Jakob Thomasius | |
|---|---|
 Jakob Thomasius (1622–1684) | |
| Born | 27 August 1622 |
| Died | 9 September 1684 Leipzig, Electorate of Saxony |
| Alma mater | University of Leipzig (B.A., 1642; M.A., 1643) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Philosopher |
| Institutions | University of Leipzig |
| Academic advisors | Friedrich Leibniz |
| Doctoral students | Otto Mencke |
| Other notable students | Gottfried Leibniz |
| Notes | |
He was the father ofChristian Thomasius and the brother ofJohann Thomasius. | |
Jakob Thomasius (/toʊˈmeɪʃəs/;Latin:Jacobus Thomasius; 27 August 1622 – 9 September 1684) was a German academic philosopher and jurist. He is now regarded as an important founding figure in the scholarly study of thehistory of philosophy. His views were eclectic, and were taken up by his sonChristian Thomasius.
Thomasius was influential in the contemporary realignment of philosophy as a discipline.Martin Mulsow writes:[1]
According to Thomasius’ “Schediasma historicum” of 1665, from a theological point of view, philosophy needed to guarantee a clear separation of Creator from Creation, of God from Nature. It should thus only spring fromChristianAristotelianism, not fromStoicism orNeoplatonism.
He wrote on a wide range of topics, includingGnosticism,plagiarism and theeducation of women.
He was the teacher ofGottfried Leibniz at theUniversity of Leipzig, where Thomasius was professor of Rhetoric and Moral Philosophy, remaining a friend and correspondent up until the early 1670s, and has been described as Leibniz's mentor.
He is perhaps best remembered now as the author of the first published attack onSpinoza'sTheological-Political Treatise.[2][3] InAcademic study of Western esotericism Thomasius is sometimes accredited as an intellectual watershed leading to the demise of the previously hegemonicPrisca theologia.[4]
From 1653, Jacob Thomasius was married to Maria Weber, daughter of Archdeacon of St. Nicholas's Church and the extraordinary professor of the university Jeremiah Weber. Their children were the famous philosopher and lawyerChristian Thomasius (1655–1728), Doctor of medicine and physician in Nuremberg Gottfried Thomasius (born 1660) and Johanna (born 1663) – later the wife of professor of poetry and director of the University library in LeipzigJoachim Feller (1638–1691). Since Maria Weber died a few days after giving birth to her daughter, in 1664 Jacob Thomasius remarried with the widow of the rector of St. Peter's School. Nicholas was born Maria Elisabeth Hornschuh, nee Eichhorn, which brought him six more daughters and one son; among them, Maria Elisabeth (born 1665), was the wife of Leipzig professor of theologyAdam Rechenberg [de] (1642–1721).
