Rudolph Goclenius the Elder ( la, Rudolphus Goclenius; born ''Rudolf Gockel'' or ''Göckel''; 1 March 1547 – 8 June 1628) was a German scholastic philosopher. Gockel is often credited with coining the term "

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries betwe ...

" in 1590, though the term had been used by Marko Marulić at least 66 years earlier. Gockel had extensive backing, and made significant contributions to the field of

ontology In metaphysics, ontology is the philosophical study of being, as well as related concepts such as existence, becoming, and reality. Ontology addresses questions like how entities are grouped into categories and which of these entities ...

. He extended the development of many ideas from

Aristotle Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical Greece, Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatet ...

. Several of Gockel's ideas were published and built upon by later philosophers.

Life

He was born in Korbach, Waldeck (now in

Waldeck-Frankenberg Waldeck-Frankenberg is a ''Kreis'' (district) in the north of Hesse, Germany. Neighbouring districts are Höxter, Kassel, Schwalm-Eder, Marburg-Biedenkopf, Siegen-Wittgenstein, Hochsauerland. History The district was created in 1972 by merg ...

Hesse Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: Hessen ), officially the State of Hessen (german: links=no, Land Hessen), is a state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt. Two other major historic cities are Da ...

). He attended the universities at the University of Erfurt, the

University of Marburg The Philipps University of Marburg (german: Philipps-Universität Marburg) was founded in 1527 by Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse, which makes it one of Germany's oldest universities and the oldest still operating Protestant university in the worl ...

and the University of Wittenberg, where he finished his studies with a M.A. in 1571. In the following years he directed the

gymnasiums A gymnasium, also known as a gym, is an indoor location for athletics. The word is derived from the ancient Greek term " gymnasium". They are commonly found in athletic and fitness centres, and as activity and learning spaces in educational ins ...

in his hometown Korbach (1573) and in

Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel and the district of the same name and had 201,048 inhabitants in December 2 ...

( Michaelmas 1575). In 1581,

Landgrave Landgrave (german: Landgraf, nl, landgraaf, sv, lantgreve, french: landgrave; la, comes magnus, ', ', ', ', ') was a noble title used in the Holy Roman Empire, and later on in its former territories. The German titles of ', ' (" margrave"), ...

Wilhelm IV of Hesse-Kassel, who was a reputed astronomer, refused his wish to return to Korbach, but allowed him to be appointed professor at the Philipps University of Marburg, where he had the chairs of physics, logic, mathematics and ethics. He served as a counsellor to Wilhelm and his son Moritz. The latter sent him in 1618 to the Synod of Dort. Although he popularized the term "

," his major contribution was to the field of

. As a follower of Aristotle's work, Gockel gave the philosophy a name and continued in Aristotle's way of thinking. The philosophical discipline of

Ontology In metaphysics, ontology is the philosophical study of being, as well as related concepts such as existence, becoming, and reality. Ontology addresses questions like how entities are grouped into categories and which of these entities ...

is thought to have been developed in the 17th century by Goclenius. Goclenius became the subject of a satirical text by Johann Balthasar Schupp. According to Schupp, Goclenius said in his old age that his ''Analecta'' ichae 1598was the best book of all he has ever written. Jeremias Nicolai, a student at Korbach ''Stadtschule'' from Autumn 1574 onwards, brother of Philipp Nicolai, reported that Goclenius "immediately" wrote a poem about "fiery air phenomena" (''feurige Lufterscheinungen'') that were seen in the city on November 14, 1574. It was published in Marburg the same year. City historian Wolfgang Medding has conjectured that the phenomena which provided the inspiration for Goclenius' poem might have been an

aurora An aurora (plural: auroras or aurorae), also commonly known as the polar lights, is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly seen in high-latitude regions (around the Arctic and Antarctic). Auroras display dynamic patterns of bri ...

, an assumption which is supported by historical data. Later, he treated auroras ("chasmata") in a Physics textbook of 1604. Goclenius died of a stroke in

Marburg Marburg ( or ) is a university town in the German federal state (''Bundesland'') of Hesse, capital of the Marburg-Biedenkopf district (''Landkreis''). The town area spreads along the valley of the river Lahn and has a population of approx ...

on June 8, 1628. In his funeral speech on June 10, Wolfgang Loriseca called Goclenius a "leader of today's philosophers, Marburgian Plato, European light, Hessian immortal glory".

Family

Goclenius married his first wife, Margarethe, in 1570. Abraham Saur, a jurist in Marburg, recorded in his chronicle for the 10th of April: From this marriage his oldest son, Rudolph Goclenius the Younger, or Rudolf Goclenius, Jr. was born who became a professor in Marburg and a celebrated mathematician. It is after Rudolph Goclenius, Jr., that the lunar crater is named. He also worked on cures against the plague. He became famous for his miraculous cure with the "weapon salve" or

Powder of Sympathy Powder of sympathy was a form of sympathetic medicine, current in the 17th century in Europe, whereby a remedy was applied to the weapon that had caused a wound with the aim of healing the injury it had made. Weapon salve was a preparation, a ...

. Other descendants were Theodor Christoph Goclenius (1602-1673, Medicine), Eduard Franz Goclenius (1643-1721, Law) and Reinhard Goclenius (1678-1726, Law).

Philosophical attitude

From his dispute with Wilhelm Adolph Scribonius of Marburg on the legality of the ordeal by water in witch trials, one can deduce that Goclenius was convinced on the existence of

witchcraft Witchcraft traditionally means the use of magic or supernatural powers to harm others. A practitioner is a witch. In medieval and early modern Europe, where the term originated, accused witches were usually women who were believed to have u ...

and adhered to the "Hexenhammer". His views reflected those of

. His philosophies belonged to a group called “ Semiramists,” which was a group of

Aristotelians Aristotelianism ( ) is a philosophical tradition inspired by the work of Aristotle, usually characterized by deductive logic and an analytic inductive method in the study of natural philosophy and metaphysics. It covers the treatment of the socia ...

who believed in advocating dialectic interpretation of Aristotle's learning, but also advocating the exposition of Ramism. While he was still a rector at Korbach ''Stadtschule'' Goclenius composed a scholarly poem on Ramus' death. In a letter written by Friedrich Beurhusius to Johann Thomas Freigius in September 1575, Goclenius was mentioned as a devotee to Ramus alongside other schoolmen such as Johann Lambach and Bernhard Copius. Goclenius is reported to have said that Aristotle, Scaliger (whose ''Exercitationes'' he called his Bible), Zabarella, Schegk are all that is needed to fill up the bookstand of philosophers.

Works

In his "Philosophical Inquiries", published in 1599, Goclenius provides a synoptic table that subdivides the philosophical doctrines, or liberal arts, into special domains of knowledge. It is useful for the classification of his works to a certain point. He used the term ''

'' in his ''Lexicon philosophicum'' (1613) which was coined by Jacob Lorhard in his ''Ogdoas Scholastica'' (1606).

Psychology

Goclenius’ major contributions also included publications which led to the term

. In two academic disputations presided by Goclenius at Marburg University in 1586 the word "psychology" appears as an adjective ("psychologicae"). His anthology ''Psychologia: hoc est, de hominis perfectione, animo, et in primis ortu hujus'' published in 1590 is the first book to contain the word "psychology" in the title. The ''Psychologia'' of 1590 (a second printing was issued in 1594) contains mostly excerpts from treatises written between 1579 and 1589. The book's full title translates to English as, "Psychology: that is, on the perfection of man, his mind, and especially its origin, the comments and discussions of certain theologians & philosophers of our time who are shown on the turned page." Here, the term psychology refers to both a subject of inquiry ("the perfection of man, his mind, and especially its origin") and the inquiry itself ("the comments and discussions of certain theologians & philosophers of our time"). In the 17th century, Goclenius' ''Psychologia'' was read and quoted by scholars like Robert Burton, Daniel Sennert and

Jakob Thomasius Jakob Thomasius ( la, Jacobus Thomasius; 27 August 1622 – 9 September 1684) was a German academic philosopher and jurist. He is now regarded as an important founding figure in the scholarly study of the history of philosophy. His views were e ...

. Goclenius himself returned to his ''Psychologia ''in a textbook on natural science of 1604 and in some philosophical disputations.

Logic

Goclenius' crowning achievement is his original contribution made to

term logic In philosophy, term logic, also known as traditional logic, syllogistic logic or Aristotelian logic, is a loose name for an approach to formal logic that began with Aristotle and was developed further in ancient history mostly by his followers, t ...

, called the Goclenian Sorites. In the words of the British logician Carveth Read:

"It is the shining merit of Goclenius to have restored the Premises of the Sorites to the usual order of Fig. I.: whereby he has raised to himself a monument more durable than brass, and secured indeed the very cheapest immortality. How expensive, compared with this, was the method of the Ephesian incendiary!"

An example for the use of sorites in an argumentative context is presented by Goclenius in his "Dissertatio De Ortu Animi" which concludes the first edition of the ''Psychologia''. Contrary to Carveth Read's assessment, however, Dr. Rudolph Goclenius did not invent the Goclenian Sorites: St. Thomas Aquinas did:

" second demonstration takes as its starting point the conclusion of a first demonstration, whose terms are understood to contain the middle term which was the starting point of the first demonstration. Thus the second demonstration will proceed from four terms the first from three only, the third from five, and the fourth from six; so that each demonstration adds one term. Thus it is clear that first demonstrations are included in subsequent ones, as when this first demonstration—every B is A, every C is B, therefore every C is A—is included in this demonstration—every C is A, every D is C, therefore every D is A; and this again is included in the demonstration whose conclusion is that every E is A, so that for this final conclusion there seems to be one syllogism composed of several syllogisms having several middle terms. This may be expressed thus: every B is A, every C is B, every D is C, every E is D, therefore every E is A."

Publications

Bibliographies of Goclenius' writings were prepared by F. W. Strieder and by F. J. Schmidt (see below). His list of publications include a large number of academic disputations. This is due to the statutes of Landgrave Philip I of January 14, 1564 which required professors at the University of Marburg to carry out weekly examinations. Goclenius lectured three hours a day: one pro lectione publica, one pro magistrandis and one pro baccalaureandis.Letter by Landgrave

Ludwig Ludwig may refer to: People and fictional characters * Ludwig (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Ludwig (surname), including a list of people * Ludwig Ahgren, or simply Ludwig, American YouTube live streamer and co ...

to his brother Wilhelm, October 4, 1581. In: H. Heppe (Hrsg.), ''Geschichte der hessischen Generalsynoden von 1568-1582''. Zweiter Band, Kassel 1847, p. 221 * ''Problemata logica'', pars I 1589, pars II 1590; Pars I-V 1594 (reprint: Frankfurt: Minerva, 1967, in 5 voll.) * ''Psychologia: hoc est, de hominis perfectione, animo, et in primis ortu hujus, commentationes ac disputationes quorundam theologorum & philosophorum nostrae aetatis'', Marburg 1590; Marburg 1594; Marburg 1597 (revised edition). * ''Oratio de natura sagarum in purgatione & examinatione per Frigidam aquis innatantium'', Marburg 1584 (an oration held at a graduation ceremony on November 19, 1583; republished in ''Panegyrici Academiae Marpurgensis'', Marburg 1590, pp. 190–203) * ''Partitio dialectica'', Frankfurt 1595 * ''Isagoge in peripateticorum et scholasticorum primam philosopiam, quae dici consuevit metaphysica'', 1598 (reprint: Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 1976) * ''Institutionum logicarum de inventione liber unus'', Marburg 1598 * Oberursel 1600 * ''Appendix IIII. Dialogistica'', Marburg 1602 * ''Physicae completae speculum'', Frankfurt 1604 * ''Dilucidationes canonum philosophicorum'', Lich 1604 * ''Controversia logicae et philosophiae, ad praxin logicam directae, quibus praemissa sunt theoremata seu praecepta logica'', Marburg 1604 * ''Miscellaneorum Theologicorum Et Philosophicorum'', Marburg 1607; Marburg 1608 * ''Conciliator philosophicus'', 1609 (reprint: Hildesheim, Georg Olms, 1980) * ''Lexicon philosophicum quo tanquam clave philosophiae fores aperiuntur'', 1613 (reprint: Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 1980) * ''Lexicon philosophicum Graecum'', Marburg 1615 (reprint: Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 1980)

References

External links

Notes on the development of Ontology from Suarez to Kant

Russian translations by Leonid I. Ragozin (with English abstracts):
Goclenius R. (Ed.) (2018). Ψυχολογια: that is, on human perfection, on the spirit, and first and foremost on its origin ...
''Metodologiâ i istoriâ psihologii''. Iss. 2. P. 143–149.
Vultejus H. (2018). The diatribe on the man’s philosophical perfection.
''Metodologiâ i istoriâ psihologii''. Iss. 4. P. 111–140. {{DEFAULTSORT:Goclenius, Rudolph 1547 births 1628 deaths People from Korbach German philosophers German lexicographers Participants in the Synod of Dort People from Waldeck (state) 16th-century German writers 16th-century German male writers 17th-century German writers 16th-century philosophers 17th-century philosophers German male non-fiction writers 17th-century German male writers