Christian Wolff's Criticisms of Spinoza

Christian Wolff's Criticisms of Spinoza J. c. MORRISON On NOVZMBEn 8, 17Z 3 Frederick William I dismissed Christian Wolff' from his position in the philosophical faculty of the University of Halle and banished him from Prussia.' The king took this extreme step because he had been convinced that Wolff's philosophical views implied "that deserters from the army should not be punished since they could not help deserting ."s Wolff spent several years as a professor at the Calvinist University of Marburg lecturing on philosophy and other subjects and publishing a series of works, first in German and then in Latin. Having achieved great fame among students, scholars, and the educated public, he was reinstated at the University of Halle in 174o by Frederick the Great.4 He remained All references to Wolff's writings are to the GesammelttWerke,ed. J. l~cole, H. W. Arndt, C. A. Corr, J. E. Hoffman, and M. Thomann (Hildesheim: Georg Olms). Translations are my own. References to Spinoza's writings are to The CollectedWorksof spinoza, Vol. I, trans, and ed. Edwin Curley (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 198~). 9At Halle Wolff had been a professor of mathematics and natural science since ,7o6, although soon after his appointment he began lecturing and publishing on philosophy. He began his academic career as a student of mathematics at the UniversitiesofJena and Leipzig, and it was his work on mathematics that led to his association with Leibniz in 17o4. See L. W. Beck, Early GermanPhilosoptff(Cambridge, Mass., t969), 256-57. sBeck, Early German Philosophy, z59. For a detailed account of the reasons for Wolff's dismissal , as well as of the controversies he was engaged in during his academic career, see Charles A. Corr's introduction to his edition of the Anmerkungenzur deutschenMetaphysik(Gesamme~ Werke, I. Abt., Bd. 3), 1"-15"" Corr distinguishes between "three principal phases" of the criticisms of Wolff's philosophy, the controversy at Halle being the first. He states that Wolff's "somewhat prideful character, his commitment to reason and logic, and his classroom teaching which required his students to value a quaff-mathematical clarity" had all aroused disapproval among his colleagues. He also mentions the philosophersJ. F. Budde and Christian Thomasius as opponents of Wolff at Halle (6*-8*). 4Beck states that Frederick the Great's "own determinism, even fatalism, attracted him to Woiff's philosophy, and precisely to those points which had outraged his father." As well, Wolff's return to Halle had been prepared by a Royal Commission which "found no dangerous errors" in his books (EarlyGermanPhilosophy,z6o). [405] 406 JOURNAL OF THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY 31:3 JULY 199 3 there until his death in 1754 , publishing prolifically and receiving many honors. The reason for Wolff's dismissal and banishment was a theological dispute with members of the Theology Faculty, led by Joachim Lange.~ This dispute arose from the publication of two works, Ratio praelectionum Wolffianarum in Mathesin et Philosophiam universara (x 7 t 8) and Vernfmftige Gedancken yon Gott, der Welt und der Seele des Menschen, auch allen Dingen iiberhaupt, den Liebhabern der Wahrheit mitgeteilt (179o). 6 In these works Wolff adopted and made extensive use of Leibniz's Principle of Sufficient Reason.7 This seemed to the Pietist theologians at Halle to demonstrate that Wolff, like Leibniz, was a rationalist and determinist, s Rationalism and determinism were thought to imply that all things are necessary, i.e., fatalism, which was commonly equated with Spinozism.9 Wolff, then, was accused of being a fatalist and Spinozist. In order to defend himself against this accusation, Wolff began publishing criticisms of 5According to Beck, the enmity between Wolff and Lange was complicated by personal factors. Wolff had advocated one of his pupils, Ludwig Thtimmig, for an appointment to the Theology Faculty, but Lange wanted his own son appointed (EarlyGermanPhilosophy,258). ~Jean l~cole describes these two works as "apologies" (Schutzschriften). See "Les Opuscula metaphysica de Christian Wolff," in Introduction ~ l'Opusmetaphysicumde ChristianWolff (Paris, 1985), 293-24 and pass/re. Corr states that Wolff's Oratiode Sinarumphilosophiapracticahad also aroused enmity among the Pietist Lutherans at Halle. This work was first presented as a lecture (and later published without Woiff...