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60-480: 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) 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

120-503: 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

180-725: A German carrying an aristocratic title as part of his name is not allowed to carry this title in her name. The Federal Administrative Court ( Verwaltungsgerichtshof ) in a similar case asked the European Court of Justice whether this Austrian regulation would violate the right of the European Union ; the European Court of Justice did not object to the Austrian decision not to accept the words Fürstin von as part of an Austrian woman's name. The German republic, under Article 109 of

240-604: A barony (with some rights of taxation and jurisprudence), but such fiefs were only granted in the 16th and 17th centuries. Thereafter the "barony" was titular, usually in chief of some already-owned property, and sometimes that property was established as a fideicommiss . Their property tax exemption continued into the 20th century, being, however, diminished substantially by reforms of the 19th century. Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel The Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel ( German : Landgrafschaft Hessen-Kassel ), spelled Hesse-Cassel during its entire existence, also known as

300-488: A higher lord or sovereign, and unlike medieval German ministerials , who were bound to provide administrative services for a lord. A Freiherr sometimes exercised hereditary administrative and judicial prerogatives over those resident in his barony instead of the liege lord , who might be the duke ( Herzog ) or count ( Graf ). The German-language title of Freiherr is rendered in English as "Baron", although

360-516: 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 the Protestant principalities. Wolff personally expedited their introduction inside Hesse-Cassel. The Wolffian system retains

420-552: A matter of courtesy to use them. The late Otto von Habsburg , in his childhood Crown Prince of Austria-Hungary, was styled Otto Habsburg-Lothringen in his post-1919 Austrian passport, and Otto von Habsburg in his German passport (he was a Member of the European Parliament for Germany). In 2003, the Constitutional Court ( Verfassungsgerichtshof ) ruled that an Austrian woman having been adopted by

480-597: A means of improving the finances of his principality. William V was succeeded by Landgraves William VI and William VII . Frederick I of Sweden , the next landgrave , became by marriage King of Sweden . Although the Landgraviate was in personal union with Sweden from 1730 to 1751, the King's younger brother, Prince William , ruled in Kassel as regent until he succeeded his brother as William VIII. On Frederick I's death in 1751, he

540-718: A readily available reserve for other European nations. During the American Revolutionary War , the Kingdom of Great Britain rented thousands of German troops to fight in the Thirteen Colonies , half of whom came from Hesse-Kassel and nearby Hesse-Hanau . Due to this, American colonists in the colonies referred to all German troops serving with the British with the synecdoche " Hessian ". The village of Hessen Cassel, Indiana , near Fort Wayne , founded by German immigrants,

600-404: 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

660-603: 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: Freiherr It corresponds approximately to the English baron in rank. The Duden orthography of the German language references the French nobility title of Baron , deriving from the Latin-Germanic combination liber baro (which also means "free lord"), as corresponding to

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720-476: Is a possible nobiliary particle , such as von , and might or might not be used by those bearing them. Female forms of titles have been legally accepted as a variation in the surname after 1919 by a still valid decision of the former German High Court ( Reichsgericht ). The distinguishing main surname is the name, following the Freiherr, Freifrau or Freiin and, where applicable, the nobiliary particle – in

780-480: Is far from obsolete. As with most titles and designations within the nobility in the German-speaking areas of Europe, the rank was normally hereditary and would generally be used together with the nobiliary particle of von or zu (sometimes both: von und zu ) before a family name. The inheritance of titles of nobility in most German-speaking areas was not restricted by primogeniture as

840-585: Is the baronial title in Britain. Hence, the titles applied equally to all male-line descendants of the original grantee in perpetuity: All legitimate sons of a Freiherr shared his title and rank, and could be referred to as Freiherr . The wife of a Freiherr is titled Freifrau (literally "free lady"), and the daughter of a Freiherr is called Freiin (short for Freiherrin ). Both titles are translated in English as "Baroness". In Prussia and some other countries in northern Europe,

900-483: 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

960-523: Is titled Friherreinde , and the daughters are formally addressed as Baronesse . With the first free Constitution of Denmark of 1849 came a complete abolition of the privileges of the nobility. Today titles are only of ceremonial interest in the circles around the monarchy of Denmark . In 1561, the Swedish king Eric XIV conferred the hereditary titles of count and vapaaherra ("baron") on some persons, not all of them nobles. This prerogative

1020-531: Is why members of the same family can have different official last names. The original distinction from other barons was that a Freiherr ' s landed property was allodial instead of a fief . Barons who received their title from the Holy Roman Emperor are sometimes known as "Barons of the Holy Roman Empire" ( Reichsfreiherren ), in order to distinguish them from other barons, although

1080-478: 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

1140-672: The Chatti . However, he was rebuffed by the Great Powers, who listed him as a "Royal Highness" along with the other grand dukes. To secure his pre-eminence over his cousin, the Grand Duke of Hesse in the former Hesse-Darmstadt, William chose to keep his title of Prince-Elector. The rulers of the Electorate of Hesse became the only Prince-Electors in the German Confederation , even though there

1200-670: The Hessian Palatinate ( German : Hessische Pfalz ), was a state of the Holy Roman Empire . The state was created in 1567 when the Landgraviate of Hesse was divided upon the death of Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse . His eldest son William IV inherited the northern half of the Landgraviate and the capital of Kassel . The other sons received the Landgraviates of Hesse-Marburg , Hesse-Rheinfels and Hesse-Darmstadt . During

1260-461: The Landgraviate of Hesse was divided into four parts. William IV received about half of the territory, with Kassel as his capital. Hesse-Kassel expanded in 1604 when Maurice, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel inherited the Landgraviate of Hesse-Marburg from his childless uncle, Louis IV, Landgrave of Hesse-Marburg (1537–1604). In 1605, Maurice became Calvinist . When the Thirty Years' War began, on

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1320-798: The Napoleonic reorganisation of the Empire in 1803, the Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel was elevated to an Electorate and Landgrave William IX became an Imperial Elector . Many members of the House of Hesse -Kassel served in the Danish military gaining high ranks and power in the realm because many Landgraves were married to Danish princesses. Members of the family who are known to have served Denmark-Norway include Prince Frederik of Hesse -Kassel, Prince Frederick of Hesse-Kassel , and Prince Charles of Hesse-Kassel . It had two votes to

1380-605: The Reichstag : one for itself and one for Hersfeld Abbey . In 1801, Hesse was forced to cede land to Revolutionary France , but in 1803 it was compensated with land around the former Electorate of Mainz and was elevated to the status of Electorate as the Electorate of Hesse , officially ending the Landgraviate. The Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel was founded by William IV the Wise, the eldest son of Philip I . On his father's death in 1567,

1440-560: 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

1500-858: The War of the First Coalition , against the First French Republic. In 1801, they would cede territories on the west bank of the Rhine to France. Following the reorganization of the German states during the German mediatisation of 1803, the Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel gained land and was raised to the Electorate of Hesse and Landgrave William IX was elevated to Imperial Elector , taking the title William I, Elector of Hesse . The principality thus became known as Kurhessen (aka Kurfürstentum Hessen ), although still usually referred to as Hesse-Kassel. In 1806, William I

1560-526: The Weimar Constitution of 1919, legally transformed all hereditary noble titles into dependent parts of the legal surname . The former title thus became a part of the family name, and moved in front of the family name. Freiherr Hans von Schwarz , as a German citizen, therefore became Hans Freiherr von Schwarz . As dependent parts of the surnames ( " nichtselbständige Namensbestandteile " ) they are ignored in alphabetical sorting of names, as

1620-411: 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 the principle of sufficient reason is once more discarded in favor of

1680-777: The nobility lost recognition as a legal class in the newly created republics of Germany and Austria . The Republic of Austria abolished hereditary noble titles for its citizens by the Adelsaufhebungsgesetz of 3 April 1919 and the corresponding decree of the state government. The public use of such titles was and still is prohibited, and violations could be fined. Hans Freiherr von Schwarz , as an Austrian citizen, therefore lost his title of Freiherr von and would simply be named as Hans Schwarz in his Austrian passport. In practice, however, former noble titles are still used socially in Austria; some people consider it

1740-414: 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 a general metaphysics , which arises as a preliminary to

1800-757: 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

1860-517: The Elector of Brandenburg had, as king of the originally exclusively extraterritorial Prussia even before that date, arrogated to himself the prerogative of ennoblement ). Some of the older baronial families began to use Reichsfreiherr in formal contexts to distinguish themselves from the new classes of barons created by monarchs of lesser stature than the Holy Roman Emperors, and this usage

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1920-769: 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 a copy of Logique ou réflexions sur les forces de l'entendement humain to Voltaire in his first letter to

1980-400: The German "Freiherr"; and that Baron is a corresponding salutation for a Freiherr . The title Freiherr derives from the historical situation in which an owner held free ( allodial ) title to his land, as opposed "unmittelbar" ("unintermediated"), or held without any intermediate feudal tenure; or unlike the ordinary baron, who was originally a knight ( Ritter ) in vassalage to

2040-586: The Protestant side. After being forced to cede some of his territories to Hesse-Darmstadt , Maurice abdicated in 1627 in favour of his son William V . His younger sons received appanages , which created several cadet lines in yet another partition of Hesse . William V allied himself with Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden and then France , losing most of Hesse-Kassel when Imperial troops invaded. He died in exile in 1637, leaving his widow Amalie Elisabeth of Hanau-Münzenberg to act as regent for their eight-year-old son William VI . Amalie Elisabeth vigorously advanced

2100-531: 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 the first scholar to have been created hereditary Baron of the Holy Roman Empire on

2160-513: The Realm's Herredag , later Riddarhuset . In 1561, King Eric XIV began to grant some noblemen the titles of count ( greve ) or baron ( friherre ). The family members of a friherre were entitled to the same title, which in time became Baron or Baronessa colloquially: thus a person who formally is a friherre now might use the title of "Baron" before his name, and he might also be spoken of as "a baron". However, after

2220-410: The aid of another ruler. Hesse-Kassel took the practice to an extreme, maintaining 5.3% to 7.3% of its population under arms in peacetime in its history, however was known to double that in times of war. This was a higher proportion than even Prussia , a country that was so heavily militarized that it was described as "not a country with an army, but an army with a country". The Hessian army served as

2280-511: 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 a German philosopher. It dominated Germany until the rise of Kantianism . Wolff was married and had several children. Wolffian philosophy has

2340-406: The change of constitution in 1809, newly created baronships in principle conferred the dignity only in primogeniture. In the now valid Swedish Instrument of Government (1974) , the possibility to create nobility is eliminated; and since the beginning of the twenty-first century, noble dignities have passed from the official sphere to the private. In Denmark and Norway , the title of Friherre

2400-419: 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 the most significant cultural confrontations of the 18th century and perhaps the most important of

2460-419: 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, is best known to philosophical students by Kant's treatment of it in

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2520-453: 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

2580-484: The form of ukases additionally awarding the equivalent Russian title of Baron . When in 1919 privileges to members of dynastic and noble families were abolished by the constitution of the Weimar Republic and hence titles became part of the last name some members of the affected families chose to be officially named Freiherr while others preferred Baron to emphasize their Baltic-German heritage. This

2640-437: The future. However, her health was ruined by the stresses of the war, and she died in 1651. William VI , who came of age in 1650, was an enlightened patron of learning and the arts. He was succeeded by his son William VII, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel , then an infant, who died in 1670. He was succeeded by his brother Charles I . Charles' chief claim to fame is that he hired out his soldiers to foreign powers as auxiliaries, as

2700-560: The interests of Hesse-Kassel. After expelling Imperial troops from Hesse-Kassel, she sent troops to take the city of Marburg , which her father-in-law had lost to their Hesse-Darmstadt relatives. At the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, Hesse-Kassel was further rewarded with most of the County of Schaumburg and the newly secularized Hersfeld Abbey . Amalie Elisabeth also introduced the rule of primogeniture to prevent Hesse-Kassel from being divided again in

2760-431: 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

2820-504: 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

2880-460: 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 the first acts of his son and successor, Frederick the Great , was to acquire him for

2940-617: The preceding example, the main surname is Schwarz and so alphabetically is listed under "S" . Similar titles have been seen in parts of Europe that have historically been dominated by Germany (in the cultural sense): the Baltic States, Austria–Hungary, Sweden, Finland and to some extent in Denmark–Norway. From the Middle Ages onward, each head of a Swedish noble house was entitled to vote in any provincial council when held, as in

3000-448: 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

3060-500: The title as such was simply Freiherr . After the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, Reichsfreiherren did not belong to the noble hierarchy of any realm, but by a decision of the Congress of Vienna in 1815, their titles were nonetheless officially recognised. From 1806 the then independent German monarchies, such as Bavaria, Württemberg and Lippe could create their own nobility , including Freiherren (although

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3120-462: The title of Freiherr was, as long as the monarchy existed, usually used preceding a person's given name (e.g. Freiherr Hans von Schwarz ). In Austria-Hungary and Bavaria , however, it would be inserted between the given name and the family name (e.g. Hans Freiherr von Schwarz ). After the First World War , the monarchies were abolished in most German-speaking areas of Europe, and

3180-524: The title was derived separately in the two languages. Even in German, a Freiherr is often styled as and addressed by the more elegant, Latin equivalent "Baron" in social circumstances, although not the official title. Separately, in the 19th century some families of the Baltic German nobility who had historically carried the title of Freiherr were recognized by the Tsardom of Russia as noble in

3240-640: Was confirmed in the constitutional arrangements of 1625. All family members of vapaaherra (baronial) families were entitled to that same title, which in practice, came to mean that they were addressed as Paroni or Paronitar . The Finnish nobility shares most of its origins with Swedish nobility . In the beginning, they were all without honorific titulature, and known just as "lords". In subsequent centuries, while Finland remained an autonomous grand duchy , many families were raised in rank as counts, vapaaherra s, or as untitled nobles. Theoretically, all created vapaaherra families were given

3300-522: Was dispossessed by Napoleon Bonaparte for his support of the Kingdom of Prussia in the War of the Fourth Coalition . Kassel was designated as the capital of a new Kingdom of Westphalia , where Napoleon appointed his brother Jérôme Bonaparte as king. Following Napoleon's defeat in 1813, the elector was restored. At the Congress of Vienna , a number of Napoleonic electorates were elevated to kingdoms, and William tried to secure recognition as King of

3360-489: 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 was now renewed. The Landgrave of Hesse received him with every mark of distinction, and

3420-491: Was no longer a Holy Roman Emperor for them to elect. The Landgraves of Hesse-Kassel were famous for renting out their army to other European nations during the 17th and 18th centuries. It was a widespread practice at the time for small countries to rent out troops to larger countries in exchange for subsidies. International jurists drew a distinction between mercenaries and auxiliaries. Mercenaries served in foreign armies as individuals, while auxiliaries were sent by their ruler to

3480-480: Was of equal rank to that of Baron, which has gradually replaced it. It was instituted on 25 May 1671 with Christian V 's Friherre privileges. Today only a few Danish noble families use the title of Friherre and most of those are based in Sweden, where that version of the title is still more commonly used; a Danish Friherre generally is addressed as "Baron". The wife of a Danish or Norwegian Friherre

3540-502: Was succeeded by his brother William VIII , who fought as an ally of Kingdom of Great Britain during the Seven Years' War . His successor, Frederick II , converted to Catholicism after a long line of Protestant Landgraves. When the American Revolutionary War broke out, Frederick II leased Hessian troops to Great Britain for service in America. Hesse fought on the side of Coalition in

3600-516: 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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