PROLEGOMENA TO ONTOLOGY

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Indeed, we were able to establish the present proposition by a general reason as well. Certainly, in the teaching of Ontology Ontology original: Ontologia; from the Greek for "the study of being." For Wolff, this is the study of the most general properties of all things., nothing should be included except what can be sufficiently understood, recognized as evidently true, and conveniently applied to the practical cases of human life. Therefore, it is fitting that it be treated with the philosophical method (§ 136, 138 Preliminary Discourse), and consequently by the same method used by Mathematicians (§ 139 Preliminary Discourse), and thus be handled in a demonstrative demonstrative original: demonstrativa; a method of proof where every step follows logically and inevitably from defined terms or previously proven statements. manner. Special reasons, when added to general ones, move one to agreement more strongly and are often more evident than the general reasons themselves—especially when one’s mind is not yet accustomed to abstract thoughts.

That Ontology is a science.

First Philosophy is a science. original: Philosophia prima est scientia. Wolff uses "First Philosophy" and "Ontology" as interchangeable titles for this foundational study. For those things which we affirm or deny in First Philosophy, we must demonstrate (§ 4). Therefore, it is a science (§ 594 Logic).

However, the extent to which this science is within our power will become clear from the following treatment, and further still in the future from what others, aided by our work, shall add to it.

Why philosophy cannot be treated with the demonstrative method without Ontology.

Since First Philosophy must be treated with the demonstrative method so that all other philosophical disciplines can be taught by that same method—as is clear from the previous demonstration (§ 4)—it is now evident what we asserted in the Preliminary Discourse (§ 73): that without First Philosophy, all philosophy in general cannot be treated with the demonstrative method.

And that was the primary reason that impelled us to expel the darkness from First Philosophy, lest the other disciplines be left without sufficient light. It will surely become clear from the following treatment how shamefully those who are ignorant of the notions explained in First Philosophy eventually behave in public, reasoning miserably about matters of the greatest importance. I shall occasionally note the "rashness in judging" familiar to so many, and the lapses of judgment arising from ignorance, so that I might produce visible proof original: oculatam fidem; literally "eyewitness faith," meaning a conviction based on seeing the evidence for oneself. of this.

Who might improve First Philosophy.

He who treats First Philosophy with the scientific method does not merely bring Scholastic philosophy back through the back door, but improves it. original: non postliminio in scholas revocat; "postliminio" is a legal term referring to the right of a person returning from captivity to regain their previous status. Wolff argues he isn't just reviving the old medieval "Scholastic" style, but reforming it into something better. He who [treats] First Philosophy with the [scientific] method...