WOLFF (Christian). Cosmologia Generalis, Methodo Scientifica pertractata, qva ad Solidam, inprimis dei Atqve Natvræ, cognitionem via sternitvr.1737

Frankfurt & Leipzig: Renger, Second Edition, 4to, [16], 448, [8], [2]pp., title in red and black, folding engraved plate, contemporary signature "Andreas Gerstrom", woodcut ornaments to title and head- and initials, errata leaf at end, lightly browned and spotting, contemporary half vellum, rubbed. "Wolff was essentially a popularizer and (to some extent inspired by Leibniz) sought to effect a formal synthesis between Scholasticism, the new mathematical methods, and more recent scientific conceptions...... Wolff's deterministic formulations of his cosmological principles, which emphasize the rational connections between things, given as sequences or coexistences; these formal themes were later directly echoed in Kant's writings. The visible world is a machine, operating in accordance with the laws of motion: almost one-third of the Cosmologia generalis treats these laws." - DSB, XlV. pp.482-484. "It was due to the influence of Wolff that theology was supplanted by philosophy as the leading discipline at German universities and the Wolffian system dominated German intellectual life until the time of Kant." - Pinson, Encyclopedia of Social Sciences. Rand, I 534; Sotheran, 5458.