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Who Was Afraid of Wolff’s Psychology? The Historical Context

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The Force of an Idea

Part of the book series: Studies in History and Philosophy of Science ((AUST,volume 50))

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Abstract

Christian Wolff has a bad reputation. There is at least wide agreement that he was the least interesting thinker. The question arises why—if he was so boring—his opponents still got so excited about him. I will explore the historical context of the intense and long-lasting public debates about Wolff throughout the first half of the eighteenth century and the institutional background of the major participants. What caused the hatred and excitement of theologians above all was Wolff’s psychology. They saw it as a threat to Christian theology because it was based on the Leibniz-Wolffian doctrine of pre-established harmony between mind and body. Instead, they defended the traditional influxus physicus between mind and body to secure the free choice of the will (and thereby absolute responsibility of every individual) and to avoid the deterministic implications of pre-established harmony. To overcome the strong resistance of theologians who were supported by political power in all German states, Wolff and his partisans successfully used and developed the public space as a counter power using journals and newspapers.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    This is from the newspaper’s review of Wolff’s Psychologia rationalis (Neue Gelehrte Zeitungen, April 15th, 1734, pp. 269–270, here p. 270). This is my translation, just as all other translations from German sources, if not mentioned otherwise.

  2. 2.

    Hegel (1770–1831), in an extremely short presentation of Wolff, somehow shaped the final judgment about Wolff up to our canon of the history of philosophy (Hegel, 1986, pp. 136–139). Lewis White Beck simply repeats (Beck, 1969), sometimes literally, what had been said by Hegel. Neither of the two seems to have studied Wolff.

  3. 3.

    The best edition of Wolff’s China lecture has been produced by Michael Albrecht (Wolff, 1726/1985a), containing a rich and instructive commentary about the circumstances and the research level about China at the time. For an English translation see Ching and Oxtoby (1992).

  4. 4.

    He authored the articles “Christian Wolff” (Zedler, 1731–1754, vol. 58, columns 546–677), “Wertheimische Bibel” (Zedler, 1731–1754, vol. 55, columns 595–662), and “Wolfische Philosophie” (Zedler, 1731–1754, vol. 58, columns 883–1232).

  5. 5.

    This shall be said against Jonathan Israel’s superficial subsumption of Wolff as a moderate enlightener (Goldenbaum, 2014).

  6. 6.

    Martin Welke estimates about 250,000 regular readers of newspapers in Germany at the beginning of the eighteenth century and half a million readers in the middle of the century. In 1808, the 8000 copies of The Times were topped by 56,000 copies of the Hamburgische Correspondent (Welke, 1981). For Hamburg, see also Böning & Moepps, 1996.

  7. 7.

    The discussion of free will is getting momentum again, due to new results of neuroscience. There appeared already an Oxford Handbook of Free Will (Kane, 2002). The controversial positions are presented less aggressively today but the discussion is quite heated too.

  8. 8.

    Lange warned students already to attend Wolff’s lectures on mathematics. He planned a refutation of Wolff‘s German Metaphysics right after its publication (Hartmann, 1737/1973, pp. 401–402).

  9. 9.

    Emmanuel Hirsch speaks of an “Empire-wide General Mobilization” (Hirsch, 1951, p. 432). Even the long-lasting battles between orthodox and Pietist theologians came now to a stop (Goldenbaum, 2004, pp. 265–266).

  10. 10.

    Historians who wonder about such redundancy are unaware of the pressure to express one’s agreement with the official position of the church (Watkins, 1998, p. 148).

  11. 11.

    Wolff had received the offer from Marburg before the ban due to the intention of Landgraf Carl I of Hessen to thoroughgoingly improve his University (Kertscher, 2018, pp. 142–147, 146–147). The number of students grew from 60 to 70 before Wolff’s arrival up to 174 in 1727. Wolff got another offer from the University Leipzig right at his arrival in Marburg.

  12. 12.

    An outstanding example is Johann Friedrich Bertram (1699–1741), a former student of Lange who published against Wolff on behalf of Lange to show Wolff’s connection with the Wertheimer, simply because Lange was forbidden to continue his polemics (Goldenbaum, 2004, pp. 337–344).

  13. 13.

    The Royal order about a ban of the Wertheim Bible was given by the king on May 27, 1736. At the end of May, the statements of Lange, Reinbeck, and Wolff pro and con Wolff’s philosophy appeared as Nouvelles pieces sur les erreurs prétendues de la philosophie de Mons. Wolff (New Pieces about the Alleged Errors of Mr. Wolff’s Philosophy) (Wolff, 1736/1985b). Reinbeck, in the third part of his Betrachtungen zur Augsburger Konfession (Consideration about the Confession of Augsburg) (Reinbeck, 1736), distances himself from the Wertheim Bible. The Royal ban against the Wertheim Bible goes out to all governments in Prussia and to all book sellers on June 2nd. On the very same day, the king sent a request to the Reichshofrat (Councilor of the Empire) in Vienna to ban the Wertheim Bible within the Empire. On June 5th, 1736, the Royal Commission gathered and lifted the ban against Wolff’s philosophy, based on the statements mentioned above. They concluded their case by June 17th respectively 22nd, judging that Lange’s accusations were baseless (Ludovici, 1737/1976, pp. 126–154). Also, in 1736, Reinbeck’s third volume of the Betrachtungen (Reinbeck, 1736) came out. The preface contains a rejection of the Wertheim Bible in the paragraphs 7–10.

  14. 14.

    While §.2 of the Constitution asked for agreement among all professors about Christian doctrine, nobody was permitted to attack another in public. Rather, possible disagreement should be reported to the provost who was supposed to gather all professors to talks (instead of publishing) (Hinrichs, 1971, pp. 403–404).

  15. 15.

    The number of students in Marburg increased such that the University’s lecture halls did not suffice to place them (Kertscher, 2018, pp. 159–160).

  16. 16.

    There exists a report by the supervising government at Magdeburg, on the request of the Royal court at Berlin from 1730 about the Decline of the University of Halle (GStA PK, Rep. 52. 159. N. 1), pointing to a number of only 722 students in contrast to 1000 in the decade before. In comparison, Frankfurt a.O. had 190 in 1716, Königsberg 400, and Duisburg 163 (GstA PK, Rep. 51.34). In contrast, the University of Marburg had never more than 200 students and hardly from other territories than Hessen before 1724, but had more than 300 in 1727, among them many foreign students (Heer, 1927, p. 9).

  17. 17.

    Theologians had not only the power to decide who was a heretic but also the political network, and at times even the ear of the king. For Joachim Lange’s extended network to the Prussian court see (Goldenbaum, 2004, pp. 222–233, 270–279). On the other hand, Friedrich Wilhelm I (1688–1740) saw Pietist theologians as a political tool to enforce his absolutist power against the local estates (Hinrichs, 1971, pp. 216–300, p. 432).

  18. 18.

    Watkins emphasizes the rapidity of the exchange of polemic writings, their length, and redundant character (Watkins, 1998, p. 149). This is easily explained though, first, by the then-common methodus polemica according to which one had to present the argument of the opponent before refuting it exhaustively (Zedler, 1731–1754, vol. 20, columns 13–37). The redundancy follows from the duty of all theologians to declare their position in the battle—no matter whether one had new arguments.

  19. 19.

    Already in his German Metaphysics, Wolff (1751/1983a) points out that, at the beginning, he wanted to leave out the question of pre-established harmony since it could not be demonstrated, neither a priori nor a posteriori. In his Gründliche Antwort (Thoroughgoing Response) from 1724 though, i.e., in his response to his accuser written from Marburg, Wolff de-emphasized the importance of pre-established harmony for his philosophical system (Wolff, 1724/1980a, ad §.12). I cannot understand how Watkins would see this as Wolff moving away from Leibniz. He must completely ignore the political circumstances for such softening of Wolff’s language (Watkins, 1998, pp. 140–142).

  20. 20.

    Gottsched argued: “None of the three [explanations of the relation between body and soul] is completely explained or demonstrated; each of them still has its difficulties: Thus each person can maintain whichever one is most pleasing” (Gottsched, 1762/1983, §.1077). I do not see here any support in favor of the doctrine of influxus physicus; rather it is the attempt to escape the pressure to embrace influxus physicus. Watkins muses about the inconsisteny of Gottscheds positions on pre-established harmony in the course of those years, completely ignoring the changing “political weather” which made the term more or less of a theological taboo, even after Wolff’s victory in 1736 (Watkins, 1998, pp. 170–174).

  21. 21.

    Gottsched reported to Reinbeck that―in contrast to students of law―theology students did not dare to attend his lectures because they were afraid of not finding a position in church (Döring, 1999, p. 72).

  22. 22.

    Since Hegel, Alexander Baumgarten (1714–1762) and Meier (1718–1777) are usually considered as Wolffians although they were not even in contact with Wolff when they lived in the same city. Both keep the term “pre-established harmony” but hold on to the possibility of the soul’s influence on the body and vice versa―to save free will as liberum arbitrium. Watkins though uncritically follows Beck and Hegel (Watkins, 1998, pp. 183–191).

  23. 23.

    Such resistance from the “magistri legentes” happened even in Halle, see (Hartmann, 1737/1973, pp. 822–825). That is why Lange would try to destroy the career of two such graduate students in Jena, Darjes (1714–1791) and Carpov (1699–1768), denouncing them as Wolffians and immoral people, in the second edition of his Religionsspötter (The Mocker of Religion) (Lange, 1736; Goldenbaum, 2004, p. 179, pp. 236–237, 477–478).

  24. 24.

    Hammerstein, focusing on professors only, falsely concludes that Wolff’s influence in the first half of the eighteenth century had been exaggerated (Hammerstein, 1983, pp. 266–277).

  25. 25.

    An exception was a review of the Wertheim Bible. About the difficulties of the editor of the journal to solve the problem: to publish a rejection of the book due to political pressure without losing one’s pro-Wolffian high reputation (Goldenbaum, 2004, pp. 277–279).

  26. 26.

    See a list of members of the German Society in Leipzig (Goldenbaum, 2004, p. 381). Since this list stems from 1737, Stübner is no longer mentioned. He had passed away in August 1736.

  27. 27.

    Joachim Kirchner estimated the minimal number of copies of a newspaper or journal at 500 copies to survive on the market (Kirchner, 1928, p. 54).

  28. 28.

    The Hamburgische Correspondent announced more than 30 titles of pro-Wolffian literature during the second peak of the battle against Wolff (Goldenbaum, 2004, pp. 437).

  29. 29.

    The Hamburgische Berichte from June 9, 1733 published an appraisal of Gottsched’s Anfangsgründe der Weltweisheit (The First Elements of Philosophy) by a Hamburgian Society. Its members asked for more such writings.

  30. 30.

    About the passive resistance of booksellers against censorship, see the exchange between state authorities and the supervisors of the booksellers in Leipzig and Frankfurt a. M. (Goldenbaum, 2004, pp. 260–261, 387–388).

  31. 31.

    This grand title was given to Wolff by Herm. Adolph. Le Fevre (1708–1745), a lawyer at Lubeck and a former law student from Jena, whose Wolffian thesis (defended in Strasbourg on July 17, 1733) was reviewed and cited with aplomb by the Hamburgische Berichte on December 15, 1733.

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Goldenbaum, U. (2021). Who Was Afraid of Wolff’s Psychology? The Historical Context. In: Araujo, S.d.F., Pereira, T.C.R., Sturm, T. (eds) The Force of an Idea. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, vol 50. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-74435-9_2

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