Philosophia prima sive ontologia, and: Cosmologia generalis, and: Psychologia empirica (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 513 Philosophia prima sive ontologia. By Christian Wolff. Gesammelte Werke, Abteilung II, Band 3. Herausgegeben und bearbeitet von Jean l~cole. (Hildesheim: Georg Olms Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1962. Pp. 18 + 774. DM 84) Cosmologia generalis. By Christian Wolff. Gesammelte Werke, Abteilung II, Band 4. Herausgegeben und bearbeitet von Jean l~cole. (Hildesheim: Georg Olms Verlagsbuchhandlung , 1964. Pp. 16 + 532. DM 84) Psychologia empirica. By Christian Wolff. Gesammelte Werke, Abteihing II, Band 5. Herausgegeben und bearbeitet yon Jean l~cole. (Hildesheim: Georg Olms Verlagsbuchhandlung , 1968. Pp. 18 + 822. DM 114) Jean l~cole, Hans W. Arudt, J. E. Hofmann, and Marcel Thomann, in collaboration with the publishing house of Georg Olms, have been engaged for the last ten years in the arduous task of preparing a new edition of the long-neglected works of Christian Wolff (1679-1754). Present plans contemplate a total of 51 volumes to appear in two series, the first devoted to Wolff's German writings and the second to his Latin treatises. In addition to the three volumes here under review, at least nine more are at the press and fifteen others are currently available: Verniinltige Gedanken yon den Krdften des menschlichen Verstandes, the so-called Deutsche Logik (1965; Abteilung I, Band 1); Mathematixches Lexikon (1965; I, 11); the eight-volume Jus naturae (1968; II, 17-24); four volumes of the Elementa matheseos universae (1968; II, 29-32); and the lnstitutiones juris naturae et gentium (1969; II, 29). With these texts in hand, and with the promise of the remainder of the corpus to come, we can begin a contemporary reassessment of Wolff which is essential for an adequate understanding of the course of modern philosophy on the Continent in the eighteenth century. After some work in mathematics and what would now be called the natural sciences, Wolff turned towards philosophy in his early German writings. Beginning with a volume on logic (1713), he proceeded in an orderly fashion through metaphysics (Verniinflige Gedanken yon Gott, der Welt und der Seele des Menschen, auch allen Dingen iiberhaupt, 1720), morals (1720), politics (1721), physics (1723), teleology (1724), and physiology (1725). After his expulsion from Prussia on a charge of teaching determinism , Wolff completed his work in German with a volume of annotations on the metaphysics (1724) and an Ausfiihrliche Nachricht von seinen eigenen Schriften, die er in deutscher Sprache yon den verschiedenen Theilen der Welt-Weisheit ans Licht gestellet (1726). From this time forward Wolff determined to address himself to intellectuals throughout the world in their common language, Latin. The project began with a volume entitled Philosophia rationalis sive Iogica which appeared in 1728. The opening pages of this volume contain a Discursus praeliminaris de phitosophia in genere which is now available in English in a translation by Richard J. Blackwell (New York: Bobbs-Merrill, 1963). Following this, Wolff produced six volumes on metaphysics and eighteen on moral philosophy, an average of about one volume per year until his death. These Latin volumes are more comprehensive and more rigorously structured than their German counterparts. The substance of the doctrine they espouse remains basically unchanged, but there can be no doubt that the Latin treatises are the mature and definitive statement of Wolff's views. The three volumes of the Gesammelte Werke chosen for consideration in this review - are affiliated in two ways: first, they constitute half of Wolff's metaphysical writings in the Latin series; and, secondly, they were each prepared for their present publication by the same editor. Wolff divides metaphysics into four subject areas: ontology, general 514 HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY cosmology, psychology, and natural theology. Although he had covered the entire field in one volume in his German works, he decided to devote six large books to the same topics in the Latin series. One volume each is given to ontology and general cosmology, a volume is assigned to empirical psychology and another to rational psychology, and two volumes are needed for natural theology, one for an a posteriori and the other for an a priori approach. The sheer length of these books explains the need for the many manual writers who condensed and simplified Wolff's views for classroom use in the textbooks studied by Immanuel...