral metaphysics,[19] which arises as a preliminary to the distinction of thethreespecial metaphysics[20] on the soul, world and God:[21][22] rationalpsychology,[23][24] rationalcosmology,[25] andrational theology.[26] The three disciplines are called empirical and rational because they are independent of revelation. This scheme, which is the counterpart of religious tripartition in creature, creation, and Creator, is best known to philosophical students by Kant's treatment of it in theCritique of Pure Reason.[3]
In the "Preface" of the 2nd edition of Kant's book, Wolff is defined as "the greatest of all dogmatic philosophers."[27] Wolff was read bySøren Kierkegaard's father, Michael Pedersen. Kierkegaard himself was influenced by both Wolff and Kant to the point of resuming the tripartite structure and philosophical content to formulate his own threeStages on Life's Way.[28]
Wolff saw ontology as adeductive science, knowablea priori and based on two fundamental principles: theprinciple of non-contradiction ("it cannot happen that the same thing is and is not") and theprinciple of sufficient reason ("nothing exists without a sufficient reason for why it exists rather than does not exist").[29][30]Beings are defined by theirdeterminations orpredicates, which can't involve a contradiction. Determinates come in 3 types:essentialia,attributes, andmodes.[29]Essentialia define the nature of a being and are therefore necessary properties of this being.Attributes are determinations that follow from essentialia and are equally necessary, in contrast tomodes, which are merely contingent. Wolff conceivesexistence as just one determination among others, which a being may lack.[31] Ontology is interested in being at large, not just in actual being. But all beings, whether actually existing or not, have a sufficient reason.[32] The sufficient reason for things without actual existence consists in all the determinations that make up the essential nature of this thing. Wolff refers to this as a "reason of being" and contrasts it with a "reason of becoming", which explains why some things have actual existence.[31]
Practical philosophy is subdivided into ethics, economics and politics. Wolff's moral principle is the realization of human perfection[3]—seen realistically as the kind of perfection the human person actually can achieve in the world in which we live. It is perhaps the combination of Enlightenment optimism and worldly realism that made Wolff so successful and popular as a teacher of future statesmen and business leaders.[33]
Wolff's most important works are as follows:[3]
Wolff's complete writings have been published since 1962 in an annotated reprint collection:
This includes a volume that unites the three most important older biographies of Wolff.
An excellent modern edition of the famous Halle speech on Chinese philosophy is:
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Pringle-Pattison, Andrew Seth; Anonymous (1911). "Wolff, Christian". InChisholm, Hugh (ed.).Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 28 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 774.
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