クリスチャン・ヴォルフの哲學用語について : ヴォルフ研究、其の一

Abstract

It is said that Wolff first completed and used in his lectures German philosophical technical terms. No philosopher to this day, however, has yet made the true meaning of Wolff's use of his own language clear. For example, Wuttke explained it only in reference to his national consciousness, apart from the philosophical contents of those terms. So I have tried to show the logical necessity of their use from the fundamental stand-point of his philosophy. For this purpose, on the one hand, I examined the Prolegomena, since it especially contains his important opinions on philosophical terms used in his main work Ontologia, where, he, dividing Ontologia into Ontologia naturalis and Ontologia artificialis, asserts that in the sphere of Ontologia naturalis philosophical terms should not be given other meanings than the meanings attached to them in common usage (10, Prolegomena). Here we can find the reason why philosophical terms should be German for the Germans, but he further asserts that in the sphere of Ontologia naturalis clear and distinct philosophical terms, satisfying the demands for adequate elements of new scientific philosophy, should be created in his own mother tongue by the combination of its common terms. Here precisely we can find the logical ground of his use of it. In his Metaphysik, one of his German works, we can find clear examples of how he had put his theory into practice (see especially in the Register).