Georg Bernhard Bilfinger

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Georg Bernhard Bilfinger, mezzotint by Johann Jacob Haid after an oil painting by Wolfgang Dietrich Majer

Georg Bernhard Bilfinger (born January 23, 1693 in Cannstatt , † February 18, 1750 in Stuttgart ) was a Württemberg philosopher , master builder , mathematician and theologian .

Origin and studies

Bilfinger came from a family of academics, his father Johann Wendelin Bilfinger was dean in Cannstatt, later a Protestant abbot, his mother Anna Kunigunde Bilfinger was the daughter of the main preacher of Worms. Georg Bilfinger was considered to be very talented in handicrafts, but followed the family tradition and became a scholar. He attended the monastery schools in Blaubeuren and Bebenhausen and studied from 1709 in the Tübingen monastery . In 1711 he obtained a doctorate for a master's degree (in the liberal arts ) and then studied theology. Bilfinger was already interested in mathematics, geometry, pyrotechnics and fortress construction in the basic course. The mathematical sciences were represented in Tübingen at that time by Johann Conrad Creiling , who was also competent in fortress construction.

Bilfinger also studied a compilation of mathematical sciences that was widespread at the time and was written by the Halle philosophy professor Christian Wolff (1679–1754): The "Elementa Matheseos Universae" in five volumes. This book brought Bilfinger to an intensive occupation with the philosophy of Wolff and Leibniz . In 1711, Bilfinger obtained a Magister Artium degree. Only then was it possible to study theology.

After the exam, Bilfinger became vicar in Blaubeuren, then Vilkar in Bebenhausen, castle preacher in Tübingen and finally, in 1715, monastery representative who held additional courses. Bilfinger wasn't married.

Returning to Tübingen, Bilfinger was appointed associate professor (without salary) of philosophy at the university there in 1721. In 1724 there was a professorship for moral philosophy and mathematical sciences at the "Hohen Fürsten-Schule zu Tübingen", which is also called Collegium Illustre . This was a kind of aristocratic college that existed in Tübingen next to the university.

Act

As a philosopher, Bilfinger represented the so-called Leibniz-Wolff philosophy . A basic problem of this philosophy was the relationship between soul and body. The problem was resolved by the thesis of pre-established harmony : One imagined that soul and body behave like two exactly the same but independent clocks.

In 1724, Bilfinger published the hitherto most comprehensive overview of Chinese philosophy with the title Specimen doctrinae veterum Sinarum (Characteristics of the teachings of the ancient Chinese). This work was extremely explosive in that it was precisely the reference to Chinese philosophy that had led to Wolff's expulsion from Halle in November 1723. His speech on the "Practical Philosophy of the Chinese" (given in June 1721) had sparked fierce protest across Europe. Wolff set to work to publish his speech with a detailed commentary, studying Bilfinger's work intensively in order to deal with the basic themes of Confucian thought. In 1725 Bilfinger published the work Dilucidationes philosophicae (Illusions of Philosophy), in which he tried to explain and defend Wolff's German Metaphysics . This work shows the creative integration of Chinese figures of thought with which he tried to illuminate Wolff's thinking. Shortly after publication, Bilfinger was relieved of his position because his colleagues' integration of Chinese thinking into teaching and research was too dangerous.

Through the mediation of Christian Wolff, Bilfinger received a (research) professorship at the newly founded Academy in Saint Petersburg in 1725 . In St. Petersburg, Bilfinger represented various philosophical subjects (logic, metaphysics, morals) and physics. There he met many compatriots. A treatise by Bilfinger on gravity, the treatise "De causa gravitatis physica generali disquisitio experimentalis ...", received a prize from the Paris Academy of Sciences in 1728.

Duke Eberhard Ludwig von Württemberg then tried to bring Bilfinger back to Württemberg. After the five-year period had expired, the Russians honored him with an annual pension and foreign membership in the Academy. In 1731, Bilfinger became a full professor of theology in Tübingen and at the same time professor of mathematical sciences at the Collegium Illustre. In 1734 Bilfinger was appointed to the Privy Council.

When Carl Alexander died in 1737, his son and successor, Duke Carl Eugen, was still a minor. A guardianship government was set up, the most important member of which was Georg Bernhard Bilfinger. In 1739 he took over the post of president of the consistory . Even after the new Duke Carl Eugen took office in 1744, Bilfinger remained in his offices and continued to exert great influence on government affairs.

Bilfinger was able to keep Württemberg out of the "War of the Austrian Succession". He advocated a cautious approach to Prussia and ensured that the ducal princes were educated at the Berlin court for a while. In 1749 he was elected a foreign member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences .

Bilfinger wrote and signed the Pietism Rescript for Duke Carl Friedrich on October 10, 1743. With the Pietism Rescript, the pietistic communities were granted a certain amount of freedom in the regional church. This allowed Pietism to work and develop within the regional church. In addition, Bilfinger was also committed to viticulture.

Works

  • De harmonia animi et corporis humani, maxime praestabilita, ex mente illustris Leibnitii , commentatio hypothetica: accedunt solutiones difficultatum ab eruditissimis viris… Foucherio, Baylio , Lamio, Tourneminio , Newtono , Clarkio atque Stahlio motarum , Francofurti & Lipslerum, 1723 Mezlerum
  • Dilucidationes de Deo, anima humana, mundo et generalioribus rerum affectibus , Tubingae: Cottae 1725, Editio Nova 1740, 1763, 1768
  • Elementa physices. Accedunt eiusdem meditationes mathematico-physicae in commentariis… cum disquistione de vampyris , Lipsia: Richter, 1742
  • Varia in fasciculos collecta / sumptibus filiorum Beati Christophori Erhardti, Stuttgardiae 1743
  • Supplement aux maximes ordinaires de la fortification 1750
    Translated from French into German by Andreas Böhm under the title: Additions to the usual maxims of the art of fortification . In: "Magazine for engineers and artillerymen" / ed. by Andreas Böhm, Volume 1, Gießen: Krieger, 1777, pp. 1–26

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Members of the previous academies. Georg Bernhard Bilfinger. Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities , accessed on February 23, 2015 .

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Bilfinger, Georg Bernhard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Württemberg philosopher, master builder, mathematician and theologian
DATE OF BIRTH January 23, 1693
PLACE OF BIRTH Cannstatt
DATE OF DEATH February 18, 1750
Place of death Stuttgart