<Research Paper>The Life of Christian Thomasius

In the field of philosophy, the German Enlightenment is usually associated with the late 18th century, when Moses Mendelssohn (1729-1786) and Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) were active. In particular, Kant's article “What is Enlightenment?”, published in 1784, has become a classic for German Enlightenment. However, this period is in fact placed in the late Enlightenment (Spätaufklärung). Werner Schneiders, in his Hoffnung auf Vernunft (1990), divides the German Enlightenment into four periods. First, there was the Early Enlightenment from before 1690 to around 1720, the Late Enlightenment from around 1780 to around 1800, and, in between these, the first half (1720-1750) and the second half (1750-1780) of the Peak Enlightenment. On this view, Kant belongs to the last of these periods. The Early Enlightenment (Frühaufklärung) began with an incident at a university by the philosopher Christian Thomasius (1655-1728), known as the “father of the German Enlightenment”. Thomasius posted a lecture pamphlet containing a declaration that he would give his lectures in German at the conservative University of Leipzig, where the tradition of using Latin was taken for granted. However, the figure of Thomasius has not been in the spotlight enough. In fact, little is known about his life except for his use of German in his lectures. And even if it is pointed out that Thomasius was involved in various scandals at the University of Leipzig, the specifics of those scandals are often glossed over. In light of this situation, this paper will focus on the life of Thomasius. We will find that Thomasius' life was tumultuous, and this tumult seems to be reflected in his writings. Thus, at the same time, the paper is intended as an introduction to the thought of Thomasius.