Johann Georg Sulzer

Johann Georg Sulzer (16 October 1720 to 27 February 1779) was a Swiss mathematician and Wolffian philosopher who worked in Berlin. Born in Winterthur, he became a professor of mathematics, turned to the study of electricity, and directed the philosophical section of the Berlin Academy of Sciences. In 1752 he noticed the taste produced when two different metals touch the tongue, an observation later remembered in the history of the battery. In 1755 he translated David Hume's Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals into German. His major work, the General Theory of the Fine Arts, appeared in 1771 and 1774 and was the first German encyclopedia to organize the findings of aesthetics in around 900 articles, extending Baumgarten's approach into a more psychological theory of aesthetic enjoyment. Kant respectfully disagreed with his hope of proving God and a future life.