Jacob Lorhard

Jacob Lorhard (1561 to 1609) was a German philosopher and pedagogue based in St. Gallen, Switzerland. Born in Münsingen in the Duchy of Württemberg, he studied at the University of Tübingen and in 1603 became Rector of the Gymnasium in St. Gallen. His Ogdoas Scholastica of 1606, reissued in 1613 as Theatrum Philosophicum, contains the word ontologia, probably for the first time in a printed book, which he used as a synonym of metaphysics. Influenced by Peter Ramus and more directly by Clemens Timpler, he defined ontology as the knowledge of the intelligible by which it is intelligible, divided the intelligibles into universals and particulars, and distinguished beings that exist independently of the human mind from beings of reason. He also took over from Ramus the use of diagrams as a teaching tool.