Christian Wolff 1679 – 1754
Christian Wolff was a German philosopher, mathematician, and the most influential continental rationalist between Leibniz and Kant. He developed a vast, systematic philosophy in German and in Latin organized around the principle of sufficient reason, distinguishing empirical and rational psychology, theology, ontology, and cosmology in a way that long shaped the curriculum of the German universities. Expelled from Halle in 1723 by King Frederick William I after pietist denunciations of his philosophy, he was triumphantly recalled by Frederick the Great in 1740. Kant studied his work in depth as a student.
Key facts
- Nationality
- German
- Era
- Modern
- Movements
- Rationalism, Enlightenment
Selected quotes
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Attributed to Christian Wolff:
“Philosophy is the science of all possible things insofar as they can be.”
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Attributed to Christian Wolff:
“Nothing exists without a sufficient reason for its being so rather than otherwise.”
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Attributed to Christian Wolff:
“Mathematics is the model of all genuine science.”
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Attributed to Christian Wolff:
“We must distinguish in order to unite.”
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Attributed to Christian Wolff:
“Reason and experience together yield the certainty of natural philosophy.”