Abstract

In 1711 the «Sinensis Imperii libri Classici Sex», a latin translation of the Confucian classics by Father François Noël SJ, were published in Prague. Christian Wolff, the most influential philosopher in the era of Early Enlightenment, began to study this translation of the core texts of Confucian thought soon after its publication. The most important result of his study was Wolff’s «Lecture on the Practical Philosophy of the Chinese» held in 1721 at the University of Halle. In this lecture Wolff tried to show the complete inner conformity of his philosophy with the Confucian tradition. Chinese Philosophy appeared as a new legitimation for an ethics completely independent of any «revealed» or «natural religion“. Wolff’s Chinese background is rarely discussed in the field of the history of Enlightenment. This paper aims to make a first step to fill this gap and to show that Chinese Philosophy had, in fact, an enormous impact on the way toward an enlightened modern consciousness in Europe.