Abstract
The modern Enlightenment is often characterized as an opposition to prejudice and superstition; nevertheless, it developed through a complex interplay with esoteric traditions. To illuminate these dimensions of the Enlightenment, this study examines Christian Wolff’s theory of prognostication, with the aim of connecting it to the theory of mantic arts by his pupil, Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten. In his work German Metaphysics, Wolff asserts that foreknowledge is achieved through a distinct cognition of the “nexus of things.” He further suggests in Commentary on the German Metaphysics that the “art of prognostication,” which is grounded in physics, can be realized if one relies on the concept of “natural signs” instead of astrology. In German Teleology, Wolff expounds on weather prediction based on natural objects and verifies empirical rules, such as proverbs and customs about weather. At the same time, he denounces traditional astrometeorology and the tendency to interpret unusual natural phenomena as ominous signs. Paradoxically, Wolff’s theory may have encouraged Baumgarten to reintroduce astrology and divination into an academic discipline, since Baumgarten sought to incorporate various mantic arts into aesthetics, regarding them as “ars characteristica of prognostics.” Wolff and Baumgarten share a common approach by integrating popular practice of prediction into their philosophical frameworks and grounding their theories in the concept of signs.
https://ror.org/00hhkn466 
