G.F. Meier’s "Letter to His Auditors, in Which He Informs Them of His Decision to Hold a Course on Locke’s Essay Concerning Human Understanding"

Auteurs

  • Riccardo Pozzo Tor Vergata University of Rome

DOI :

https://doi.org/10.4454/sl.6-1266

Mots-clés :

academic programs, Frederick II the Great, Georg Friedrich Meier, Immanuel Kant, John Locke, University of Halle

Résumé

This paper is about Georg Friedrich Meier’s confrontation with Locke. The first part reconstructs Locke’s early influence at the newly founded University of Halle in the first half of the eighteenth century, where Meier studied and taught. Meier was familiar with Locke’s An Essay Concerning Human Understanding through the French anticipation by Jean Le Clerc, which was the basis for the first German exposition of Locke’s thought by Friedrich Gladov, but also through the Latin translation of the essay edited by Gotthelf Heinrich Thiele. The second part examines Meier’s appropriation of the Essay, as mediated by Wolff and Baumgarten, for Meier’s facultative logic (concepts, judgment, and argumentation) and for the philosophy of language. The third part makes available the English translation of the full text of the program prepared by Meier for the course on Locke that he gave at Halle in the Winter Term of 1754-55, in accordance with the wish expressed by Frederick II the Great during the interview he had with Meier at Halle on 15 or 16 June 1754. The fourth part considers the implications of Meier’s engagement with Locke, which had decisive consequences for the entire history of the German Enlightenment.

Biographie de l'auteur

  • Riccardo Pozzo, Tor Vergata University of Rome

    Riccardo Pozzo received his M.A. in Philosophy at Università di Milano (1983), his Ph.D. at Universität des Saarlandes (1988), and his Habilitation at Universität Trier (1995). In 1996, he went to the U.S. to teach as an assistant and then associate professor at the School of Philosophy of the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. In 2003, he returned to Italy to take up the Chair of the History of Philosophy at Università di Verona. From 2009 to 2012, he was Director of the Institute for the European Intellectual Lexicon and History of Ideas of CNR (35 personnel units). From 2012 to 2017, he was Director of the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Cultural Heritage of CNR (19 CNR institutes and about 800 people). In 2019, he was appointed Chair of the History of Philosophy at Tor Vergata University of Rome, elected full member of the Institut International de Philosophie, ordinary member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, ordinary member of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, corresponding member of the Accademia Roveratana degli Agiati, and overseas member of the International Confucian Association. He served as chairman of the 24th World Congress of Philosophy Beijing 2018 Program Committee and as a member of the 25th World Congress of Philosophy Roma 2024 Italian Organizing Committee. Principal investigator, coordinator of national and international programs and projects, and national H2020 Research Infrastructures Configuration Committee expert. Editor of international journals and series, and co-editor of the new edition of the work of Immanuel Kant. Author of more than 400 publications, among which 5 monographs and 9 critical editions, and recipient of 115 book reviews.

Téléchargements

Publiée

2025-11-11

Numéro

Vol. 6 (2025): John Locke and Classical German Philosophy

Rubrique

Essays