90-398: Christian Wolff may refer to: Christian Wolff (philosopher) (1679–1754), German philosopher and mathematician Christian Wolff (baroque composer) (1705–1773), German composer Christian Wolff (composer) (born 1934), American composer of experimental classical music Christian Wolff (actor) (born 1938), German actor Christian Wolff,
180-506: A deductive science, knowable a priori and based on two fundamental principles: the principle of non-contradiction ("it cannot happen that the same thing is and is not") and the principle of sufficient reason ("nothing exists without a sufficient reason for why it exists rather than does not exist"). Beings are defined by their determinations or predicates , which can't involve a contradiction. Determinates come in 3 types: essentialia , attributes , and modes . Essentialia define
270-529: A dissertation Specimen Quaestionum Philosophicarum ex Jure collectarum ( An Essay of Collected Philosophical Problems of Right ), arguing for both a theoretical and a pedagogical relationship between philosophy and law. After one year of legal studies, he was awarded his bachelor's degree in Law on 28 September 1665. His dissertation was titled De conditionibus ( On Conditions ). In early 1666, at age 19, Leibniz wrote his first book, De Arte Combinatoria ( On
360-416: A general metaphysics , which arises as a preliminary to the distinction of the three special metaphysics on the soul, world and God: rational psychology , rational cosmology , and rational theology . The three disciplines are called empirical and rational because they are independent of revelation. This scheme, which is the counterpart of religious tripartition in creature, creation, and Creator,
450-484: A German philosopher. It dominated Germany until the rise of Kantianism . Wolff was married and had several children. Wolffian philosophy has a marked insistence everywhere on a clear and methodic exposition, holding confidence in the power of reason to reduce all subjects to this form. He was distinguished for writing copies in both Latin and German. Through his influence, natural law and philosophy were taught at most German universities, in particular those located in
540-438: A copy of Logique ou réflexions sur les forces de l'entendement humain to Voltaire in his first letter to the philosopher from 8 August 1736. In 1737, Wolff's Metafysica was translated into French by Ulrich Friedrich von Suhm (1691–1740). Voltaire got the impression Frederick had translated the book himself. In 1738, Frederick William began the hard labour of trying to read Wolff. In 1740, Frederick William died, and one of
630-726: A fair part of his assigned task: when the material Leibniz had written and collected for his history of the House of Brunswick was finally published in the 19th century, it filled three volumes. Leibniz was appointed Librarian of the Herzog August Library in Wolfenbüttel , Lower Saxony , in 1691. In 1708, John Keill , writing in the journal of the Royal Society and with Newton's presumed blessing, accused Leibniz of having plagiarised Newton's calculus. Thus began
720-511: A geometry book as an example to explain his reasoning. If this book was copied from an infinite chain of copies, there must be some reason for the content of the book. Leibniz concluded that there must be the " monas monadum " or God. The ontological essence of a monad is its irreducible simplicity. Unlike atoms, monads possess no material or spatial character. They also differ from atoms by their complete mutual independence, so that interactions among monads are only apparent. Instead, by virtue of
810-604: A journal article titled "New System of the Nature and Communication of Substances". Between 1695 and 1705, he composed his New Essays on Human Understanding , a lengthy commentary on John Locke 's 1690 An Essay Concerning Human Understanding , but upon learning of Locke's 1704 death, lost the desire to publish it, so that the New Essays were not published until 1765. The Monadologie , composed in 1714 and published posthumously, consists of 90 aphorisms. Leibniz also wrote
900-612: A key role in advancing his mathematical and scientific reputation, which in turn enhanced his eminence in diplomacy, history, theology, and philosophy. The Elector Ernest Augustus commissioned Leibniz to write a history of the House of Brunswick, going back to the time of Charlemagne or earlier, hoping that the resulting book would advance his dynastic ambitions. From 1687 to 1690, Leibniz traveled extensively in Germany, Austria, and Italy, seeking and finding archival materials bearing on this project. Decades went by but no history appeared;
990-546: A meticulous study (informed by the 1999 additions to the critical edition) of all of Leibniz's philosophical writings up to 1688, Mercer (2001) disagreed with Couturat's reading. Leibniz met Baruch Spinoza in 1676, read some of his unpublished writings, and had since been influenced by some of Spinoza's ideas. While Leibniz befriended him and admired Spinoza's powerful intellect, he was also dismayed by Spinoza's conclusions, especially when these were inconsistent with Christian orthodoxy. Unlike Descartes and Spinoza, Leibniz had
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#17327866108661080-409: A philosopher, he was a leading representative of 17th-century rationalism and idealism . As a mathematician, his major achievement was the development of the main ideas of differential and integral calculus , independently of Isaac Newton 's contemporaneous developments. Mathematicians have consistently favored Leibniz's notation as the conventional and more exact expression of calculus. In
1170-410: A post he held for the rest of his life. Leibniz served three consecutive rulers of the House of Brunswick as historian, political adviser, and most consequentially, as librarian of the ducal library. He thenceforth employed his pen on all the various political, historical, and theological matters involving the House of Brunswick; the resulting documents form a valuable part of the historical record for
1260-652: A related mission to the English government in London, early in 1673. There Leibniz came into acquaintance of Henry Oldenburg and John Collins . He met with the Royal Society where he demonstrated a calculating machine that he had designed and had been building since 1670. The machine was able to execute all four basic operations (adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing), and the society quickly made him an external member. The mission ended abruptly when news of
1350-676: A role in the initiatives and negotiations leading up to that Act, but not always an effective one. For example, something he published anonymously in England, thinking to promote the Brunswick cause, was formally censured by the British Parliament . The Brunswicks tolerated the enormous effort Leibniz devoted to intellectual pursuits unrelated to his duties as a courtier, pursuits such as perfecting calculus, writing about other mathematics, logic, physics, and philosophy, and keeping up
1440-546: A short paper, "Primae veritates" ("First Truths"), first published by Louis Couturat in 1903 (pp. 518–523) summarizing his views on metaphysics . The paper is undated; that he wrote it while in Vienna in 1689 was determined only in 1999, when the ongoing critical edition finally published Leibniz's philosophical writings for the period 1677–1690. Couturat's reading of this paper influenced much 20th-century thinking about Leibniz, especially among analytic philosophers . After
1530-406: A sufficient reason. The sufficient reason for things without actual existence consists in all the determinations that make up the essential nature of this thing. Wolff refers to this as a "reason of being" and contrasts it with a "reason of becoming", which explains why some things have actual existence. Practical philosophy is subdivided into ethics, economics and politics. Wolff's moral principle
1620-677: A two-year residence in Vienna , where he was appointed Imperial Court Councillor to the Habsburgs . On the death of Queen Anne in 1714, Elector George Louis became King George I of Great Britain , under the terms of the 1701 Act of Settlement. Even though Leibniz had done much to bring about this happy event, it was not to be his hour of glory. Despite the intercession of the Princess of Wales, Caroline of Ansbach, George I forbade Leibniz to join him in London until he completed at least one volume of
1710-467: A university education in philosophy. He was influenced by his Leipzig professor Jakob Thomasius , who also supervised his BA thesis in philosophy. Leibniz also read Francisco Suárez , a Spanish Jesuit respected even in Lutheran universities. Leibniz was deeply interested in the new methods and conclusions of Descartes, Huygens, Newton, and Boyle , but the established philosophical ideas in which he
1800-462: A vast correspondence. He began working on calculus in 1674; the earliest evidence of its use in his surviving notebooks is 1675. By 1677 he had a coherent system in hand, but did not publish it until 1684. Leibniz's most important mathematical papers were published between 1682 and 1692, usually in a journal which he and Otto Mencke founded in 1682, the Acta Eruditorum . That journal played
1890-438: A volume that unites the three most important older biographies of Wolff. An excellent modern edition of the famous Halle speech on Chinese philosophy is: Gottfried Leibniz Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz or Leibnitz (1 July 1646 [ O.S. 21 June] – 14 November 1716) was a German polymath active as a mathematician , philosopher , scientist and diplomat who is credited, alongside Sir Isaac Newton , with
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#17327866108661980-594: A wide variety of advanced philosophical and theological works—ones that he would not have otherwise been able to read until his college years. Access to his father's library, largely written in Latin , also led to his proficiency in the Latin language, which he achieved by the age of 12. At the age of 13 he composed 300 hexameters of Latin verse in a single morning for a special event at school. In April 1661 he enrolled in his father's former university at age 14. There he
2070-555: Is best known to philosophical students by Kant's treatment of it in the Critique of Pure Reason . In the "Preface" of the 2nd edition of Kant's book, Wolff is defined as "the greatest of all dogmatic philosophers." Wolff was read by Søren Kierkegaard 's father, Michael Pedersen. Kierkegaard himself was influenced by both Wolff and Kant to the point of resuming the tripartite structure and philosophical content to formulate his own three Stages on Life's Way . Wolff saw ontology as
2160-475: Is exercised within natural laws, where choices are merely contingently necessary and to be decided in the event by a "wonderful spontaneity" that provides individuals with an escape from rigorous predestination. For Leibniz, "God is an absolutely perfect being". He describes this perfection later in section VI as the simplest form of something with the most substantial outcome (VI). Along these lines, he declares that every type of perfection "pertains to him (God) in
2250-410: Is force, while space , matter , and motion are merely phenomenal. He argued, against Newton, that space , time , and motion are completely relative: "As for my own opinion, I have said more than once, that I hold space to be something merely relative, as time is, that I hold it to be an order of coexistences, as time is an order of successions." Einstein, who called himself a "Leibnizian", wrote in
2340-535: Is made of an infinite number of simple substances known as monads. Monads can also be compared to the corpuscles of the mechanical philosophy of René Descartes and others. These simple substances or monads are the "ultimate units of existence in nature". Monads have no parts but still exist by the qualities that they have. These qualities are continuously changing over time, and each monad is unique. They are also not affected by time and are subject to only creation and annihilation. Monads are centers of force ; substance
2430-486: Is the realization of human perfection —seen realistically as the kind of perfection the human person actually can achieve in the world in which we live. It is perhaps the combination of Enlightenment optimism and worldly realism that made Wolff so successful and popular as a teacher of future statesmen and business leaders. Wolff's most important works are as follows: Wolff's complete writings have been published since 1962 in an annotated reprint collection: This includes
2520-518: The Leibniz wheel , later used in the arithmometer , the first mass-produced mechanical calculator. In philosophy and theology , Leibniz is most noted for his optimism , i.e. his conclusion that our world is, in a qualified sense, the best possible world that God could have created , a view sometimes lampooned by other thinkers, such as Voltaire in his satirical novella Candide . Leibniz, along with René Descartes and Baruch Spinoza ,
2610-594: The Thirty Years' War had left German-speaking Europe exhausted, fragmented, and economically backward. Leibniz proposed to protect German-speaking Europe by distracting Louis as follows: France would be invited to take Egypt as a stepping stone towards an eventual conquest of the Dutch East Indies . In return, France would agree to leave Germany and the Netherlands undisturbed. This plan obtained
2700-557: The Théodicée of 1710 was published in his lifetime. Leibniz dated his beginning as a philosopher to his Discourse on Metaphysics , which he composed in 1686 as a commentary on a running dispute between Nicolas Malebranche and Antoine Arnauld . This led to an extensive correspondence with Arnauld; it and the Discourse were not published until the 19th century. In 1695, Leibniz made his public entrée into European philosophy with
2790-568: The University of Halle . By this time he had made the acquaintance of Gottfried Leibniz (the two men engaged in an epistolary correspondence ), of whose philosophy his own system is a modified version. At Halle, Wolff at first restricted himself to mathematics, but on the departure of a colleague, he added physics, and soon included all the main philosophical disciplines. However, the claims Wolff advanced on behalf of philosophical reason appeared impious to his theological colleagues. Halle
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2880-454: The calculus priority dispute which darkened the remainder of Leibniz's life. A formal investigation by the Royal Society (in which Newton was an unacknowledged participant), undertaken in response to Leibniz's demand for a retraction, upheld Keill's charge. Historians of mathematics writing since 1900 or so have tended to acquit Leibniz, pointing to important differences between Leibniz's and Newton's versions of calculus. In 1712, Leibniz began
2970-450: The history of philosophy and the history of mathematics . He wrote works on philosophy , theology , ethics , politics , law , history , philology , games , music , and other studies. Leibniz also made major contributions to physics and technology , and anticipated notions that surfaced much later in probability theory , biology , medicine , geology , psychology , linguistics and computer science . Leibniz contributed to
3060-430: The principle of sufficient reason is once more discarded in favor of the principle of contradiction which Wolff seeks to make the fundamental principle of philosophy. Wolff had philosophy divided into a theoretical and a practical part. Logic, sometimes called philosophia rationalis , forms the introduction or propaedeutics to both. Theoretical philosophy had for its parts ontology or philosophia prima as
3150-410: The principle of sufficient reason . Using the principle of reasoning, Leibniz concluded that the first reason of all things is God. All that we see and experience is subject to change, and the fact that this world is contingent can be explained by the possibility of the world being arranged differently in space and time. The contingent world must have some necessary reason for its existence. Leibniz uses
3240-410: The 20th century, Leibniz's notions of the law of continuity and transcendental law of homogeneity found a consistent mathematical formulation by means of non-standard analysis . He was also a pioneer in the field of mechanical calculators . While working on adding automatic multiplication and division to Pascal's calculator , he was the first to describe a pinwheel calculator in 1685 and invented
3330-526: The British. Thus Leibniz went to Paris in 1672. Soon after arriving, he met Dutch physicist and mathematician Christiaan Huygens and realised that his own knowledge of mathematics and physics was patchy. With Huygens as his mentor, he began a program of self-study that soon pushed him to making major contributions to both subjects, including discovering his version of the differential and integral calculus . He met Nicolas Malebranche and Antoine Arnauld ,
3420-771: The Chinese" (Eng. tr. 1750), in which he praised the purity of the moral precepts of Confucius , pointing to them as an evidence of the power of human reason to reach moral truth by its own efforts. On 12 July 1723, Wolff held a lecture for students and the magistrates at the end of his term as a rector. Wolff compared, based on books by the Flemish missionaries François Noël (1651–1729) and Philippe Couplet (1623–1693), Moses, Christ, and Mohammed with Confucius. According to Voltaire , Prof. August Hermann Francke had been teaching in an empty classroom but Wolff attracted with his lectures around 1,000 students from all over. In
3510-614: The Combinatorial Art ), the first part of which was also his habilitation thesis in Philosophy, which he defended in March 1666. De Arte Combinatoria was inspired by Ramon Llull 's Ars Magna and contained a proof of the existence of God , cast in geometrical form, and based on the argument from motion . His next goal was to earn his license and Doctorate in Law, which normally required three years of study. In 1666,
3600-584: The Elector in the hope of obtaining employment. The stratagem worked; the Elector asked Leibniz to assist with the redrafting of the legal code for the Electorate. In 1669, Leibniz was appointed assessor in the Court of Appeal. Although von Boyneburg died late in 1672, Leibniz remained under the employment of his widow until she dismissed him in 1674. Von Boyneburg did much to promote Leibniz's reputation, and
3690-689: The Elector's cautious support. In 1672, the French government invited Leibniz to Paris for discussion, but the plan was soon overtaken by the outbreak of the Franco-Dutch War and became irrelevant. Napoleon's failed invasion of Egypt in 1798 can be seen as an unwitting, late implementation of Leibniz's plan, after the Eastern hemisphere colonial supremacy in Europe had already passed from the Dutch to
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3780-437: The Elector's death (12 February 1673) reached them. Leibniz promptly returned to Paris and not, as had been planned, to Mainz. The sudden deaths of his two patrons in the same winter meant that Leibniz had to find a new basis for his career. In this regard, a 1669 invitation from Duke John Frederick of Brunswick to visit Hanover proved to have been fateful. Leibniz had declined the invitation, but had begun corresponding with
3870-527: The Protestant principalities. Wolff personally expedited their introduction inside Hesse-Cassel. The Wolffian system retains the determinism and optimism of Leibniz , but the monadology recedes into the background, the monads falling asunder into souls or conscious beings on the one hand and mere atoms on the other. The doctrine of the pre-established harmony also loses its metaphysical significance (while remaining an important heuristic device), and
3960-693: The Russian Tsar Peter the Great stopped in Bad Pyrmont and met Leibniz, who took interest in Russian matters since 1708 and was appointed advisor in 1711. Leibniz died in Hanover in 1716. At the time, he was so out of favor that neither George I (who happened to be near Hanover at that time) nor any fellow courtier other than his personal secretary attended the funeral. Even though Leibniz
4050-795: The University of Leipzig turned down Leibniz's doctoral application and refused to grant him a Doctorate in Law, most likely due to his relative youth. Leibniz subsequently left Leipzig. Leibniz then enrolled in the University of Altdorf and quickly submitted a thesis, which he had probably been working on earlier in Leipzig. The title of his thesis was Disputatio Inauguralis de Casibus Perplexis in Jure ( Inaugural Disputation on Ambiguous Legal Cases ). Leibniz earned his license to practice law and his Doctorate in Law in November 1666. He next declined
4140-416: The best of all masters" and he will know when his good succeeds, so we, therefore, must act in conformity to his good will—or as much of it as we understand (IV). In our view of God, Leibniz declares that we cannot admire the work solely because of the maker, lest we mar the glory and love God in doing so. Instead, we must admire the maker for the work he has done (II). Effectively, Leibniz states that if we say
4230-401: The consort of her grandson, the future George II . To each of these women he was correspondent, adviser, and friend. In turn, they all approved of Leibniz more than did their spouses and the future king George I of Great Britain . The population of Hanover was only about 10,000, and its provinciality eventually grated on Leibniz. Nevertheless, to be a major courtier to the House of Brunswick
4320-573: The duke in 1671. In 1673, the duke offered Leibniz the post of counsellor. Leibniz very reluctantly accepted the position two years later, only after it became clear that no employment was forthcoming in Paris, whose intellectual stimulation he relished, or with the Habsburg imperial court. In 1675 he tried to get admitted to the French Academy of Sciences as a foreign honorary member, but it
4410-582: The exercise of their free will . God does not arbitrarily inflict pain and suffering on humans; rather he permits both moral evil (sin) and physical evil (pain and suffering) as the necessary consequences of metaphysical evil (imperfection), as a means by which humans can identify and correct their erroneous decisions, and as a contrast to true good. Further, although human actions flow from prior causes that ultimately arise in God and therefore are known to God as metaphysical certainties, an individual's free will
4500-577: The fair sum he left to his sole heir, his sister's stepson, proved that the Brunswicks had paid him fairly well. In his diplomatic endeavors, he at times verged on the unscrupulous, as was often the case with professional diplomats of his day. On several occasions, Leibniz backdated and altered personal manuscripts, actions which put him in a bad light during the calculus controversy . He was charming, well-mannered, and not without humor and imagination. He had many friends and admirers all over Europe. He
4590-436: The field of library science by developing a cataloguing system while working at the Herzog August Library in Wolfenbüttel , Germany, that served as a model for many of Europe's largest libraries. His contributions to a wide range of subjects were scattered in various learned journals , in tens of thousands of letters and in unpublished manuscripts. He wrote in several languages, primarily in Latin, French and German. As
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#17327866108664680-547: The first acts of his son and successor, Frederick the Great , was to acquire him for the Prussian Academy. Wolff refused, but accepted on 10 September 1740 an appointment in Halle. His entry into the town on 6 December 1740 took on the character of a triumphal procession. In 1743, he became chancellor of the university, and in 1745, he received the title of Freiherr ( Baron ) from the Elector of Bavaria , possibly
4770-523: The first scholar to have been created hereditary Baron of the Holy Roman Empire on the basis of his academic work. When Wolff died on 9 April 1754, he was a very wealthy man, owing almost entirely to his income from lecture-fees, salaries, and royalties. He was also a member of many academies. His school, the Wolffians, was the first school in the philosophical sense to be associated with
4860-454: The follow-up, Wolff was accused by Francke of fatalism and atheism, and ousted in 1723 from his first chair at Halle in one of the most celebrated academic dramas of the 18th century. His successors were Joachim Lange , a pietist, and his son, who had gained the ear of the king Frederick William I . (They claimed to the king if Wolff's determinism were recognized, no soldier who deserted could be punished as he would have acted only as it
4950-422: The highest degree" (I). Even though his types of perfections are not specifically drawn out, Leibniz highlights the one thing that, to him, does certify imperfections and proves that God is perfect: "that one acts imperfectly if he acts with less perfection than he is capable of", and since God is a perfect being, he cannot act imperfectly (III). Because God cannot act imperfectly, the decisions he makes pertaining to
5040-531: The history of the Brunswick family his father had commissioned nearly 30 years earlier. Moreover, for George I to include Leibniz in his London court would have been deemed insulting to Newton, who was seen as having won the calculus priority dispute and whose standing in British official circles could not have been higher. Finally, his dear friend and defender, the Dowager Electress Sophia, died in 1714. In 1716, while traveling in northern Europe,
5130-487: The introduction to Max Jammer 's book Concepts of Space that Leibnizianism was superior to Newtonianism, and his ideas would have dominated over Newton's had it not been for the poor technological tools of the time; Joseph Agassi argues that Leibniz paved the way for Einstein's theory of relativity . Leibniz's proof of God can be summarized in the Théodicée . Reason is governed by the principle of contradiction and
5220-485: The invention of calculus in addition to many other branches of mathematics , such as binary arithmetic, and statistics . Leibniz has been called the "last universal genius" due to his knowledge and skills in different fields and because such people became much less common after his lifetime with the coming of the Industrial Revolution and the spread of specialized labor. He is a prominent figure in both
5310-508: The journey from London to Hanover, Leibniz stopped in The Hague where he met van Leeuwenhoek , the discoverer of microorganisms. He also spent several days in intense discussion with Spinoza , who had just completed, but had not published, his masterwork, the Ethics . Spinoza died very shortly after Leibniz's visit. In 1677, he was promoted, at his request, to Privy Counselor of Justice,
5400-624: The latter's memoranda and letters began to attract favorable notice. After Leibniz's service to the Elector there soon followed a diplomatic role. He published an essay, under the pseudonym of a fictitious Polish nobleman, arguing (unsuccessfully) for the German candidate for the Polish crown. The main force in European geopolitics during Leibniz's adult life was the ambition of Louis XIV of France , backed by French military and economic might. Meanwhile,
5490-400: The leading French philosophers of the day, and studied the writings of Descartes and Pascal , unpublished as well as published. He befriended a German mathematician, Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus ; they corresponded for the rest of their lives. When it became clear that France would not implement its part of Leibniz's Egyptian plan, the Elector sent his nephew, escorted by Leibniz, on
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#17327866108665580-582: The link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Christian_Wolff&oldid=1184627716 " Category : Human name disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Christian Wolff (philosopher) Christian Wolff (less correctly Wolf , German: [vɔlf] ; also known as Wolfius ; ennobled as Christian Freiherr von Wolff in 1745; 24 January 1679 – 9 April 1754)
5670-450: The main character in the 2016 American action thriller film The Accountant See also [ edit ] Christian Wolf , board game designer Christian Wulff (born 1959), president of Germany, 2010–2012 Christian Wulff (disambiguation) [REDACTED] Topics referred to by the same term This disambiguation page lists articles about people with the same name. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change
5760-790: The most significant cultural confrontations of the 18th century and perhaps the most important of the Enlightenment in Central Europe and the Baltic countries before the French Revolution." Prussian crown prince Frederick defended Wolff against Joachim Lange and ordered the Berlin minister Jean Deschamps, a former pupil of Wolff, to translate Vernünftige Gedanken von Gott, der Welt und der Seele des Menschen, auch allen Dingen überhaupt into French. Frederick proposed to send
5850-432: The nature of a being and are therefore necessary properties of this being. Attributes are determinations that follow from essentialia and are equally necessary, in contrast to modes , which are merely contingent. Wolff conceives existence as just one determination among others, which a being may lack. Ontology is interested in being at large, not just in actual being. But all beings, whether actually existing or not, have
5940-496: The next Elector became quite annoyed at Leibniz's apparent dilatoriness. Leibniz never finished the project, in part because of his huge output on many other fronts, but also because he insisted on writing a meticulously researched and erudite book based on archival sources, when his patrons would have been quite happy with a short popular book, one perhaps little more than a genealogy with commentary, to be completed in three years or less. They never knew that he had in fact carried out
6030-483: The offer of an academic appointment at Altdorf, saying that "my thoughts were turned in an entirely different direction". As an adult, Leibniz often introduced himself as "Gottfried von Leibniz". Many posthumously published editions of his writings presented his name on the title page as " Freiherr G. W. von Leibniz." However, no document has ever been found from any contemporary government that stated his appointment to any form of nobility . Leibniz's first position
6120-510: The only way we can truly love God is by being content "with all that comes to us according to his will" (IV). Because God is "an absolutely perfect being" (I), Leibniz argues that God would be acting imperfectly if he acted with any less perfection than what he is able of (III). His syllogism then ends with the statement that God has made the world perfectly in all ways. This also affects how we should view God and his will. Leibniz states that, in lieu of God's will, we have to understand that God "is
6210-644: The period. Leibniz began promoting a project to use windmills to improve the mining operations in the Harz Mountains. This project did little to improve mining operations and was shut down by Duke Ernst August in 1685. Among the few people in north Germany to accept Leibniz were the Electress Sophia of Hanover (1630–1714), her daughter Sophia Charlotte of Hanover (1668–1705), the Queen of Prussia and his avowed disciple, and Caroline of Ansbach ,
6300-426: The principle of pre-established harmony , each monad follows a pre-programmed set of "instructions" peculiar to itself, so that a monad "knows" what to do at each moment. By virtue of these intrinsic instructions, each monad is like a little mirror of the universe. Monads need not be "small"; e.g., each human being constitutes a monad, in which case free will is problematic. Monads are purported to have gotten rid of
6390-531: The problematic: The Theodicy tries to justify the apparent imperfections of the world by claiming that it is optimal among all possible worlds . It must be the best possible and most balanced world, because it was created by an all powerful and all knowing God, who would not choose to create an imperfect world if a better world could be known to him or possible to exist. In effect, apparent flaws that can be identified in this world must exist in every possible world, because otherwise God would have chosen to create
6480-455: The professional nature of university education. Wolff was born in Breslau , Silesia (now Wrocław , Poland), into a modest family. He studied mathematics and physics at the University of Jena , soon adding philosophy. In 1703, he qualified as Privatdozent at Leipzig University , where he lectured until 1706, when he was called as professor of mathematics and natural philosophy to
6570-527: The term " possible world " to define modal notions. Gottfried Leibniz was born on July 1 [ OS : June 21], 1646, in Leipzig , Saxony, to Friedrich Leibniz (1597–1652) and Catharina Schmuck (1621–1664). He was baptized two days later at St. Nicholas Church, Leipzig ; his godfather was the Lutheran theologian Martin Geier [ de ] . His father died when he was six years old, and Leibniz
6660-602: The view of Leibniz, because reason and faith must be entirely reconciled, any tenet of faith which could not be defended by reason must be rejected. Leibniz then approached one of the central criticisms of Christian theism: if God is all good , all wise , and all powerful , then how did evil come into the world ? The answer (according to Leibniz) is that, while God is indeed unlimited in wisdom and power, his human creations, as creations, are limited both in their wisdom and in their will (power to act). This predisposes humans to false beliefs, wrong decisions, and ineffective actions in
6750-423: The world must be perfect. Leibniz also comforts readers, stating that because he has done everything to the most perfect degree; those who love him cannot be injured. However, to love God is a subject of difficulty as Leibniz believes that we are "not disposed to wish for that which God desires" because we have the ability to alter our disposition (IV). In accordance with this, many act as rebels, but Leibniz says that
6840-406: The world that excluded those flaws. Leibniz asserted that the truths of theology (religion) and philosophy cannot contradict each other, since reason and faith are both "gifts of God" so that their conflict would imply God contending against himself. The Theodicy is Leibniz's attempt to reconcile his personal philosophical system with his interpretation of the tenets of Christianity. This project
6930-754: Was a German philosopher . Wolff is characterized as one of the most eminent German philosophers between Leibniz and Kant . His life work spanned almost every scholarly subject of his time, displayed and unfolded according to his demonstrative- deductive , mathematical method, which some deem the peak of Enlightenment rationality in Germany. Wolff wrote in German as his primary language of scholarly instruction and research, although he did translate his works into Latin for his transnational European audience. A founding father of, among other fields, economics and public administration as academic disciplines, he concentrated especially in these fields, giving advice on practical matters to people in government, and stressing
7020-770: Was a life member of the Royal Society and the Berlin Academy of Sciences , neither organization saw fit to honor his death. His grave went unmarked for more than 50 years. He was, however, eulogized by Fontenelle , before the French Academy of Sciences in Paris, which had admitted him as a foreign member in 1700. The eulogy was composed at the behest of the Duchess of Orleans , a niece of the Electress Sophia. Leibniz never married. He proposed to an unknown woman at age 50, but changed his mind when she took too long to decide. He complained on occasion about money, but
7110-593: Was as a salaried secretary to an alchemical society in Nuremberg . He knew fairly little about the subject at that time but presented himself as deeply learned. He soon met Johann Christian von Boyneburg (1622–1672), the dismissed chief minister of the Elector of Mainz , Johann Philipp von Schönborn . Von Boyneburg hired Leibniz as an assistant, and shortly thereafter reconciled with the Elector and introduced Leibniz to him. Leibniz then dedicated an essay on law to
7200-558: Was considered that there were already enough foreigners there and so no invitation came. He left Paris in October 1676. Leibniz managed to delay his arrival in Hanover until the end of 1676 after making one more short journey to London, where Newton accused him of having seen his unpublished work on calculus in advance. This was alleged to be evidence supporting the accusation, made decades later, that he had stolen calculus from Newton. On
7290-466: Was educated influenced his view of their work. Leibniz variously invoked one or another of seven fundamental philosophical Principles: Leibniz would on occasion give a rational defense of a specific principle, but more often took them for granted. Leibniz's best known contribution to metaphysics is his theory of monads , as exposited in Monadologie . He proposes his theory that the universe
7380-661: Was guided, among others, by Jakob Thomasius , previously a student of Friedrich. Leibniz completed his bachelor's degree in Philosophy in December 1662. He defended his Disputatio Metaphysica de Principio Individui ( Metaphysical Disputation on the Principle of Individuation ), which addressed the principle of individuation , on 9 June 1663 [ O.S. 30 May], presenting an early version of monadic substance theory. Leibniz earned his master's degree in Philosophy on 7 February 1664. In December 1664 he published and defended
7470-438: Was identified as a Protestant and a philosophical theist . Leibniz remained committed to Trinitarian Christianity throughout his life. Leibniz's philosophical thinking appears fragmented because his philosophical writings consist mainly of a multitude of short pieces: journal articles, manuscripts published long after his death, and letters to correspondents. He wrote two book-length philosophical treatises, of which only
7560-668: Was motivated in part by Leibniz's belief, shared by many philosophers and theologians during the Enlightenment , in the rational and enlightened nature of the Christian religion. It was also shaped by Leibniz's belief in the perfectibility of human nature (if humanity relied on correct philosophy and religion as a guide), and by his belief that metaphysical necessity must have a rational or logical foundation, even if this metaphysical causality seemed inexplicable in terms of physical necessity (the natural laws identified by science). In
7650-399: Was necessarily predetermined that he should, which so enraged the king that he immediately deprived Wolff of his office, and ordered Wolff to leave Prussian territory within 48 hours or be hanged.) The same day, Wolff passed into Saxony, and presently proceeded to Marburg , Hesse-Kassel , to whose university (the University of Marburg ) he had received a call even before this crisis, which
7740-412: Was now renewed. The Landgrave of Hesse received him with every mark of distinction, and the circumstances of his expulsion drew universal attention to his philosophy. It was everywhere discussed, and over two hundred books and pamphlets appeared for or against it before 1737, not reckoning the systematic treatises of Wolff and his followers. According to Jonathan I. Israel , "the conflict became one of
7830-403: Was one of the three influential early modern rationalists . His philosophy also assimilates elements of the scholastic tradition, notably the assumption that some substantive knowledge of reality can be achieved by reasoning from first principles or prior definitions. The work of Leibniz anticipated modern logic and still influences contemporary analytic philosophy , such as its adopted use of
7920-489: Was quite an honor, especially in light of the meteoric rise in the prestige of that House during Leibniz's association with it. In 1692, the Duke of Brunswick became a hereditary Elector of the Holy Roman Empire . The British Act of Settlement 1701 designated the Electress Sophia and her descent as the royal family of England, once both King William III and his sister-in-law and successor, Queen Anne , were dead. Leibniz played
8010-437: Was raised by his mother. Leibniz's father had been a Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Leipzig , where he also served as dean of philosophy. The boy inherited his father's personal library. He was given free access to it from the age of seven, shortly after his father's death. While Leibniz's schoolwork was largely confined to the study of a small canon of authorities, his father's library enabled him to study
8100-530: Was the headquarters of Pietism , which, after a long struggle against Lutheran dogmatism , had assumed the characteristics of a new orthodoxy. Wolff's professed ideal was to base theological truths on mathematically certain evidence. Strife with the Pietists broke out openly in 1721, when Wolff, on the occasion of stepping down as pro-rector, delivered an oration "On the Practical Philosophy of
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