Krise und Reform. Die Metaphysik im frühneuzeitlichen Deutschland

In this article, I study the development of German metaphysics from Daniel Cramer's Isagoge in metaphysicam Aristotelis to Kant's Critical Philosophy. While most seventeenth-century Lutheran authors conceive of metaphysics as atheoretical or purely speculative science of being in its most general terms, later authors, especially, Wolff, Meier and Kant raise the question of how metaphysics can be reformed in more practical terms. They struggle to articulate what this practical reform should actually amount to. At least two options are on the table: (1) metaphysics as an operative discipline à la Bacon; or (2) metaphysics as the foundation of moral philosophy.