PROLEGOMENA TO ONTOLOGY

Since, however, in philosophy a vague and undetermined meaning must be reduced to a determined one Wolff refers to his Preliminary Discourse on Philosophy in General (§. 144), where he argues that philosophy requires specific definitions to avoid confusion. and the same meaning must be constantly maintained for the same word (§. 143 Preliminary Discourse); even if the meanings of ontological terms are not kept constantly unchanged in common speech due to the inconsistency of language, in Ontology a determined meaning must nevertheless be claimed for each one, and that meaning must be kept unchanged.

No one is unaware that many ontological terms are employed in common speech. For who does not know that we frequently speak of cause, end The "end" or "purpose" for which something exists or is done., the necessary, the contingent, the possible, the impossible, the perfect, the one, the true, order, space, etc.—all of which notions are explained in Ontology? That these terms are taken in their accepted sense is proven whenever the reason for the accepted judgments in which they are used is rendered from that sense; this is something we shall also observe. It is sufficient, however, to have established one fixed sense from the several vague meanings that usually prevail—specifically, the one that satisfies the most numerous and most obvious judgments.

Which Scholastic terms are to be retained.

The terms of the Scholastics The "Scholastics" were the medieval and early modern academics who followed the traditions of the church fathers and Aristotle. While Enlightenment thinkers often criticized them, Wolff argues here for keeping their precise technical vocabulary., to which some notion corresponds that is not commonly attended to, are to be retained. For if some notion corresponds to them, a term is needed to signify it (§. 36 Logic). Since, truly, that notion is not commonly noticed, by hypothesis no term for it occurs in common speech; therefore, a philosophical term is necessary (§. 146, 148 Preliminary Discourse). For this reason, since philosophical terms once accepted are not to be changed (§. 147 Preliminary Discourse), where certain terms have been introduced by the Scholastics, those same terms are to be retained.

We must repeat here what we emphasized in the Preliminary Discourse (§. 147), when we spoke in general about not changing philosophical terms once they have been accepted.

Whether there is a place for Scholastic terms without their philosophy.

If the terms of the Scholastics are retained, and those not accurately enough defined are defined more accurately, the first philosophy A traditional name for Metaphysics or Ontology. of the Scholastics is not reintroduced by the back door. original: "postliminio introducitur." A legal term referring to the restoration of rights, here meaning a sneaky reintroduction of discarded ideas. The philosophy of the Scholastics is distinguished not by the terms they use, but by their definitions, which are less