Rudolph Goclenius

He was born in Korbach, Waldeck (now in Waldeck-Frankenberg, Hesse).

He attended the universities at the University of Erfurt, the University of Marburg and the University of Wittenberg, where he finished his studies with a M.A. in 1571. In the following years he directed the gymnasiums in his hometown Korbach and in Kassel. In 1581, Landgraf Wilhelm IV of Hesse-Kassel, who was a reputed astronomer, refused his wish to return to Korbach, but allowed him to be appointed professor at the Philipps University of Marburg, where he had the chairs of philosophy, logic, metaphysics and ethics. He served as a counsellor to Wilhelm and his son Moritz. The latter sent him in 1618 to the Synod of Dort.

Although he dubbed the name of "psychology," his major contribution was to the field of Ontology. As a follower of Aristotle's work, Gockel gave the philosophy a name and continued in Aristotle's way of thinking. The philosophical discipline of Ontology is thought to have been developed in the 17th century by Gockel.[2]

Gockel died in Marburg in June 1628.

His oldest son, Rudolph Goclenius the Younger, or Rudolf Goclenius, Jr. was professor in Marburg, and a celebrated mathematician. It is after Rudolph Goclenius, Jr., that the lunar crater is named. He also worked on cures against the plague. He became famous for his miraculous cure with the "weapon salve" or Powder of Sympathy.

From his dispute with Wilhelm Adolph Scribonius of Marburg on the legality of the ordeal by water in witch trials, one can deduce that Goclenius was convinced on the existence of witchcraft and adhered to the "Hexenhammer".

His views reflected those of Aristotle. His philosophies belonged to a group called “Semiramists,” which was a group of Aristotelians who believed in advocating dialectic interpretation of Aristotle’s learning, but also advocating the exposition of Ramism.[3]

He was highly literate and wrote articles on many subjects, not only philosophy but also mathematics, geography, astrology (or astronomy), botanic, zoology, medicine. In his Lexicon philosophicum (1613) he used the term ontology coined by Jacob Lorhard in his Ogdooas Scholastica (1606).

Goclenius’ major contributions also included publications which led to the term psychology. In two academic disputations presided by Goclenius at Marburg University in 1586 the word "psychology" appears in its adjectival form ("psychologicae").[4] His anthology Psychologia: hoc est, de hominis perfectione, animo, et in primis ortu hujus published in 1590 is the first book to contain the word "psychology" in its title.[5] The Psychologia of 1590 (a second printing was issued in 1594) contains mostly excerpts from treatises written between 1579 and 1589.[6] The book's title translates to English as, "Psychology: that is, on the perfection of man, his mind, and especially its origin, the comments and discussions of certain theologians & philosophers of our time who are shown on the turned page." Here, the term psychology refers to both a subject of inquiry ("the perfection of man, his mind, and especially its origin") and the inquiry itself ("the comments and discussions of certain theologians & philosophers of our time"). In the 17th century, Goclenius' Psychologia was read and quoted by scholars like Robert Burton,[7] Daniel Sennert[8] and Jakob Thomasius.[9] Goclenius himself returned to his Psychologia in a textbook on natural science of 1604[10] and in a philosophical disputation of 1606.[11]

Goclenius' crowning achievement is his original contribution made to term logic, called the Goclenian Sorites. In the words of the British logician Carveth Read:

"It is the shining merit of Goclenius to have restored the Premises of the Sorites to the usual order of Fig. I.: whereby he has raised to himself a monument more durable than brass, and secured indeed the very cheapest immortality. How expensive, compared with this, was the method of the Ephesian incendiary!"[12]

Bibliographies of Goclenius' writings were prepared by F. W. Strieder and by F. J. Schmidt (see below). His list of publications include a large number of academic disputations. This is due to the statutes of Landgrave Philip I of January 14, 1564 which required professors at the Universiy of Marburg to carry out weekly examinations.[13]

• Problemata logica, pars I 1589, pars II 1590; Pars I-V 1594 (reprint: Frankfurt: Minerva, 1967, in 5 voll.)
• Psychologia: hoc est, de hominis perfectione, animo, et in primis ortu hujus, commentationes ac disputationes quorundam theologorum & philosophorum nostrae aetatis, Marburg 1590; Marburg 1594; Marburg 1597 (revised edition).
• Oratio de natura sagarum in purgatione examinatione per Frigidam aquis innatantium, Marburg 1590.
• Partitio dialectica, Frankfurt 1595
• Isagoge in peripateticorum et scholasticorum primam philosopiam, quae dici consuevit metaphysica, 1598 (reprint: Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 1976)
• Institutionum logicarum de inventione liber unus, Marburg 1598
• P. Rami Dialectica cum praeceptorum explicationibus, Oberursel 1600
• Physicae completae speculum, Frankfurt 1604
• Dilucidationes canonum philosophicorum, Lich 1604
• Controversia logicae et philosophiae, ad praxin logicam directae, quibus praemissa sunt theoremata seu praecepta logica, Marburg 1604
• Conciliator philosophicus, 1609 (reprint: Hildesheim, Georg Olms, 1980)
• Lexicon philosophicum quo tanquam clave philosophiae fores aperiuntur, 1613 (reprint: Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 1980)
• Lexicon philosophicum Graecum, Marburg 1615 (reprint: Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 1980)

• Simone De Angelis, Zwischen generatio and creatio. Zum Problem der Genese der Seele um 1600 - Rudolph Goclenius, Julius Caesar Scaliger, Fortunio Liceti. In Lutz Dannenberg (Hrsg.), Zwischen christlicher Apologetik und methodologischem Atheismus : Wissenschaftsprozesse im Zeitraum von 1500 bis 1800, Berlin 2002, pp. 94-144
• Diana Kremer, "Von erkundigung und Prob der Zauberinnen durchs kalte Wasser". Wilhelm Adolph Scribonius aus Marburg und Rudolf Goclenius aus Korbach zur Rechtmäßigkeit der "Wasserprobe" im Rahmen der Hexenverfolgung, in: Geschichtsblätter für Waldeck, Bd. 84, 1996, pp. 141–168.
• Marco Lamanna, La nascita dell'ontologia nella metafisica di Rudolph Göckel (1547-1628), Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 2013.
• Paul Mengal, La naissance de la psychologie, Paris 2005
• Leonid I. Ragozin, Ψυχολογία and Psychology: Goclenius, Ramus, and Vultejus. In Voprosy filosofii, 2018, No. 2, pp. 102-111
• Martin Roebel, Humanistische Medizin und Kryptocalvinismus : Leben und medizinisches Werk des Wittenberger Medizinprofessors Caspar Peucer (1525 – 1602), Freiburg 2012
• Franz Joseph Schmidt, Materialien zur Bibliographie von Rudolph Goclenius sen. (1547-1628) und Rudolph Goclenius jun. (1572-1621), Hamm 1979
• Rudolf Schmitz, Die Naturwissenschaften an der Philipps-Universität Marburg 1517-1927, Marburg 1978, p. 15ff.
• Hermann Schüling, Bibliographie der psychologischen Literatur des 16. Jahrhunderts, Hildesheim 1967
• Gideon Stiening, Psychologie. In Barbara Bauer (Hrsg.), Melanchthon und die Marburger Professoren (1527-1627), Marburg 1999, pp. 315-344
• Friedrich Wilhelm Strieder, Grundlage zu einer hessischen Gelehrten und Schriftsteller Geschichte. Seit der Reformation bis auf gegenwärtige Zeiten, Bd. 4, Göttingen 1784, pp. 428-487; Bd. 9, Cassel 1794, p. 381; Bd. 13, Cassel 1802, pp. 341-343.
• Fernando Vidal, The Sciences of the Soul : The Early Modern Origins of Psychology, Chicago 2011

• Notes on the development of Ontology from Suarez to Kant
• The Birth of Ontology. A selection of Ontologists from 1560 to 1770

Russian translations by Leonid I. Ragozin (with English abstracts):

• Goclenius R. (Ed.) (2018). Ψυχολογια: that is, on human perfection, on the spirit, and first and foremost on its origin ... Metodologiâ i istoriâ psihologii. Iss. 2. P. 143–149.
• Vultejus H. (2018). The diatribe on the man’s philosophical perfection. Metodologiâ i istoriâ psihologii. Iss. 4. P. 111–140.