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Western Philosophy
18th-century philosophy
Name
Christian Wolff
Birth January 24, 1679
Death April 9, 1754
School/tradition Enlightenment philosophy
Influenced by Leibniz
Influenced Kant

Christian Wolff (less correctly Wolf; also known as Wolfius) (January 24, 1679 - April 9, 1754) was a German philosopher. The Age of Enlightenment or The Enlightenment is a term used to describe a phase in Western philosophy and cultural life centered upon the eighteenth century Events 41 - Gaius Caesar (Caligula, known for his eccentricity and cruel Despotism, is Assassinated by his disgruntled Events 193 - Septimius Severus is proclaimed Roman Emperor by the army in Illyricum (in the Balkans) Year 1754 ( MDCCLIV) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or The Age of Enlightenment or The Enlightenment is a term used to describe a phase in Western philosophy and cultural life centered upon the eighteenth century Immanuel Kant (ɪmanuəl kant 22 April 1724 12 February 1804 was an 18th-century German Philosopher from the Prussian city of Königsberg Events 41 - Gaius Caesar (Caligula, known for his eccentricity and cruel Despotism, is Assassinated by his disgruntled Events 193 - Septimius Severus is proclaimed Roman Emperor by the army in Illyricum (in the Balkans) Year 1754 ( MDCCLIV) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. Philosophy is the study of general problems concerning matters such as existence knowledge truth beauty justice validity mind and language

Contents

Importance

Christian Wolff was the most eminent German philosopher between Leibniz and Kant. Immanuel Kant (ɪmanuəl kant 22 April 1724 12 February 1804 was an 18th-century German Philosopher from the Prussian city of Königsberg His main achievement was a complete oeuvre on almost every scholarly subject of his time, displayed and unfolded according to his demonstrative-deductive, mathematical method, which perhaps represents the peak of Enlightenment rationality in Germany. The Age of Enlightenment or The Enlightenment is a term used to describe a phase in Western philosophy and cultural life centered upon the eighteenth century Rationality as a term is related to the idea of Reason, a word which following Webster's may be derived as much from older terms referring to Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. Wolff was also the creator of German as the language of scholarly instruction and research, although he also wrote in Latin, so that an international audience could, and did, read him. The German language (de ''Deutsch'') is a West Germanic language and one of the world's major languages. Latin ( lingua Latīna, laˈtiːna is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. A founding father of, among other fields, economics and public administration as academic disciplines, he concentrated especially in these fields, giving advice on practical matters to people in government, and stressing the professional nature of university education. Economics is the social science that studies the production distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Public administration can be broadly described as the development implementation and study of branches of government Policy. For the government of parliamentary systems see Executive (government. His work is said to have had a strong impact on the American Declaration of Independence.

Life

The plaque for Christian Wolff in Wrocław
The plaque for Christian Wolff in Wrocław

Wolff was born in Breslau, Silesia. Wrocław (Breslau Vratislav Vratislavia or Wratislavia Yiddish: ברעסלוי) is the chief City of the historical region of Lower Silesia Etymology One theory claims that the name Silesia is derived from the Silingi, who were most likely a Vandalic (East Germanic people Coming from a modest background, he studied first mathematics and physics at the University of Jena, to which he soon added philosophy. Friedrich Schiller University of Jena (FSU is located in Jena, Thuringia in Germany and was renamed for the German writer Friedrich Schiller In 1703, he qualified as Privatdozent in the University of Leipzig, where he lectured till 1706, when he was called as professor of mathematics and natural philosophy to University of Halle. Private docent (abbreviates PD or Priv-Doz) is a title conferred in some European university systems especially in German -speaking countries The University of Leipzig (Universität Leipzig located in Leipzig in the Free State of Saxony, Germany, is one of the oldest universities The Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg (Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg also referred to as MLU, is a public University in the cities of Before this time he had made the acquaintance of Leibniz, of whose philosophy his own system is a modification. In Halle, Wolff limited himself at first to mathematics, but on the departure of a colleague, he added physics, and presently included all the main philosophical disciplines.

But the claims which Wolff advanced on behalf of the philosophic reason appeared impious to his theological colleagues. In Epistemology and in its broadest sense rationalism is "any view appealing to Reason as a source of knowledge or justification" (Lacey 286 Halle was the headquarters of Pietism, which, after a long struggle against Lutheran dogmatism, had itself assumed the characteristics of a new orthodoxy. Pietism was a movement within Lutheranism, lasting from the late 17th century to the mid-18th century and later Lutheranism is a major branch of Western Christianity that identifies with the teachings of the sixteenth-century German reformer Martin Luther Dogma (the plural is either dogmata or dogmas, Greek, plural) is the established Belief or Wolff's professed ideal was to base theological truths on evidence of mathematical certitude, and strife with the Pietists broke out openly in 1721, when Wolff, on the occasion of laying down the office of 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 of Confucius, pointing to them as an evidence of the power of human reason to attain by its own efforts to moral truth. Confucius ( lit " Master Kung " September 28, 551 BC - 479 BC) was a Chinese thinker and social philosopher

As a consequence, in 1723, Wolff was ousted from his first chair at Halle in one of the most celebrated academic dramas of the 18th century. Halle is the largest city in the German State of Saxony-Anhalt. His enemies had gained the ear of the king Frederick William I and represented to him that, if Wolff's determinism were recognized, no soldier who deserted could be punished, since he would only have acted as it was necessarily predetermined that he should. Frederick William I (Friedrich Wilhelm I ( August 14, 1688 &ndash May 31, 1740) of the House of Hohenzollern, was the King This so enraged the king that he at once deprived Wolff of his office, and commanded him to leave Prussian territory within 48 hours or be hanged. The same day Wolff passed into Saxony, and presently proceeded to Marburg in Hesse-Kassel, to whose university he had received a call even before this crisis, which was now renewed. Marburg is a city in Hesse, Germany, on the River Lahn. It is the main town of the Marburg-Biedenkopf district The University of Marburg (Philipps-Universität Marburg 'Philip's University Marburg' was founded in 1527 by Landgrave Philip I of Hesse (usually The Landgrave of Hesse received him with every mark of distinction, and the circumstances of his expulsion drew universal attention to his philosophy. Landgrave ( Dutch landgraaf, German Landgraf; French landgrave; Latin comes magnus, comes patriae 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.

At the University of Marburg, as one of the most popular and fashionable university teachers in Europe, he increased matriculation figures within five years by about 50%. The University of Marburg (Philipps-Universität Marburg 'Philip's University Marburg' was founded in 1527 by Landgrave Philip I of Hesse (usually In 1740 Frederick William, died, and one of the first acts of his son and successor, Frederick the Great, an admirer of Wolff, was to recall him to Halle. Frederick II (Friedrich II January 24 1712 August 17 1786) was a King of Prussia (1740&ndash1786 from the His entry into the town on December 6, 1740, partook of the nature of a triumphal procession. Events 1060 - Béla I of Hungary is crowned king of Hungary 1240 - Mongol invasion of Rus: Kiev Year 1740 ( MDCCXL) was a Leap year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Leap In 1743, he became chancellor of the university, and in 1745, he received the title of Freiherr (Baron) from the Elector of Bavaria. Baron is a specific Title of nobility. The word baron comes from Old French baron, itself from Old High German and Latin (liber Bavaria ( German:, with an area of 70553 Km² (27241 square miles and almost 12 But his matter was no longer fashionable, he had outlived his power of attracting students, and his class-rooms remained, while not empty, then certainly emptier than they had been during his heyday in Marburg.

When Wolff died on 9 April 1754, he was a very wealthy man, almost entirely due to his income from lecture-fees, salaries, and royalties. Events 193 - Septimius Severus is proclaimed Roman Emperor by the army in Illyricum (in the Balkans) Year 1754 ( MDCCLIV) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or He was also a member of many academies and probably the first scholar to have been created hereditary Baron of the Holy Roman Empire on the basis of his academic work. Baron is a specific Title of nobility. The word baron comes from Old French baron, itself from Old High German and Latin (liber The Holy Roman Empire ( HRE; German Heiliges Römisches Reich (HRR, Latin Sacrum Romanum Imperium (SRI was a union of territories in His school, the Wolffians, was the first school, in the philosophical sense, associated with a German philosopher. It dominated Germany until the rise of Kantianism. Immanuel Kant (ɪmanuəl kant 22 April 1724 12 February 1804 was an 18th-century German Philosopher from the Prussian city of Königsberg

Philosophy

The Wolffian philosophy held almost undisputed sway in Germany until it was displaced by the Kantian revolution, due partly to his distinctive habit of writing in both Latin and German. Immanuel Kant (ɪmanuəl kant 22 April 1724 12 February 1804 was an 18th-century German Philosopher from the Prussian city of Königsberg Wolff's philosophy has, until a reevaluation set in the 1960s, often been held to be a common-sense adaptation or watering-down of the Leibnizian system; or, more charitably, Wolff was said to have methodized and "reduced" to dogmatic form the thoughts of his great predecessor.

These are mainly his comprehensive view of philosophy, as embracing in its survey the whole field of human knowledge, his insistence everywhere on clear and methodic exposition, and his confidence in the power of reason to reduce all subjects to this form. The Wolffian system retains the determinism and optimism of Leibniz, but the monadology recedes into the background, the monads falling asunder into souls or conscious beings on the one hand and mere atoms on the other. The Monadology ( Monadologie, 1714 is one of Gottfried Leibniz ’s works that best define his philosophy monadism. The doctrine of the pre-established harmony also loses its metaphysical significance - while remaining an important heuristic device - and the principle of sufficient reason introduced by Leibniz is once more discarded in favor of the principle of contradiction which Wolff seeks to make the fundamental principle of philosophy. heuristic (hyu̇-ˈris-tik is a method to help solve a problem commonly an informal method The principle of sufficient reason (also called the Causal Doctrine) states that anything that happens does so for a definite Reason. In Logic, the Principle of contradiction ( principium contradictionis in Latin) is the second of the so-called Three classic laws of thought.

Philosophy is defined by him as the science of the possible, and divided, according to the two faculties of the human individual, into a theoretical and a practical part. Logic, sometimes called philosophia rationales, forms the introduction or propaedeutic to both. Theoretical philosophy has for its parts ontology or philosophia prima, cosmology, rational psychology and natural theology; ontology treats of the existent in general, psychology of the soul as a simple non-extended substance, cosmology of the world as a whole, and rational theology of the existence and attributes of God. In Philosophy, ontology (from the Greek, genitive: of being (part Cosmology (from Greek grc κοσμολογία - grc κόσμος kosmos, "universe" and grc -λογία -logia) is study Natural theology is a branch of Theology based on Reason and ordinary Experience, explaining the gods rationally as part of the physical world These are best known to philosophical students by Kant's treatment of them in the Critique of Pure Reason. Practical philosophy is subdivided into ethics, economics and politics. Wolff's moral principle is the realization of human perfection - 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 states- and business leaders.

Works

Wolff's most important works are as follows:

Wolff's complete writings have been published since 1962 in an annotated reprint collection, and thus are easily accessible:

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

Recent key works on Wolff

References

External links

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