WOLFF.
The idealism of Berkeley, as was to be expected from the nature of the
case, remained without any farther development, but the philosophy of
Leibnitz was taken up and subjected to a farther revision by _Christian
Wolff_. He was born in Breslau in 1679. He was chosen professor at
Halle, where he became obnoxious to the charge of teaching a doctrine at
variance with the Scriptures, and drew upon himself such a violent
opposition from the theologians of the university, that a cabinet order
was issued for his dismissal on the 8th of November, 1723, and he was
enjoined to leave Prussia within forty-eight hours on pain of being
hung. He then became professor in Marburg, but was afterwards recalled
to Prussia by Frederic II. immediately upon his accession to the throne.
He was subsequently made baron, and died 1754. In his chief thoughts he
followed Leibnitz, a connection which he himself admitted, though he
protested against the identification of his philosophy with that of
Leibnitz, and objected to the name, _Philosophia Leibnitio-Wolffiana_,
which was taken by his disciple Bilfinger. The historical merit of Wolff
is threefold. First, and most important, he laid claim again to the
whole domain of knowledge in the name of philosophy, and sought again to
build up a systematic framework, and make an encyclopedia of philosophy
in the highest sense of the word. Though he did not himself furnish much
new material for this purpose, yet he carefully elaborated and arranged
that which he found at hand. Secondly, he made again the philosophical
method as such, an object of attention. His own method is, indeed, an
external one as to its content, namely, the mathematical or the
mathematico-syllogistical, recommended by Leibnitz, and by the
application of this his whole philosophizing sinks to a level formalism.
(For instance, in his principles of architecture, the eighth proposition
is—“a window must be wide enough for two persons to recline together
conveniently,”—a proposition which is thus proved: “we are more
frequently accustomed to recline and look out at a window in company
with another person than alone, and hence, since the builder of the
house should satisfy the owner in every respect (§ 1), he must make a
window wide enough for two persons conveniently to recline within it at
the same time”.) Still this formalism is not without its advantage, for
it subjects the philosophical content to a logical treatment. Thirdly,
Wolff has taught philosophy to speak German, an art which it has not
since forgotten. Next to Leibnitz, he is entitled to the merit of having
made the German language for ever the organ of philosophy.
The following remarks will suffice for the content and the scientific
classification of Wolff’s philosophy. He defines philosophy to be the
science of the possible as such. But that is possible which contains no
contradiction. Wolff defends this definition against the charge of
presuming too much. It is not affirmed, he says, with this definition
that either he or any other philosopher knows every thing which is
possible. The definition only claims for philosophy the whole province
of human knowledge, and it is certainly proper that philosophy should be
described according to the highest perfection which it can attain, even
though it has not yet actually reached it.—In what parts now does this
science of the possible consist? Resting on the perception that there
are within the soul two faculties, one of knowing and one of willing,
Wolff divides philosophy into two great parts, theoretical philosophy
(an expression, however, which first appears among his followers), or
metaphysics, and practical philosophy. Logic precedes both as a
preliminary training for philosophical study. Metaphysics are still
farther divided by Wolff into ontology, cosmology, psychology, and
natural theology; practical philosophy he divides into ethics, whose
object is man as man; economics, whose object is man as a member of the
family; and politics, whose object is man as a citizen of the state.
1. ONTOLOGY is the first part of Wolff’s metaphysics. Ontology treats of
what are now called categories, or those fundamental conceptions which
are applied to every object, and must therefore at the outset be
investigated. Aristotle had already furnished a table of categories, but
he had derived them wholly empirically. It is not much better with the
ontology of Wolff; it is laid out like a philosophical dictionary. At
its head he places the principle of contradiction, viz.: it is not
possible for any thing to be, and at the same time not to be. The
conception of the possible at once follows from this principle. That is
possible which contains no contradiction. That is necessary, the
opposite of which contradicts itself, and that is accidental, the
opposite of which is possible. Every thing which is possible is a thing,
though only an imaginary one; that which neither is, nor is possible, is
nothing. When many things together compose a thing, this is a whole, and
the individual things comprehended by it are its parts. The greatness of
a thing consists in the multitude of its parts. If A contains that by
which we can understand the being of B, then that in A by which B
becomes understood is the ground of B, and the whole A which contains
the ground of B is its cause. That which contains the ground of its
properties is the essence of a thing. Space is the arrangement of things
which exist conjointly. Place is the determinate way in which a thing
exists in conjunction with others. Movement is change of place. Time is
the arrangement of that which exists successively, etc.
2. COSMOLOGY.—Wolff defines the world to be a series of changing
objects, which exist conjointly and successively, but which are so
connected together that one ever contains the ground of the other.
Things are connected in space and in time. By virtue of this universal
connection, the world is one united whole; the essence of the world
consists in the manner of its connection. But this manner cannot be
changed. It can neither receive any new ingredients nor lose any of
those it possesses. From the essence of the world spring all its
changes. In this respect the world is a machine. Events in the world are
only hypothetically necessary in so far as previous events have had a
certain character; they are accidental in so far as the world might have
been directed otherwise. In respect to the question whether the world
had a beginning in time, Wolff does not express himself explicitly.
Since God is independent of time, but the world has been from eternity
in time, the world therefore is in no case eternal in any sense like
God. But according to Wolff, neither space nor time has any substantial
being. Body is a connected thing composed of matter, and possessing a
moving power within itself. The powers of a body taken together are
called its nature, and the comprehension of all being is called nature
in general. That which has its ground in the essence of the world is
called natural, and that which has not, is supernatural, or a wonder. At
the close of his cosmology, Wolff treats of the perfection and
imperfection of the world. The perfection of a world consists in the
harmony with each other of every thing which exists conjointly and
successively. But since every thing has its separate rules, the
individual must give up so much from its perfection as is necessary for
the symmetry of the whole.
3. RATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY.--The soul is that within us which is
self-conscious. In the self-consciousness of the soul are itself and
other objects. Consciousness is either clear or indistinct. Clear
consciousness is thought. The soul is a simple incorporeal substance.
There dwells within it a power to represent to itself a world. In this
sense brutes also may have a soul, but a soul which possesses
understanding and will is mind, and mind belongs alone to men. The soul
of man is a mind joined to a body, and this is the distinction between
men and superior spirits. The movements of the soul and of the body
harmonize with each other by virtue of the preëstablished harmony. The
freedom of the human soul is the power according to its own arbitrament,
to choose of two possible things that which pleases it best. But the
soul does not decide without motives, it ever chooses that which it
holds to be the best. Thus the soul would seem impelled to its action by
its representations, but the understanding is not constrained to its
representations of that which is good and bad, and hence also the will
is not constrained, but free. As a simple being the soul is indivisible,
and hence incorruptible; the souls of brutes, however, have no
understanding, and hence enjoy no conscious existence after death. This
belongs alone to the human soul, and hence the human soul alone is
immortal.
4. NATURAL THEOLOGY.—Wolff uses here the cosmological argument to
demonstrate the existence of a God. God might have made different
worlds, but has preferred the present one as the best. This world has
been called into being by the will of God. His aim in its creation was
the manifestation of his own perfection. Evil in the world does not
spring from the Divine will, but from the limited being of human things.
God permits it only as a means of good.
This brief aphoristic exposition of Wolff’s metaphysics, shows how
greatly it is related to the doctrine of Leibnitz. The latter, however,
loses much of its speculative profoundness by the abstract and logical
treatment it receives in the hands of Wolff. For the most part, the
specific elements of the monadology remain in the background; with
Wolff, his simple beings are not representative like the Monads, but
more like the Atoms. Hence there is with him much that is illogical and
contradictory. His peculiar merit in metaphysics is ontology, which he
has elaborated far more strictly than his predecessors. A multitude of
philosophical terminations owe to him their origin, and their
introduction into philosophical language.
The philosophy of Wolff, comprehensible and distinct as it was, and by
its composition in the German language more accessible than that of
Leibnitz, soon became the popular philosophy, and gained an extensive
influence. Among the names which deserve credit for their scientific
treatment of it, we may mention _Thümming_, 1697-1728; _Bilfinger_,
1693-1750; _Baumeister_, 1708-1785; _Baumgarten_ the esthetic,
1714-1762; and his scholar _Meier_, 1718-1777.