Christian Wolff (philosopher)
Christian Wolff | |
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Christian Wolff (less correctly Wolf,
Wolff wrote in German as his primary language of scholarly instruction and research, although he did translate his works into Latin for his transnational European audience. A founding father of, among other fields, economics and public 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]
Life
Wolff was born in
In 1703, he qualified as
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.[5]
However, the claims Wolff advanced on behalf of
On 12 July 1723, Wolff held a lecture for students and the magistrates at the end of his term as a rector.[9] Wolff compared, based on books by the Flemish missionaries François Noël (1651–1729) and Philippe Couplet (1623–1693), Moses, Christ, and Mohammed with Confucius.[10]
According to Voltaire, Prof. August Hermann Francke had been teaching in an empty classroom but Wolff attracted with his lectures around 1,000 students from all over.[11]
In the follow-up, Wolff was accused by Francke of
The same day, Wolff passed into Saxony, and presently proceeded to Marburg, Hesse-Kassel, to whose university (the University of Marburg) he had received a call even before this crisis, which was now renewed. The Landgrave 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.[5]
According to
Prussian crown prince Frederick defended Wolff against
In 1738, Frederick William began the hard labour of trying to read Wolff.[16] 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.[17] Wolff refused,[18] 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 of Freiherr (Baron) from the Elector of Bavaria, possibly the first scholar to have been created hereditary Baron of the Holy 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 of Kantianism.[citation needed]
Wolff was married and had several children.[19]
Philosophical work
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.[20]
The Wolffian system retains the
Wolff had philosophy divided into a theoretical and a practical part. Logic, sometimes called philosophia rationalis, forms the introduction or propaedeutics to both.[5]
In the "Preface" of the 2nd edition of Kant's book, Wolff is defined as "the greatest of all dogmatic philosophers."[29] Wolff was read by Søren 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 three Stages on Life's Way.[30]
Wolff saw ontology as a
Practical philosophy is subdivided into ethics, economics and politics. Wolff's moral principle is the realization of human perfection[5]—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.[35]
Works
Wolff's most important works are as follows:[5]
- Dissertatio algebraica de algorithmo infinitesimali differentiali (Dissertation on the Algebra of Solving Differential Equations Using Infinitesimals; 1704)[36]
- Anfangsgründe aller mathematischen Wissenschaften (1710); in Latin, Elementa matheseos universae (1713–1715)
- Vernünftige Gedanken von den Kräften des menschlichen Verstandes (1712). French translation by Jean Des Champs, Logique, Berlin: 1736. English translation by anonymous, Logic, London: 1770. Unfortunately, the English version is a translation of Des Champs's French edition instead of the original German of Wolff's Vernünftige Gedanken.
- Vern. Ged. von Gott, der Welt und der Seele des Menschen, auch allen Dingen überhaupt (1719)
- Vern. Ged. von der Menschen Thun und Lassen (1720)
- Vern. Ged. von dem gesellschaftlichen Leben der Menschen (1721)
- Vern. Ged. von den Wirkungen der Natur (1723)
- Vern. Ged. von den Absichten der natürlichen Dinge (1724)
- Vern. Ged. von dem Gebrauche der Theile in Menschen, Thieren und Pflanzen (1725); the last seven may briefly be described as treatises on logic, metaphysics, moral philosophy, political philosophy, theoretical physics, teleology, physiology
- Philosophia rationalis, sive logica (1728)
- Philosophia prima, sive Ontologia (1730). Part 1 translated as First Philosophy, or Ontology, a translation with critical introduction and annotation by Klaus Ottmann, Thompson: Spring Publications (2022).
- Cosmologia generalis (1731)
- Psychologia empirica (1732)
- Psychologia rationalis (1734)
- Theologia naturalis (1736–1737)
- Kleine philosophische Schriften, collected and edited by G.F. Hagen (1736–1740).
- Philosophia practica universalis (1738–1739)
- Jus naturae and Jus Gentium. Magdeburg, 1740–1748.
- English trans.: Marcel Thomann, trans. Jus naturae. NY: Olms, 1972.
- Wolff, Christian (1746). Elementa matheseos universae (in Latin). Vol. 2. Verona: Dionigi Ramanzini.
- Wolff, Christian (1746). Elementa matheseos universae (in Latin). Vol. 3. Verona: Dionigi Ramanzini.
- Wolff, Christian (1751). Elementa matheseos universae (in Latin). Vol. 4. Verona: Dionigi Ramanzini.
- Jus Gentium Methodo Scientifica Pertractum (The Law of Nations According to the Scientific Method) (1749)
- Philosophia moralis (1750–1753).
Wolff's complete writings have been published since 1962 in an annotated reprint collection:
- Gesammelte Werke, Jean École et al. (eds.), 3 series (German, Latin, and Materials), Hildesheim-[Zürich-]New York: Olms, 1962–.
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:
- Oratio de Sinarum philosophia practica / Rede über die praktische Philosophie der Chinesen, Michael Albrecht (ed.), Hamburg: Meiner, 1985.
See also
- Mons Wolff
- Wawrzyniec Mitzler de Kolof
Notes
References
- ^ Guyer, Paul; Horstmann, Rolf-Peter (30 August 2015). "Idealism". In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Stanford, California: Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University.
- ^ a b Robert Theis, Alexander Aichele (eds.), Handbuch Christian Wolff, Springer-Verlag, 2017, p. 442.
- ^ a b c d Brady Bowman, Hegel and the Metaphysics of Absolute Negativity, Cambridge University Press, 2013, p. 66.
- ^ David E. Cartwright, Schopenhauer: A Biography, Cambridge University Press, 2010, p. 192 n. 41.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j public domain: Pringle-Pattison, Andrew Seth; Anonymous (1911). "Wolff, Christian". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 28 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 774. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the
- JSTOR 2708926.
- ^ His habilitation thesis title was Philosophia practica universalis, methodo mathematica conscripta (On Universal Practical Philosophy, Composed from the Mathematical Method).
- ^ Leibniz to Christian Wolff (selections) - Leibniz Translations.
- ^ Wolff, C. (1985). Michael Albrecht (ed.). Oratio de Sinarum philosophia practica/Rede über die praktische Philosophie der Chinesen. Philosophische Bibliothek (in German). Hamburg, Germany: Felix Meiner Verlag. p. XXXIX.
- JSTOR 2707702.
- ^ "Auditorium Maximum der Universität Halle" (in German). Rathausseite. Archived from the original on 11 February 2013. Retrieved 1 January 2012.
- ISBN 0-76560661-5.
- ISBN 0-19925456-7.
- ISBN 9780226855882.
- ISBN 1-55753116-1.
- ^ MacDonogh, G. (1999) Frederick the Great, p. 129.
- ^ MacDonogh, G. (1999) Frederick the Great, p. 134.
- ISBN 978-3-76437539-3.
- ^ Wolff, Christian (1841). Eigene Lebensbeschreibung. Leipzig.
- ^ Ingrao, 1982, p. 955
- ^ Hettche, Matt (11 November 2014). "Christian Wolff. 8.1 Ontology (or Metaphysics Proper)". SEP. Retrieved 24 March 2018.
- ^ Hettche, Matt (11 November 2014). "Christian Wolff. 8. Theoretical Philosophy". SEP. Retrieved 24 March 2018.
- ^ Mattey, George J. (2012). "UC Davis Philosophy 175 (Mattey) Lecture Notes: Rational Psychology". University of California, Davis, Department of Philosophy. Archived from the original on 8 December 2018. Retrieved 11 March 2018.
- ^ van Inwagen, Peter (31 October 2014). "1. The Word 'Metaphysics' and the Concept of Metaphysics". SEP. Retrieved 11 March 2018.
- ^ Hettche, Matt (11 November 2014). "Christian Wolff. 8.3 Psychology (Empirical and Rational)". SEP. Retrieved 24 March 2018.
- ^ Duignan, Brian (20 April 2009). "Rational psychology". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 12 March 2018.
- ^ Hettche, Matt (11 November 2014). "Christian Wolff. 8.2 Cosmology". SEP. Retrieved 24 March 2018.
- ^ Hettche, Matt (11 November 2014). "Christian Wolff. 8.4 Natural Theology". SEP. Retrieved 24 March 2018.
- ^ Hettche, Matt (11 November 2014). "Christian Wolff". SEP. Retrieved 24 March 2018.
- ISBN 978-1-35151022-6.
- ^ a b Craig, Edward (1996). "Wolff, Christian". Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Routledge.
- ^ Sandkühler, Hans Jörg (2010). "Ontologie". Enzyklopädie Philosophie. Meiner. Archived from the original on 11 March 2021. Retrieved 16 December 2020.
- ^ a b Hettche, Matt; Dyck, Corey (2019). "Christian Wolff". The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University. Retrieved 16 December 2020.
- ^ Borchert, Donald M. (2006). "Ontology, History of". Macmillan Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2nd Edition. Macmillan.
- ^ Hettche, Matt (11 November 2014). "Christian Wolff. 9. Practical Philosophy". SEP. Retrieved 24 March 2018.
- ^ Available online on Göttinger Digitalisierungszentrum.
Sources
- Blackwell, Richard J. "Christian Wolff's Doctrine of the Soul," Journal of the History of Ideas, 1961, 22: 339–354. in JSTOR
- Corr, Charles A. "Christian Wolff and Leibniz," Journal of the History of Ideas, April 1975, Vol. 36 Issue 2, pp 241–262 in JSTOR
- Goebel, Julius, "Christian Wolff and the Declaration of Independence", in Deutsch-Amerikanische Geschichtsblätter. Jahrbuch der Deutsch-Amerikanischen Gesellschaft von Illinois 18/19 (Jg. 1918/19), Chicago: Deutsch-Amerikanische Gesellschaft von Illinois, 1920, pp. 69–87, details Wolff's impact on the Declaration of Independence.
- Ingrao, Charles (October 1982). ""Barbarous Strangers": Hessian State and Society during the American Revolution". The American Historical Review. 87 (4): 954–976. JSTOR 1857901.
- Jolley, Nicholas, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Leibniz (Cambridge University Press, 1995), the standard source in English; includes biography and details of his work in many fields
- Richards, Robert J. "Christian Wolff's Prolegomena to Empirical and Rational Psychology: Translation and Commentary," Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society Vol. 124, No. 3 (30 June 1980), pp. 227–239 in JSTOR
- Vanzo, Alberto. "Christian Wolff and Experimental Philosophy", Oxford Studies in Early Modern Philosophy 7.
- European Journal of Law and Economics 4(2) (Summer 1997), special issue on Christian Wolff, reprinted 1998 in the Gesammelte Werke, 3rd Ser. Note especially the essays by Jürgen G. Backhaus ("Christian Wolff on Subsidiarity, the Division of Labor, and Social Welfare"), Wolfgang Drechsler ("Christian Wolff (1679–1754): A Biographical Essay"), Erik S. Reinert and Arno Mong Daastøl ("Exploring the Genesis of Economic Innovations: The religious Gestalt-Switch and the Duty to Invent as Preconditions for Economic Growth"), and Peter R. Senn ("Christian Wolff in the Pre-History of the Social Sciences").
External links
- Works by or about Christian Wolff at Internet Archive
- Christian Wolff's Ontology: Existence as "Complement of Possibility"
- Selected Bibliography on the Metaphysical Works of Christian Wolff
- Wolff from Hegel's Lectures on the History of Philosophy
- Works by Christian Wolff at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)