Johannes Clauberg was a German theologian

Theology

Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...

 and philosopher. Clauberg was the founding Rector

Rector

The word rector has a number of different meanings; it is widely used to refer to an academic, religious or political administrator...

 of the first University of Duisburg

University of Duisburg

-History:Its origins date back to the 1555 decision to create a university for the unified duchies at the Lower Rhine that were later to be merged into Prussia. After the foundation of an academic college in 1559, a university was founded in 1655 by Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg, the...

, where he taught from 1655 to 1665. He is known as a "scholastic cartesian".

Biography

He was born in Solingen

Solingen

Solingen is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located on the northern edge of the region called Bergisches Land, south of the Ruhr area, and with a 2009 population of 161,366 is the second largest city in the Bergisches Land...

, Germany, and educated in the Aristotelian

Aristotelianism

Aristotelianism is a tradition of philosophy that takes its defining inspiration from the work of Aristotle. The works of Aristotle were initially defended by the members of the Peripatetic school, and, later on, by the Neoplatonists, who produced many commentaries on Aristotle's writings...

 tradition in Köln, Moers and Bremen, then in Gröningen, where he discovered what came to be called the reformed variation of Aristotelianism. He gave his first disputations in Gröningen under the supervision of Tobias Andreae

Tobias Andreae

Tobias Andreae, who was born at Frankfort in 1823, studied under J. Becker, and then went to Munich, where he made the acquaintance of Rahl and Genelli. In 1853 he visited Italy, and painted landscapes, into which he occasionally introduced moonlight effects. Andreae died at Munich in 1873.-...

. His first treatise in metaphysics was written in those student years: Elementa philosophiae sive Ontosophia (1647). Travelling in France and England, he came to study the Cartesian philosophy under Johannes de Raey

Johannes de Raey

Johannes de Raey was a Dutch philosopher and an early cartesian.-Life facts and education:...

 at Leiden. In 1649, he became professor of philosophy and theology at Herborn

Herborn

Herborn is a historic town on the Dill in the Lahn-Dill district of Hesse in Germany. Before World War I, it was granted its own title as Nassauisches Rothenburg. The symbol or mascot of this town is a bear. Scenic attractions include its half-timbered houses; Herborn is located on the German...

, but subsequently (1651), in consequence of the jealousy of his colleagues, accepted an invitation to a similar post at Duisburg.

Clauberg was one of the earliest teachers of the new doctrines in Germany and an exact and methodical commentator on his masters writings. His theory of the connection between the soul and the body is in some respects analogous to that of Malebranche

Nicolas Malebranche

Nicolas Malebranche ; was a French Oratorian and rationalist philosopher. In his works, he sought to synthesize the thought of St. Augustine and Descartes, in order to demonstrate the active role of God in every aspect of the world...

; but he is not therefore to be regarded as a true forerunner of Occasionalism

Occasionalism

Occasionalism is a philosophical theory about causation which says that created substances cannot be efficient causes of events. Instead, all events are taken to be caused directly by God...

, as he uses Occasion for the stimulus which directly produces a mental phenomenon, without postulating the intervention of God. His view of the relation of God to his creatures is held to foreshadow the pantheism

Pantheism

Pantheism is the view that the Universe and God are identical. Pantheists thus do not believe in a personal, anthropomorphic or creator god. The word derives from the Greek meaning "all" and the Greek meaning "God". As such, Pantheism denotes the idea that "God" is best seen as a process of...

 of Spinoza. All creatures exist only through the continuous creative energy of the Divine Being, and are no more independent of his will than are our thoughts independent of us, or rather less, for there are thoughts which force themselves upon us whether we will or not.

Metaphysics, in Clauberg's conception, studies not the being (ens), but the intelligible, as in the most general object of the intellect (ens cogitabile). The most high concept is not being, but the object in general as known to the intellect. For metaphysics

Metaphysics

Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world, although the term is not easily defined. Traditionally, metaphysics attempts to answer two basic questions in the broadest possible terms:...

 Clauberg suggested the names ontosophy or ontology, the latter being afterwards adopted by Wolff

Christian Wolff (philosopher)

Christian Wolff was a German philosopher.He was the most eminent German philosopher between Leibniz and Kant...

. In the prolegomena to his Elementa philosophiae sive Ontosophiae (1647), Clauberg says:
Étienne Gilson

Étienne Gilson

Étienne Gilson was a French Thomistic philosopher and historian of philosophy...

 writes :
Clauberg died in Duisburg

Duisburg

- History :A legend recorded by Johannes Aventinus holds that Duisburg, was built by the eponymous Tuisto, mythical progenitor of Germans, ca. 2395 BC...

, and lies buried in the city's cathedral.

Works

A collected edition of his philosophical works was published at Amsterdam (1691), with life by H. C. Hennin; see also E. Zeller, Geschichte der deutschen Philosophie seit Leibnitz (1873).

• [prop.], Tobias Andreae [praes.], Tessarakas thesium philosophicarum de logicae ab aliis disciplinis quibuscum vulgo confundi assolet distinctione (Groningen, 1646), 4 p.
• Elementa philosophiae seu Ontosophia. Scientia prima, de iis quae Deo creaturisque suo modo communiter attribuuntur, distincta partibus quatuor, quarum I. Prolegomena, quibus ostenditur ratio huius scientiae perficiendae; II. Didactica, ipse nim. Ontosophia seu scientia prima et catholica methodo didascalicae inclusa brevissime; III. De usu illius scientiae in caeteris facultatibus ac scientiis omnibus; IV. Diacritica de differentia huius scientiae ab aliis disciplinis et imprimis theologia et logica quibuscum vulgo confundi solet. Pro mensura gratiae divinae impraesentiarum adspiranis elaborata, et ad elicienda Doctorum de his conatibus vel continuandis vel corrigendis iudiciis, iuris publici facta (Groningen, 1647).
• Ontosophia nova, quae vulgo Metaphysica, Theologiae, Iurisprudentiae et Philologiae, praesertim Germanicae studiosis accomodata. Accessit Logica contracta, et quae ex ea demonstratur Orthographia Germanica (Duisburg, 1660); Metaphysica de ente, quae rectius Ontosophia... Editio tertia (Amsterdam, 1664); Ontosophia, quae vulgo metaphysica vocatur, notis perpetuis in philosophiae et theologiae studiosorum usum illustrata, a Joh. Henrico Suicero. In calce annexa est Claubergii logica contracta (Tiguri, 1694).
• Defensio cartesiana adversus Iacobum Revium ... et Cyriacum Lentulum pars prior exoterica, in qua Renati Cartesii dissertatio de Methodo vindicatur, simul illustria Cartesianae logicae et philosophiae specimina exhibentur (Amsterdam, 1652).
• Initiatio philosophi, sive dubitatio Cartesiana, ad metaphysicam certitudinem viam aperiens (Leiden, 1655).
• De Cognitione Dei et nostri, quatenus naturali rationis lumine, secundum veram philosophiam, potest comparari, exercitationes centum (Duisburg, 1656).
• Paraphrasis in R. Descartes meditationes de prima Philosophia (Duisburg, 1658).
• Differentia inter Cartesianum et alias in Scholis usitatam Philosophiam (Groningen, 1680).
• Logica vetus et nova, modum inveniendae ac tradendae veritatis in Genesi simul et analysi facile methodo exhibens (Editio princeps, Amsterdam, 1654; Editio secunda, Amsterdam, 1658; Editio tertia, Sulzbach, 1685); Specimen logicae Cartesianae seu modus philosophandi ubi ... in quibusdam novae introductionis in philosophiam aulicam veritas paucis expenditur. Studio Pauli Michaelis Rhegenii (Leipzig, 1689).
• Redenkonst, Het menschelyk verstandt in de dingen te beghrijpen, oordelen, en onthouden, stierende Johan Klauberghens. Vertaalt uit het Latyn (Amsterdam, 1657).
• Physica, quibus rerum corporearum vis et natura... explicantur (Amsterdam, 1664); Dictata physica privata, id est physica contracta seu theses physicae, commentario perpetuo explicatae (Frankfurt, 1681; Leipzig, 1689).
• De philosophiae fontibus derivata ; id est, via Germanicarum vocum et origines et praestantiam detegendi ; cum plurium tum harum Vernunft, Suchen, Außspruch exemplis atque exinde enatis regulis praemonstrata (Duisburg, 1663).
• Opera omnia philosophica, ed. Johannes Theodor Schalbruch, 2 vol. (Amsterdam, 1691).
• [praes.], Chilias thesium ad philosophiam naturalem pertinentium... disputanda in Academia Duisburgensi (Groningen, 1668).

External links

• The Birth of Ontology. A selection of Ontologists from 1560 to 1770

Attribution