Die Struktur der Gotteserkenntnis: Studien zur Philosophie Christian Wolffs (review)

270 HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY to have rehabilitated the Middle Ages, unless Voltaire is reading "Tintern Abbey" as an exultation upon a cathedral, "Christabel" and "La Belle Dame sans Merci" upon flowering knighthood, and "The Ancient Mariner" upon touching faith. Yet, from another point of view Voltaire is correct: the Romantics fled from the Enlightenment. Worship, wonder, the limitless aspects of the self, a sensation of having approached the inscrutable and infinite and rediscovered a Nature that was vital yet still mysterious dominate a large measure of Romantic poetry. But the Romantics do not glorify the accoutrements of the age, as did the Victorians, so much as the sensibility that is awake to a close yet ineffable harmony between nature and man. Gay, by letting many of Voltaire's statements go unchallenged, or when answered by Erasmus done so poorly, does not do justice to Romanticism. If The Bridge ol Criticism expels many critical shibboleths, it does so only by perpetuating others. "Opposition," said Blake, "is true friendship." Though none of the protagonists voices that sentiment, yet we feel it deeply as we hear them carrying on their conversations . It is a tribute to Gay's book that though we may sense the irreconcilability of ideas and their proponents, we are led to believe in their ultimate congeniality. How good it is to hear intelligent men speaking intelligently. The book concludes with "On Existentialism." Though Voltaire, in Lucian's words, has insisted contrary to traditional belief that the Enlightenment was "a revolt against rationalism, insisted that it gave room to the passions, and showed that it was not particularly optimistic," still the ultimate difference between the eighteenth-century and modernity was Voltaire's "liberalism." What the modern may no longer accept, Voltaire maintained staunchly: "that it is possible to improve man's lot by man's intelligent action." Still Voltaire maintains that "if our [the philosophes'] method should fail--that critical method, which, as I said, is more than a method----everything else must fail as well, and more drastically." "The bridge of unbelief?" Erasmus asks rhetorically: "It will only lead men to hell--if it holds." Always with the last word, Voltaire replies, "I dare not hope, just as you, Erasmus, need not fear. We must act as if it will hold--I know. But what bridge, built by reason, has ever held before?" In his own querying skepticism and tentative hope Voltaire appears at this moment close to the modern sensibility, which is so often made dismal by its final conviction, almost aroused to a faith, that nothing, not even reason, remains certain. Ricnx~ F^OEM Die Struktur der Gotteserkenntnis: Studien zur Philosophic Christian Wolffs. By Anton Bissinger. Abhandlungen zur Philosophie, Psychologie und P~idagogik, Band 63. (Bonn: H. Bouvier u. Co. Verlag, 1970. Pp. xviiiq-342. Paper, DM 48) Anton Bissinger's book Die Struktur der Gotteserkenntnis: Studien zur Philosophic Christian Wolffs is a splendid contribution towards the formation of a contemporary assessment of the historical and doctrinal significance of the philosophy of Christian Wolff. Although the main title may seem to be excessively general, the subtitle provides the necessary specification. Bissinger argues that structure can only be rightly understood in its concrete instantiation or in its inner unity with a particular theoretical content. The choice of Wolff's philosophy to serve this purpose is suggested by Wolff's special prominence in connection with the concept of natural theology and by our relative lack of understanding of his thought. The very fact that Wolff has not directly faced some questions which later thinkers posed concerning human knowledge of BOOK REVIEWS 271 transcendence may help to place them in a new light. In this way, consideration of Wolff's thought may yield results for larger issues of enduring significance. Bissinger seems to feel that the present state of research on Wolff will only support studies of the type represented by his book. Perhaps, however, the appearance of this volume--as well as the publication of a new edition of Wolff's works which stimulated and in part made possible this sort of investigation--will bring us closer to the point of a more comprehensive and definitive analysis of Wolff...