Christian Wolff was born in the then-Austrian region of Silesia (modern day western Poland) on January 24th, 1679. In his early years, he attended a Lutheran Gymnasium which boasted many well-known authors as faculty. There, he was first introduced to formal philosophy, with Descartes being included in the curriculum. He was a very bright child, and the gymnasium was the first place he could display his talents; just one example of this is the frequent, engaging discussions he would host with the students from the nearby Jesuit school. In 1699, he began his higher education at University of Jena where he studied theology, quickly became bored, and then studied mathematics and natural philosophy. He transferred to the University of Leipzig where, after one year, published his thesis to receive his degree in 1702. One year later, in 1703, he published another thesis entitled, “On Universal Practical Philosophy, composed according to the Mathematical Method.” The title of this thesis sums up perhaps his largest goal in philosophy, to use systematic and rational methods to create a system of philosophy which could be practically applied, and he continued to work towards this system until his death. This thesis sparked the interest of many academics, and as a result, Wolff received multiple offers of faculty positions. This was influenced, in part, by Leibniz; after reading Wolff’s second thesis, Leibniz began a correspondence with Wolff and recommended him to many universities. He accepted an offer to join the premier scientific journal in Germany, which was located in Leipzig, where he got the opportunity to study almost all academic fields. In 1706, Wolff intended to accept a faculty position at the University of Gießen, but first he wanted to make a brief trip to his hometown. However, the direct route to Silesia was under foreign occupation due to the Great Northern War, so Wolff travelled through Halle, during which the University of Halle offered him a position which he accepted.
As with his time at the scientific journal, Wolff’s interests as a professor at Halle started with Mathematics but quickly encompassed most fields. In particular, his teaching of philosophy, which included a modified version of Leibniz’s system (later coined the Leibniz-Wolffian system), became the norm for philosophy curriculums in Germany. He enjoyed publishing and teaching texts on mathematics, philosophy, ethics, physics, and politics for 16 years. However, controversy arose after he gave a lecture entitled “On the Practical Philosophy of the Chinese,” where he argued that Confucius was able to deduce moral truths from reason alone. These “impious” ideas combined with some complicated politics of the theology professors at Halle resulted in swaying Frederick William I in 1723 to order Wolff to leave Prussia within 48 hours or be punished by death. He fled and settled in Marburg where he continued his career as professor.
The controversy brought Wolff even more into the public view and further solidified the popularity of his ideas in Germany. While at Marburg, he expanded on his previous writings and wrote Latin versions of them in order to reach an audience outside of Germany. Though he received countless offers to teach elsewhere, he remained in Marburg until the death of Frederick William I in 1740. His successor Frederick William II was an avid supported of Wolff, and just six days after the King’s succession, Wolff accepted an offer to return to Halle. He received a hero’s welcome upon his return and made amends with his old enemies in the theology department at Halle. His popularity allowed him to be elected chancellor of the university just three years after his return. In 1745, he received the highest honor available at the time: Imperial Baron of the Holy Roman Empire—and became the first to receive such an honor for their academic works. In his later years, he barely lectured as his ideas were very well established in the modern canon. Christian Wolff died due to gout on April 9th, 1754 at the age of 75. While he made very impressive strides in many areas of philosophy, perhaps his largest influence on the field was his widespread and effective teaching of his system, which permeated Germany until the time of Kant.