Christian von Wolff (1679-1754) was a rationalist philosopher of the German Enlightenment. The list of his works includes more than 26 titles, covering more than 42 volumes, relating primarily to such areas as mathematics and philosophy. He is often considered the central historical figure who links the philosophical systems of Leibniz and Kant. Although Wolf's influence was largely isolated from German schools and universities during and immediately after his life, he received international recognition.
He was a non-resident member of all four major European scientific academies: the Royal Society of London in 1709; Berlin Academy in 1711; Petersburg Academy in 1725; Paris Academy in 1733. It should be noted the great contribution that the main ideas of Christian Wolf made to the German philosophy of the Enlightenment. To his credit, he is the first philosopher in Germany to create a complete system of philosophy in his own language.
Merit in Science
According to Kant, in"Preface" to the "Critique of Pure Reason", he is "the greatest of all dogmatic philosophers." Wolff's "rigorous method" in science, Kant explains, is based on "establishing a regular principle, clearly defining concepts, attempting rigorous proofs, and avoiding bold leaps in inference."
Like many other modern philosophers such as Descartes, Hobbes and Spinoza, Wolf believed that the method of mathematics, if properly applied, could be used to expand other areas of human knowledge. Perhaps more than any of his contemporaries, the philosopher pushed this style of presentation to its limits. Wolff's critics, even during his lifetime, have pointed out that his work is long-lived and often involves overly complex demonstrations. Perhaps his most direct influence on the history of Western philosophy lies not in any of his own writings, but in the influence he had on the German university curriculum. The most notable beneficiaries and followers of the Wolffian systematization of philosophy are the early Kant, Alexander Baumgarten (1714-1762), Samuel Formey (1711-1797), Johann Christoph Gottshead (1700-1766), Martin Knutzen (1713-1751), Georg Friedrich Meyer (1718 -1777) and Moses Mendelssohn (1729-1786).
Biography
Wolf was born on January 24, 1679 in Breslau in the province of Silesia (now modern Poland) to a family with a modest income. He was a baptized Lutheran. His primary education was a hybrid of Protestant and Catholic scholasticism. At the age of 20he entered the University of Jena and took courses in theology, physics and mathematics. In 1703, under the supervision of Ehrenfried W alther von Tschirnhaus at the University of Leipzig, Wolff completed his doctoral dissertation titled Philosophy of the Practice of Universality, "Method of Writing Mathematics" ("On a Universal Practical Philosophy Composed of a Mathematical Method").
Teaching and research activities
After working for a year in Gdansk, Weimar and Giessen, Wolf received in 1707 a position at the University of Halle (as a professor of mathematics and natural philosophy). At first he lectured in mathematics and physics, later he picked up courses in philosophy and quickly earned a good reputation among the students. The main ideas of Christian Wolf are incorporated in his numerous works. Over the next 15 years, he published his main works in mathematics and also began to create his own philosophical system (primarily German logic in 1712 and German metaphysics in 1719). The corpus of his works is usually divided into German and Latin works. For about the first 20 years of his career, the philosopher's main concern was the production of works in German.
Accusations
November 8, 1723 Wolff was exiled from Prussia by King Friedrich Wilhelm I. The rationalist approach to theology and morality was sharply criticized by a group of pietists in Halle. In the early 1720s, the pietists gradually gained favor with the king, which eventually led toexile of the philosopher.
Because of a lecture on the moral philosophy of the Chinese, where Wolf defended the autonomy of moral philosophy from religion, he was unfairly accused of fatalism. It is alleged that after Frederick William I explained that the philosopher's endorsement of "pre-established harmony" (in another work) implicitly denied the guilt of army deserters, the militaristic king called for his exile. Perhaps, ironically, the king's condemnation of the thinker is one of the main factors that contributed to his international recognition.
Emigration
During the years of emigration, Wolf worked at the University of Marburg, and his main efforts were directed towards completing the Latin presentation of his theoretical philosophy. The following is a list of what is sometimes referred to as the Latin literature of Wolff's Marburg period: The Latin Logic (1728); "Preliminary Discourse" (1728); "Ontology" (1730); "Cosmology" (1731); "Empirical Psychology" (1732); "Rational Psychology" (1734); "Natural Theology" in 20 volumes (1736-37).
Return
In 1740, Frederick the Great, son of Frederick William I, invited the philosopher to return to Halle. The philosopher was first invited to preside over the newly reorganized Berlin Academy. This position he was going to share with Voltaire. However, since Voltaire turned down the offer, Wolf decided to return to his original seat in Halle and serve the Academy only as a non-resident member. After his return, his main energy was directed topractical philosophy, in addition to the publication of an extensive 8-volume work on the law of nature, which examined the knowledge of good and evil actions, which was written from 1740 to 1748. Also from 1750 to 1754 he worked on the creation of a 5-volume work on moral philosophy.
Philosophy Concept
The identification of Wolf as an academic philosopher is useful for understanding the presentation and development of his philosophical views. Early in his career, shortly after his exile from Halle, he mainly presented his work in German. His reasons for choosing German over Latin or French, which were then standard in academic philosophy, can be seen as both tactical and theoretical. Before him, there were very few philosophical works written in German. By providing treatises on logic and metaphysics, the philosopher was able to fill a prominent gap in the German university curriculum and at the same time promote his own philosophical ideas.
But besides tactical reasons related to advancing his career, he also had a deep theoretical basis for writing philosophy in German. The thinker believed that the goals of philosophy should not only be rooted in what he calls "the desire to know the truth", but also in its usefulness and practical value that it has for people in their daily lives. Writing in German, he sought to transform philosophy from a discipline that was mired in formalism and centered around traditionally defined themes, into a discipline that had a truepractical value.
Practical philosophy
The practical aspects of philosophy are an important, though often overlooked, feature of his ideas. Briefly presenting the philosophy of Christian Wolff, it should be noted that for him the goal of philosophy is determined by the very nature and structure of the human mind. He believes, in particular, that there are two different levels of knowledge that humans can achieve. The first is "ordinary" or "vulgar" knowledge, or, as the philosopher sometimes says, "the natural way of thinking," and the second is "scientific" knowledge. Scientific knowledge is divided into three main categories (historical, philosophical and mathematical), and each category is again subdivided into separate scientific disciplines. At the same time, both general and scientific knowledge is based on the beliefs of people who demonstrate confidence in their beliefs. And unlike his rationalist predecessor Descartes, Christian Wolf does not worry about the problems that skeptics have about the possibility and reliability of human knowledge. For him, the knowledge system is simply an indisputable fact of human experience
Theoretical philosophy
Philosophy is the science of possible and real reality. According to Wolf's own taxonomy, theoretical philosophy is divided into three distinct branches: ontology (or metaphysics proper), special metaphysics, and physics. Cosmology, as a branch of metaphysics, is a special or limited science, since its subject matter deals with the "universal whole" and not "as a whole" (subjectontology). Just as there are certain principles and certain truths in ontology that are relevant to cosmology, there are certain principles and certain truths in cosmology that are relevant to the more specialized science of physics. In fact, there is complete uniformity from top to bottom in his system, so that even the principles of ontology are relevant to the discipline of physics.
Ontology or metaphysics of Christian Wolff
For a philosopher, a being in the most general sense is any possible thing. Possible things consist of a series of consistent definitions or predicates. The essence of any given possible thing is its principle of Being or principle of individualization. While the essence of a simple being is determined by its essence or essential properties, the essence of a composite being is determined by how its parts fit together. In his view, at a nominal level of reality, simple and composite entities are the result of an epistemological distinction imposed by the perceiving mind when analyzing what "exists" (i.e., in a nominal sense). Strictly speaking, the only essential things that exist on any level of reality are simple substances.
In the system of Christian Wolf, random substances are properties that exist due to the necessity of a thing. And according to Wolff, there are three main classes of accidents: proper attributes, general attributes, and ways (methods).
The proper and general attributes of a substance are determined by the essence of the thing. Proper attributes are properties of a thing that are determined by allnecessary information taken together, and general attributes are properties of a thing that are determined only by some, but not all, of its important elements.
Psychology (empirical and rational)
The philosopher's reflections on the soul (or mind) have both an empirical and a rational component. In many ways, his commitment to empirical knowledge from a rationalistic point of view is embodied in his approach. Christian Wolf's contribution to psychology is of great importance. He thinks in general terms that one can first establish a set of principles about the soul based on observation and experience, and then go on to explain (through conceptual analysis) why and how the human soul is the way it is. Introspection or empirical knowledge of one's own consciousness is considered by him as a special case of knowledge. He provides starting points both for proving the existence of the human soul and for defining its basic operations such as cognition, perception and apperception. The empirical psychology of Christian Wolf is the science of establishing through experience the principles that explain the cause of those things that happen in the human soul. Rational psychology is the science of those things whose existence is possible thanks to the human soul.
Common to both approaches to psychology is the discussion of the nature of the soul or true definition. In the empirical approach, the content of introspective experience makes it possible to construct a nominal definition of the soul. The nominal definition is simply a description of what is expectedfurther clarification. In Wolf's methodology, experience sets the content of nominal definitions. He defines the soul as that which is in us, which is aware of itself and other things outside of us. The real definition of the soul is this: the essence of the soul lies in the power of representing the world by virtue of the soul's ability to feel … according to the existing position of the body in the world.
Like Leibniz, Christian Wolf believes that the main function of the soul is its ability to "represent" (ie, form thoughts about things). The mind/soul represents its environment, for example, as a series of coherent perceptions form the basis of its conscious experience. The changes that occur in the mind, according to the philosopher, depend on the state of the sensory organs, as well as on the situation or place in which a person finds himself in the world. Unlike Leibniz, who claims that the human soul is self-sufficient, he believes that the ability or power to represent is a function of the soul and the way in which the soul can interact with its reality.
The concept of force is central to this Wolf concept. He broadly interprets abilities as "active potencies", trying to explain, for example, the laws that determine sensation and reflection, imagination and memory, attention and intellect. He also discusses issues of mind and body, exploring the debate between positions of "physical influx", "accident" and "pre-established harmony". Wolf supports supporters of pre-established harmony and argues that this is the best philosophicalhypothesis that explains the emergence of interaction between mind and body.
