Rational Thoughts on God, the World, and the Soul of Man

To pass over in silence those which flow from all too great ignorance.

...can give more light to the matter (§. 4), it follows naturally that I, secondly, wish to pass over in silence those objections which flow from mere lack of understanding original: "Unverstande," referring to a lack of the necessary logical training to follow the argument., and whose incorrectness anyone who examines them with care and holds them against my propositions can see immediately without my reminder. For since I have more necessary and useful things to do in the world, no one will blame me for not wasting my time with such people whom one would have to teach the very first letters of science Wissenschafft: in the 18th century, this referred to any systematic body of knowledge or academic discipline, not just the natural sciences so that they might be capable of grasping the answer correctly. Nowadays there is opportunity enough to learn something fundamental, if one only has the desire and wishes to apply diligence. But for someone who has no patience for this, it will be of little help to engage in a dispute with him: for he will always want to stick to his five senses Wolff implies that these critics rely only on superficial, sensory experience and lack the capacity for "rational thoughts" or abstract reasoning. and understand nothing of what is said. Answers to objections cannot make the unintelligent intelligent all at once through a single leap. One must begin in the right place if one wants to comprehend a matter, and understanding comes as little all at once as the body grows large from a single meal.

It will [occur] to some

Perhaps some will think here,