Johann Georg Sulzer (; 16 October 1720 in

Winterthur Winterthur (; ) is a city in the canton of Zurich in northern Switzerland. With over 120,000 residents, it is the country's List of cities in Switzerland, sixth-largest city by population, as well as its ninth-largest agglomeration with about 14 ...

– 27 February 1779 in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

) was a Swiss professor of Mathematics, who later on moved on to the field of electricity. He was a Wolffian philosopher and director of the philosophical section of the Berlin Academy of Sciences, and translator of

David Hume David Hume (; born David Home; – 25 August 1776) was a Scottish philosopher, historian, economist, and essayist who was best known for his highly influential system of empiricism, philosophical scepticism and metaphysical naturalism. Beg ...

's ''

An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals ''An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals'' is a book by Scottish enlightenment philosopher David Hume. In it, Hume argues (among other things) that the foundations of morals lie with sentiment, not reason. ''An Enquiry Concerning the Pr ...

'' into German in 1755.

Anticipating galvanism

Sulzer is best known as the subject of an anecdote in the history of the development of the battery. In 1752, Sulzer happened to put the tip of his tongue between pieces of two different metals whose edges were in contact. He thought the metals set up a vibratory motion in their particles which excited the nerves of taste. The event became known as the "battery tongue test": the saliva serves as the electrolyte carrying the current between two metallic electrodes.

''General Theory of the Fine Arts''

His ''General Theory of the Fine Arts'' has been called "probably the most influential aesthetic compendium of the closing years of the eighteenth century". It was published in three volumes with the first volume published in 1771, and the second and last volume published three years later in 1774. It was the first encyclopedia in German that aimed to systematize all findings regarding aesthetics in which he "extended Baumgarten's approach into an even more psychological theory that the primary object of enjoyment in aesthetic experience is the state of one's own cognitive condition." It was modelled on French encyclopaedias, such as

Denis Diderot Denis Diderot (; ; 5 October 171331 July 1784) was a French philosopher, art critic, and writer, best known for serving as co-founder, chief editor, and contributor to the along with Jean le Rond d'Alembert. He was a prominent figure during th ...

's universal encyclopaedia, the Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers. In around 900 articles, Sulzer deals in detail with basic concepts and individual questions of

aesthetics Aesthetics (also spelled esthetics) is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of beauty and taste (sociology), taste, which in a broad sense incorporates the philosophy of art.Slater, B. H.Aesthetics ''Internet Encyclopedia of Ph ...

and deals with the areas of literature, rhetoric, visual arts, architecture, dance, music, and acting. In doing so, he made use of philosophical and aesthetic works by Bodmer, Breitinger, Karl Wilhelm Ramler and Johann Adolf Schlegel, among others. Thus, the monumental work presents the state of knowledge of the German High Enlightenment in a condensed form and is one of the most important lexical publications in the

Age of Enlightenment The Age of Enlightenment (also the Age of Reason and the Enlightenment) was a Europe, European Intellect, intellectual and Philosophy, philosophical movement active from the late 17th to early 19th century. Chiefly valuing knowledge gained th ...

. Sulzer rates the

Ode An ode (from ) is a type of lyric poetry, with its origins in Ancient Greece. Odes are elaborately structured poems praising or glorifying an event or individual, describing nature intellectually as well as emotionally. A classic ode is structu ...

as the highest type of poetry. In addition to Klopstock's Messiah, he also counts Bodmer's Noah among the masterpieces of German poetry and sees the importance of

Plautus Titus Maccius Plautus ( ; 254 – 184 BC) was a Roman playwright of the Old Latin period. His comedies are the earliest Latin literary works to have survived in their entirety. He wrote Palliata comoedia, the genre devised by Livius Andro ...

and

Molière Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (; 15 January 1622 (baptised) – 17 February 1673), known by his stage name Molière (, ; ), was a French playwright, actor, and poet, widely regarded as one of the great writers in the French language and world liter ...

above all in their serious plays. However, with Sulzer's metaphysical hopes, Kant had respectfully disagreed. Kant wrote: "I cannot share the opinion so frequently expressed by excellent and thoughtful men (for instance Sulzer) who, being fully conscious of the weakness of the proofs hitherto advanced, indulge in a hope that the future would supply us with evident demonstrations of the two cardinal propositions of pure reason, namely, that there is a God, and that there is a future life. I am certain, on the contrary, that this will never be the case...."''Critique of Pure Reason'', A 741-742/B 769-770

Bibliography

* ''Unterredungen über die Schönheit der Natur'' (1750) * ''Gedanken über den Ursprung der Wissenschaften und schönen Künste'' (1762) * ''Allgemeine Theorie der schönen Künste'' (1771–74) * ''Vermischte philosophische Schriften'' (1773/81)

Notes

1720 births 1779 deaths 18th-century German philosophers Members of the Prussian Academy of Sciences German music theorists German male writers {{music-theory-stub