The chapter focuses on a central topic in eighteenth-century German philosophy, namely the meaning of fortune and misfortune within God’s government of the world. It also considers the role these concepts play in orienting moral actions. Since the debate is relatively wide, the chapter discusses a specific episode, namely the criticism raised by Georg Friedrich Meier in the early 1750s against a common view that goes back to Wolff’s statements in his ethical work. I will argue that their divergent opinions concerning the possibility of considering fortune and misfortune as proper means in God’s government of the world, that is, as rewards or punishments of human actions, reveal an underestimated divergence in the way they present the task and the role of philosophy. Put briefly, the chapter argues that Wolff and Meier have a different self-understanding of the Aufklärung.