Page:History of Modern Philosophy (Falckenberg).djvu/318

 296 WOLFF. human sciences busy themselves only with our ideas or the relations of things to us. 2. Christian Wolff. Christian Wolff was born at Breslau in 1679, studied theology at Jena, and in addition mathematics and phil- osophy, habilitated at Leipsic in 1703, and obtained, through the instrumentality of Leibnitz, a professor- ship of mathematics at Halle, in 1706. His lectures, which soon extended themselves over all philosophical disciplines, met with great success. This popularity, as well as the rationalistic tendency of his thinking, aroused the disfavor of the pietists, Francke and Lange, who succeeded, in 1723, in securing from King Frederick William I. his removal from his chair and his expulsion from the kingdom. Finding a refuge in Marburg, he was called back to Halle by Frederick the Great a short time after the latter's ascension of the throne. Here he taught and wrote zealously until his death in 1754. In his lectures, as well as in half of his writings,* he followed the example of Thomasius in using the German language, which he prepared in a most praiseworthy manner for the expression of philosophical ideas and furnished with a large part of the technical terms current to-day. Thus the terms Ver- hdltniss (relation), Vorstellung (representation, idea), Bewusstsein (consciousness), stetig {continuus), come from Wolff, as well as the distinction between Kraft (power) and Vernwgen (faculty), and between Grund (ground) and Ursache (cause), f Another great service consisted in the Reasonable Thoughts on God, the World, and the Soul of Man, also on All Things in General, ijiq {Notes to this 1724); Reasonable Thoughts on the Conduct of Man, 1720; Reasonable Thoughts on the Social Life of Man, 1721 ; Reasonable Thoughts on t/ie Operations of Nature, 1723 ; Reasonable Thoughts on the Purposes of Natural Things, 1724 ; Reasonable Thoughts on the Parts of Man, Animals, and Plants, 1725, all in German. Besides these there are extensive Latin treatises (1728-53) on Logic, Ontology, Cosmology, Empirical and Rational Psychology, Natural Theology, and all branches of Practical Philosophy. Detailed extracts may be found in Erdmann's Versueh einer wissenschaftlichen Darstellung, ii. 2. The best account of the Wolffian philosophy has been given by Zeller (pp. 211-273). f Eucken, Geschichte der Terminologie, pp. 133-134. i
 * Reasonable Thoughts on the Powers of the Human Understandings V2 ',