Christian Wolff (1679 - 1754), a German philosopher and mathematician with a rationalist orientation, is recognized for his outstanding contribution to the historical framework of the Enlightenment (Mitjana, 2020). This movement, which encompassed both cultural and intellectual aspects, had a notable presence in countries such as Germany, France, and England. According to Mitjana (2020), the Enlightenment, as a movement, promoted the use and dissemination of knowledge as fundamental tools with the aim of improving the world in all its aspects.
Biography
Christian Wolff, whose full name is Christian Freiherr von Wolff, is recognized as a German philosopher who was born in Breslau (Silesia, Poland) on January 24, 1679 (Mitjana, 2020). The son of a craftsman, he received his education at the Maria-Magdalena-Gymnasium, which had a Lutheran-humanist orientation. Here, he had the opportunity to learn from notable teachers such as Christian Gryphius, a Baroque poet and playwright, and Caspar Neumann, whom Wolff credits with introducing him to Cartesian philosophy (Hettche & Dyck, 2019). In 1699, he enrolled at the University of Jena, where he pursued a program of studies in theology, physics, and mathematics. Later, according to Hettche & Dyck (2019), in 1702, he moved to Leipzig, where he obtained his Magister degree and completed his Habilitation in 1703 with the thesis titled "Philosophia Practica Universalis, Methodo Mathematica conscripta."
A few years later, in 1706, thanks largely to the recommendations of his colleague Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, a German philosopher and mathematician, he obtained the chair of mathematics at the University of Halle (Mitjana, 2020). At this university, he served as a professor of mathematics and natural philosophy. His thought generated controversy, particularly one of his works, "Oratio de Sinarum Philosophica Practica" (1721), which dealt with Chinese philosophy, causing a great stir. As a result of this work, many of his colleagues, professors of theology, accused him of being an atheist, and for this reason, he was dismissed two years after the publication of the mentioned work. However, according to Mitjana (2020), Wolff refuted these accusations of atheism with another of his works: "Theologia Naturalis," where he explains the importance of God as a perfect and real being.
As a result of these events, he was exiled from Prussia and his works were banned in 1723 (Mitjana, 2020). Fortunately, he found refuge with the Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel and began teaching at the University of Marburg until 1740. That same year, Frederick II of Prussia, also known as Frederick the Great, the third king of Prussia, called him back to Halle, a German city. Four years later, at the University of Halle, he was appointed chancellor, and two years after that, he was granted the title of baron. According to Mitjana (2020), he remained in Halle until his death on April 9, 1754.
Work and Thought
Christian Wolff's work is notably extensive, with the publication of up to 67 titles, organized into 23 volumes, in the period between 1703 and 1753 (Mitjana, 2020). His works were written both in German and Latin. The most influential figures in the thought of this renowned philosopher were Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and René Descartes. Specifically, according to Mitjana (2020), these two thinkers inspired him to create his philosophical method, which had a mathematical orientation.
Christian Wolff's thought was rationalist, which means he considered reason as the main source of knowledge, although this does not imply that he was not a believer (Mitjana, 2020). One of his most notable works was "Logic: Rational Thoughts on the Powers of Human Understanding" (1728), which was based on his idea of society and followed the trend of enlightened despotism. In addition to this book, according to Mitjana (2020), some of his most relevant works include "Philosophia Practica Universalis, Mathematica Methodo Conscripta" (1703), "Dissertationes pro Loco" (1703), "Aërometriae Elementa, in Quibus Aliquot Aëris Vires ac Propietates Iuxta Methodum Geometrarum Demonstratur" (1708), "Elementa Matheseos Universae, IV Vols" (1713-1715), "Lexicon Mathematicum" (1716), "Cosmologia Generalis" (1731), "Psychologia Empirica" (1732), and "Psychologia Rationalis" (1734).
Psychology
It is understood that the soul, being a simple substance, is part of the world and thus is implicated in the treatment of cosmology (Hettche & Dyck, 2019). However, this does not exhaust what can be known about it, which leads Wolff to treat it as a separate topic from metaphysics. Indeed, Wolff’s psychology constitutes one of his most influential and historically significant innovations. In general, according to Hettche & Dyck (2019), insofar as Wolff seeks to offer a scientific account of the human soul specifically, and indeed with a focus on its cognitive and conative functions, his psychology represents a significant, and clearly modern, deviation from both the treatment of the soul in the context of a generic science of living beings, still prevalent among Aristotelian natural philosophers in seventeenth-century Germany, and the metaphysical treatment of the soul in the context of a pneumatology, or doctrine of the finite and infinite spirit.
Moreover, Wolff’s main and most well-known innovation in psychology consists of his clear separation between two distinct investigations of the soul: the first based on the observation of one’s own mind, identified as empirical psychology, and the second which seeks to use reasoning to discover truths about the soul that are not easily revealed by experience, identified as rational psychology (Hettche & Dyck, 2019). Wolff’s distinction between empirical and rational psychology proved to be enormously consequential, but no less important (if less well-attended to) is the fact that these disciplines remain intrinsically connected. For Wolff, in correspondence with Hettche & Dyck (2019), the observations cataloged in the course of empirical psychology serve as principles for the inferences of rational psychology, and the resulting findings from rational psychology serve to guide empirical observation in search of confirmation.
Empirical psychology raises a distinctly early modern problem about what can be experienced of the relationship between the soul and the body (Hettche & Dyck, 2019). Wolff notes that people experience some states of the soul that depend on the body (such as sensations), and some states of the body depend on the soul (such as voluntary actions), in such a way that the body and soul are put into a union or commerce. However, in accordance with Hettche & Dyck (2019), Wolff holds that one does not experience the causal power through which the soul influences the body and vice versa, but rather that experience only confirms the general agreement between the states of each without penetrating their ground.
Rational psychology also raises the question of what best explains the agreement between the states of the soul and the body (Hettche & Dyck, 2019). In correspondence with Hettche & Dyck (2019), Wolff considers three possible systems that attempt to explain this agreement: the system of physical influx, according to which one substance produces a state in another directly through its own activity; the (Cartesian) system of occasional causes, according to which God modifies one substance on the occasion of something arising in another; and the (Leibnizian) system of pre-established harmony, where the agreement between states of substances is the result of God’s initial activity in creating this world of substances.
Wolff provides a series of familiar objections to the first two systems, arguing, for example, that physical influx conflicts with the laws of physics, and that occasionalism relies on what amounts to a perpetual miracle, while defending pre-established harmony from similar criticisms (Hettche & Dyck, 2019). Even so, according to Hettche & Dyck (2019), since no possible explanation can be confirmed or rejected by experience, each of these systems amounts to a mere hypothesis, and Wolff’s conclusion is only that pre-established harmony is a more probable hypothesis than the other two, though he believes there is nothing significant in resolving this contentious issue.
The final topic of interest is the most speculative, namely, the demonstration of the soul’s immortality and its state after death (Hettche & Dyck, 2019). It is assumed that immortality presupposes the incorruptibility of the soul, meaning that the soul does not naturally die after the body’s death. However, unlike the Cartesians, Wolff does not believe this is all that is involved. According to Hettche & Dyck (2019), Wolff mentions that any immortality worth having (and that would be consistent with the Scriptures) must also extend to the preservation of the soul’s capacity for distinct perception (i.e., its spirituality) and its awareness that it is the same being in the afterlife as it was before the body’s death (or its personality).
The incorruptibility of the soul is derived directly from the fact that it is simple, and therefore incapable of decomposition (Hettche & Dyck, 2019). Inductive reasons are offered in favor of the soul’s preservation of its spirituality (i.e., that the clarity of the soul’s perceptions improves with every “great change”). The soul’s preservation of its personality is demonstrated by reference to the law of imagination, according to which its later perceptions will lead it to remember the earlier ones. In accordance with Hettche & Dyck (2019), the relative merits of these arguments were the subject of intense debate, with particularly notable contributions from Wolff’s colleague in Halle, G. F. Meier, and later from Mendelssohn, and finally Kant.
Other Contributions
Regarding Wolff's contributions, the development of metaphysical teleologism stands out, a branch of metaphysics that deals with the purposes of objects or beings (Mitjana, 2020). Through this approach, he explained the universal connection and harmony of being as ends established by God. Another significant contribution was the systematization and revitalization of scholasticism, a medieval philosophical and theological current that uses elements of classical philosophy to understand Christianity. In addition, he developed his own philosophical method, which was deductive and rationalist. Through this method, he maintained that all truths of philosophy were reduced to the laws of formal logic. Finally, it is important to recall the extensive dissemination he carried out of sciences considered more "distant" from philosophy, such as mathematics, physics, chemistry, and botany. According to Mitjana (2020), this dissemination demonstrates the versatility and breadth of Wolff's interests and knowledge.
References
Hettche, M., & Dyck, C. (2019). Christian Wolff. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://plato.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/encyclopedia/archinfo.cgi?entry=wolff-christian
Mitjana, L. R. (2020, febrero 25). Christian Wolff: biografía de este filósofo alemán. pymOrganization. https://psicologiaymente.com/biografias/christian-wolff
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