WOLFF (less correctly WOLF), CHRISTIAN (1679-1754)

This article appears in Volume V28, Page 774 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: WIL-YAK

WOLFF (less correctly WOLF), CHRISTIAN (1679-1754) , German philosopher and mathematician, the son of a tanner, was born at Breslau on the 24th of January 1679. At the university of Jena he studied first mathematics and physics, to which he soon added philosophy. In 1703 he qualified as Privatdozent in the university of

Leipzig

LEIPZIG

, where he lectured till 1706, when he was called as professor of mathematics and natural philosophy to

Halle

. Before this time he had made the acquaintance of Leibnitz, 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 (see RATIONALISM) appeared impious to his theological colleagues. Halle was the headquarters of Pietism, which, after a long struggle against Lutheran dogmatism, had itself assumed the characteristics of a new orthodoxy. 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

RECTOR (Lat. for " ruler," " guide," &c., from regere, "
rule
- RULE
")

, delivered an oration " On the

Practical

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. For ten years Wolff was subjected to attack, until in a fit of exasperation he appealed to the court for protection. His enemies, however, 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. This so enraged the king that he at once deprived Wolff of his office, and commanded him to leave Prussian territory within

forty

FORTY

-eight hours on pain of a halter. The same day Wolff passed into Saxony, and presently proceeded to Marburg, to which university he had received a

call

CALL (from Anglo-Saxon ceallian, a common Teutonic word, cf. Dutch kallen, to talk or chatter)

before this crisis. 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. In 1740 Frederick William, who had already made overtures to Wolff to return, died suddenly, and one of the first acts of his successor, Frederick the

Great

GREAT

, was to recall him to Halle. His entry into the town on the 6th of December 1740 partook of the nature of a triumphal procession. In 1743 he became chancellor of the university, and in 1745 he received the title of Freiherr from the elector of Bavaria. But his matter was no longer fresh, he had outlived his power of attracting students, and his class-rooms remained empty. He died on the gth of April 1754.
The \Volffian philosophy held almost undisputed sway in Germany till it was displaced by the Kantian revolution. It is essentially a common-sense adaptation or watering-down of the Leibnitzian system; or, as we can hardly speak of a system in connexion with Leibnitz, Wolff may be said to have methodized and reduced to dogmatic form the thoughts of his

great

GREAT

predecessor, which often, however, lose the greater part of their suggestiveness in the process. Since his philosophy disappeared before the influx of new ideas and the

appearance

APPEARANCE (from Lat. apparere, to appear)

of more speculative minds, it has been customary to dwell almost exclusively on its defectsthe want of depth or fresh-ness of insight, and the aridity of its neo-scholastic formalism, which tends to relapse into verbose platitudes. But this is to do injustice to Wolff's real merits. 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 ex-position, and his confidence in the power of reason to reduce all subjects to this form. To these must be added that he was practically the first to "teach philosophy to speak German." The Wolffian system retains the determinism and optimism of Leibnitz, 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 doctrine of the pre-established harmony also loses its metaphysical significance, and the principle of sufficient reason introduced by Leibnitz is once more discarded in favour of the principle of contradiction which Wolff seeks to make the fundamental principle of philosophy. 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

PRACTICAL

part. Logic, sometimes called philosophia rationalis, forms the introduction or propaedeutic to both. Theoretical philosophy has for its parts ontology or philosophia prima, cosmology, rational psycho-logy 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. 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.
Wolff's most important works are as follows: Anfangsgrunde aller mathematischen Wissenschaften (1710; in Latin, Elementa matheseos universae, 17131715) ; Verniinftige Gedanken von den Kraften des menschlichen Verstandes (1712; Eng. trans. 1770) ; Vern. Ged. von Gott, der Welt and der Seele des Menschen (1719) ; Vern. Ged. van der Menschen Thun and Lassen (1720) ; Vern. Ged. von dem gesellschaftlichen Leben der Menschen (1721); Vern. Ged. von den Wirkungen der Natter (1723); Vern. Ged. von den Absichten der naturlichen Dinge (1724) ; Vern. Ged. von dem Gebrauche der Theile in Menschen, Thieren and 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 (1729); Cosmologia generalis (1731) ; Psychologia empirica (1732) ; Psychologia rationalis (1734); Theologia naturalis (17361737); Philosophic practices universalis (17381739) ; Jus naturae and Jus Gentium (17401749) ; Philosophia moralis (1750-1753). His Kleine philosophische Schriften have been collected and edited by G. F.

Hagen

HAGEN
HAGEN, FRIEDRICH HEINRICH VON DER (178o-1856)

(17361740). In addition to Wolff's autobiography (Eigene Lebensbeschreibung, ed. H. Wuttke, 1841) and the usual histories of philosophy, see W. Schrader in Allgemeine deutsche Biographie, xliv. ; C. G. Ludovici, Ausfiihrlicher Entwurf einer vollstandigen Historic der Wolff'schen Philosophic (17361738) ; J. Deschamps, Cours abrege de la philosophia wolffienne (1743) ; F. W. Kluge, Christian von Wolff der Philosoph (1831); W. Arnsperger,
Christian Wolffs Verhaltnis zu Leibniz (1897). (A. S. P.-P.; X.)

End of Article: WOLFF (less correctly WOLF), CHRISTIAN (1679-1754)

If you wish, you can link directly to this article.

<a href="http://jcsm.org/StudyCenter/Encyclopedia/WIL_YAK/WOLFF_less_correctly_WOLF_CHRI.html">
WOLFF (less correctly WOLF), CHRISTIAN (1679-1754)
</a>

(Previous)
WOLFENBUTTEL

(Next)
WOLFF, CASPAR FRIEDRICH (1733-1794)

JCSM was founded in 1997 and exists to help the community and bring people into a life-changing and productive relationship with Jesus Christ. JCSM offers over 200,000 free web pages, including its weekly inspirational emails that were sent continuously for over a decade.

Jesus Christ Saves Ministries
P.O. Box 9297
San Diego, CA 92169
1-888-887-0417 or Email