Zum Konzept der flüssigen Materie um 1750 am Beispiel Christian Wolffs

Abstract

In my paper I deal with the question of the transformation of platonic-neoplatonic as well as early modern ideas of an etheric body, of the medical spiritus-theory and of cosmic ether in the 18th century. I mainly refer to the matter theory of Christian Wolff which incorporates important elements of the Leibnizian philosophy, contemporary neurophysiological knowledge, and also alchemical traditions as well as assumptions on the question of electrical matter into its conception of liquid matter. The concept of liquid matter serves as a generic term in order to subsume all fast, volatile, and subtle matters to which, among others, ether and nervous fluid belong.

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