Christian Thomasius

Christian Thomasius (1 January 1655 – 23 September 1728) was a German jurist and philosopher.

He was born in Leipzig and was educated by his father, Jakob Thomasius (1622–1684), at that time head master of Thomasschule zu Leipzig. Through his father's lectures, Christian came under the influence of the political philosophy of Hugo Grotius and Samuel Pufendorf, and continued the study of law at the University of Frankfurt (Oder) in 1675, completing his doctorate in 1679. In 1680, he married Anna Christine Heyland and started a legal practice in Leipzig; the following year he began teaching at the university’s law school as well. In 1684 he became professor of natural law, soon attracting attention by his abilities, and particularly by his attack on traditional prejudices, in theology and jurisprudence. In 1685 he published a provocative dissertation, De crimine bigamiae (The crime of bigamy), in which he argued that bigamy is permissible under natural law.

In 1687 he made the daring innovation of lecturing in German instead of Latin and gave a lecture on the topic "How One Should Emulate the French Way of Life," referring to the French use of their native language not only in everyday life but in scholarship as well; according to scholar Klaus Luig, this event marks the real beginning of the Enlightenment in Germany. In the following year he began publishing a monthly periodical (Scherzhafte und ernsthafte, vernüftige und einfältige Gedanken über allerhand lustige und nutzliche Bücher und Fragen) in which he ridiculed the pedantic weaknesses of the learned, taking the side of the Pietists in their controversy with the orthodox, and defending mixed marriages of Lutherans and Calvinists; he also published a volume on natural law which emphasized natural reason and a paper defending marriage between Lutherans and members of the Reformed church.

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