Abstract
Abstract It is the aim of this chapter to show that Wolff’s approach to morals from naturally equal individuals who strive for perfection is not teleological but rests on Hobbes’s and Spinoza’s striving to persevere and to act. Increasing one’s power to act means greater perfection and relates to joy, and decreasing it causes lesser perfection and relates to sadness. Making progress in understanding is the path to greater perfection. Wolff considers constant progress as the highest good humans can reach by natural means. Thereby, he can secure the objectivity of moral values, provide valid concepts of obligation as well as of accountability, and secure human freedom as self-determination based on rational knowledge instead of free will. Given that traditional morality, based on free will as the precondition for responsibility, is increasingly questioned by modern science, I am convinced we can still learn much from Wolff: to find a new foundation of morals.
Published Version
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