Christian Wolff as a Theorist of What Would Later Be Called 'The Scientific Revolution'

This chapter draws attention to Wolff’s narrative accounts of early modern natural philosophy. It argues that these represent an early case of the historicization of seventeenth-century science, especially astronomy and physics, as a singular episode of dramatic intellectual consequence, or what later generations would dub “the Scientific Revolution.” Wolff uses his narratives in service of the following philosophical positions concerning science. First, he is a realist about the meaning of the new physics, in that he takes its statements about the natural world to have genuine truth conditions. Second, Wolff recognizes that advancements in experimental and mathematical methods require reconceiving certain metaphysical concepts in order to make possible truth-apt interpretations of empirical discoveries. In light of these developments, finally, he begins to reconsider the respective roles of metaphysics and physics.