Bodies of Inference: Christian Wolff’s Epistemology of the Life Sciences and Medicine

This paper explores Christian Wolff’s attempt to introduce his scientific method in the life sciences and medicine. As one can expect in the light of recent scholarship, Wolff firmly relies on experience and shares Pitcairne’s conviction that physicians should imitate astronomers in basing their claims on observations. However, Wolff’s rational foundation of medicine also highlights the heuristic value of hypotheses, the use of a priori explanations in pathology, the teleological character and metaphysical import of physiological and medical concepts. Thus, his epistemological attitude towards living beings represents an interesting alternative to the purely empirical trend in early modern medicine.