With the onset of
1740s Wolff begins his final great task, Jus Naturae,
which would eventually consist of eight thick volumes and which is,
in a sense, a crowning moment in the progress of his Latin works.
The
topic of Wolff's Natural right is a continuation of his earlier books
on general practical philosophy – as one might well remember, in
the Wolffian tradition natural right was often regarded as an
application of the general practical philosophy. Still, in the first
volume, Wolff remains in a sense on quite a general level. The topic
of this first volume is universal human right, where universal means
what concerns all human beings. In other words, the volume is about
rights and obligations of every person, no matter what her station in
life.
Wolff's
general idea is that the idea of an obligation precedes the idea of
right. In other words, if there were no obligations, there would be
no rights and therefore no jurisdiction. It comes as no surprise that
Wolff then states the existence of some primitive obligations –
such obligations should be based on the essence of humanity and are
therefore applicable to all
human beings.
Since
these natural obligations are based on the essence of humanity, which
is same for all human beings, it then appears that at least when it
comes to these obligations, no human being should have any rights
that were not rights of other people. This is especially true in the
state of nature, where the only obligations are the natural
obligations, while in civil state human beings might have made
contracts restricting their natural rights.
The
content of this universal natural right or law should then be
familiar to us already from Wolff's German ethical writings.
Particularly, Wolff divides the universal law into three departments,
first of which concerns person's obligations towards oneself. This
is the strangest part of Wolffian ethics for modern reader, but based
on an essential notion of Wolffian practical philosophy – we are
obligated to perfect ourselves. This means, firstly,
that we should perfect our own soul. In other words,
we should perfect our intellect and try
to know things as distinctly
as possible. We should also perfect
our will and learn how to master our sensuous impulses.
Beyond
soul, one should also train and care for one's body. As body is for
Wolff something different from the soul and something given to it, he
thinks it obvious that we cannot by ourselves decide to end its life.
Then again, one should provide nourishment for the body, but not too
much, since immoderate eating and drinking merely ruins one's body.
One should also use medicine to fix bodily problems caused by
diseases.
Human
beings also have the right to use those external goods, which lie in
their power. They can nourish the body, with products of nature, as
long as they do not try to
use bodies of other human beings for lunch. One has a right to make
one's environment clean enough and even beautiful. Human beings can
also spend their time manufacturing some raw materials to shape that
is more use than the original.
Human
beings have obligations not just toward oneself, but also toward
other humans and God, Wolff says. Duties toward others seem mostly
negative – one should not be rude to anyone, one should not molest
anyone, mentally or physically. To put it short, one should not
hinder anyone becoming more and more perfect, and in extreme cases,
one should even actively help others to perfect themselves.
Duties
toward God do not add that much new to the scheme. At most, one
should try to have as accurate picture of God's characteristics as
possible and thus avoid deism and other heresies. One
should also promote the glory of God and lend one' own will for God's
purposes. In practice, this
means not much more than acting according to natural law.
So
much for Wolff's natural law this time, next we shall see what
Baumgarten has to say about ethics.
