Christian Wolff - Gesammelte Werke. I. Abteilung: Deutsche Schriften.... / Ergänzungsreihe: Materialien und Dokumente

Johann Peter Süßmilch (1707-1767) studied medicine at the Anatomical Institute in Berlin and theology and philosophy at the Universities of Halle and Jena. He was an chaplain in the Prussian army before becoming a preacher in Berlin in 1742. In 1745 he was elected to the Royal Prussian Academy and in 1750 became a member of the Berlin High Consistory. In this work, which enjoyed great success and fame in its time, he seeks to demonstrate that it is not chance but divine will that guides the development and increase of the human race. To this end he discusses the general conditions for this increase and the factors that check it, the role played by war and pestilence, the causes and forms of fertility, the statistical relationships between the male and female sexes and between mortality and age, the frequency of illness, the usefulness of death registers in establishing the numbers of the living, and, finally, improvements to the maintenance of birth, marriage and death registers. A number of similar lists from Germany, England, Italy and France are appended. Süßmilch’s metaphysical position of proving a divine order through the application of arithmetical and statistical methods to social life and nature place him at the intersection of the dominant intellectual trends of his age. His work is an outstanding example of the application of ‘mathematical method’ to the humanities, as advocated in particular by Christian Wolff – including in his introduction to Süßmilch’s book, in order to achieve results in the humanities which are not certain but highly probable.