Wolff has attached
every entity with an essence, which, as it were, contains the kernel
of a thing or its central characteristics, from which all features of
the thing, or at least their possibility, can be explained. Every
thing, whether just possible or actual, has also an essence, or else
it wouldn't be a thing. Thus, even world must have such an essence or
nature, and the nature of the world (or simply nature) means for
Wolff the sum of all principles of mutation inherent in the world,
that is, the sum of all active forces in the world.
Now, by natural
Wolff simply means something belonging to the nature of any topic. In
case of world, natural then means something being or happening in
accordance with the forces and laws governing motion. Events that do
not happen according to these forces and laws are then supernatural
events or miracles. Furthermore, there is an intricate relation between the
miracles and laws of motion. Wolff admits that laws of motion are not
necessary and that events we would call miraculous are completely
possible events of another world. Yet, Wolff goes even
further and suggests that miracles can in a sense happen even during
the normal course of events – this doesn't imply contradiction,
Wolff says, but only the incompleteness of the world we live in. If
world is a clockwork, miracle is like a finger entering the works and
doing something clock itself wouldn't be able to do. Miracle changes
the world, and to do that, it must have adjusted the inner workings
of the elements of the world, because elements can exist only in a
single world. In order that the world would remain the same world,
another miracle will have to follow that changes everything back to
how it was.
Laws of motion then
define the nature of the world, but they also contribute to its
perfection. Perfection in general Wolff defined in his ontology as
arising from the unification of a multiplicity under some rules. In
case of world, this unification must take the form of a
spatio-temporal whole, and the rules governing it are clearly the
laws of motion. Thus, when we become aware of the laws governing
physical world or the order of nature, we are not just becoming more
informed, but also able to appreciate the perfection of the world.
Due to the incompleteness of human cognitive capacities, Wolff thinks
we can never know the perfection of the world completely – a clever
way for Wolff to avoid the possible objection that world does not
appear perfect.
Before I completely
move away from Wolff's cosmology, I would like to point out how
misleading is the Kantian account of what cosmology is about when it
comes to Wolff. As it is well known, Kant uses especially his idea of
antinomies to undermine the traditional cosmology – reason faces
insurmountable dilemmas in its most important questions. Now,
ironically the four problems Kant mentions are not treated by Wolff
in his cosmology. Problems about human freedom and possible creation
of the world are respectively psychological and theological for
Wolff, and the questions of the spatiotemporal limits of world and of
the divisibility of matter are never comprehensively discussed by
Wolff, as far as I can see.
Next time we'll turn
to Wolff's empirical psychology.
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