African Spir

Afrikan Aleksandrovich Špir
Full name Afrikan Aleksandrovich Špir
Born 10 November 1837
Died 26 March 1890(1890-03-26) (aged 52)
Era 19th-century philosophy
Region Western philosophy
School Neo-Kantian
Main interests Logic, Epistemology, Ontology, Religion, Morality, Social Justice
Notable ideas Foundationalism

Afrikan Aleksandrovich Špir (Russian: Африка́н Алекса́ндрович Спир; Ukrainian: Африка́н Олекса́ндрович Спір or Шпір, transcribed: Afrykan Oleksandrovych Spir or Shpir; German: Afrikan (von) Spir, French: African (de) Spir, Italian: Africano Spir) (10 November 1837 – 26 March 1890[3]) was a Russian Neo-Kantian philosopher of German descent who wrote primarily in German. His book Denken und Wirklichkeit (Thought and Reality) exerted a "lasting impact" on the writings of Friedrich Nietzsche.[4][5]

Contents

Biography

Spir was born on 10 November 1837 in his father's estates of Spirowska, near the city of Yelisawetgrad (Elizabethgrad, now Kirovohrad, Khersonskaya guberniya), Russian Empire (now in Ukraine).[6] His father, Alexander Alexandrovich Spir, was a Russian surgeon—Chief Physician of the military Hospital of Odessa specifically—and former professor of mathematics in Moscow. In 1812 he received the Order of St. Vladimir, was knighted, and became councillor and member of Kherson's Governorate hereditary nobility. His mother, Helena Constantinovna Spir, daughter of the major Poulevich, was on her mother's side the grand-daughter of the Greek painter Logino, who arrived in Russia under the reign of Catherine the Great. Alexander Spir gave each of his five children—four boys and one girl—names chosen in an old Greek Calendar, this is the source of the curious name "Afrikan". Spir disliked his Christian name, simply signing his letters and books "A. Spir". His modesty impelled him not to use either the German "von" or the French "de"—denoting his noble status—before his family name.[7] He described his education as follows: "I spent my childood in the countryside and later I studied for a while in Odessa, first in a Private boarding-school and after in a Gymnasium, more or less equivalent, if I do not mistake, to a French high-school. I have not been at the University, instead I entered the Midshipmen's School in Nikolayev (now Mykolaiv), not far fom the Black Sea."[8] During this period he developed an interest in philosophy and read (in the French translation of Tissot) Immanuel Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason, which gave him the basis of his speculative thought. He later followed the readings of Descartes, David Hume, and Stuart Mill.[9]

In 1855, at the age of 18, he participated as Sub-lieutenant of the Russian navy in the Crimean War, during which he was twice decorated (Orders of Saint-Andrew and Saint-George). Spir defended the same bastion (N. 4 at Malakoff) as Leo Tolstoy during the siege of Sevastopol. After his father’s death in 1852, he inherited his father’s estates (his last remaining brother, the poet Aristarch, having died in 1841), and he emancipated his serfs and gave them land, goods and money (Spir was a forerunner: the serfs's official emancipation in the Russian Empire would not be proclaimed until 1861). In 1862 he left Elizabethgrad for a tour in Germany, where he spent two years "to know better the mind's matter".[10] His sister Charitis died soon after his return to Russia in 1864. After the death of his mother, in 1867, he sold lhis estates at a ridiculously low price, distributed almost all of his possessions and left Russia permanently.[11]

He first went to Leipzig, where he attended the lectures of Moritz Wilhelm Drobisch (1802–1896), a Herbartian philosopher. He was there at the same time that Nietzsche was a student, although it does not appear that they met. In 1869 he moved to Tübingen and in 1871, to Stuttgart. Here, at the orthodox Church of the Court,[12] he married on 30 January 1872, Elisabeth (Elise) Gatternich[13] and the two had a daughter, Hélène.[14] In Leipzig, Spir befriended the publisher and fellow Freemason Joseph Gabriel Findel, who published most of Spir’s works. His most important book, Denken und Wirklichkeit: Versuch einer Erneuerung der kritischen Philosophie (Thought and Reality: Attempt at a Renewal of Critical Philosophy) was published in 1873. A second edition, which was the one owned by Nietzsche, was published in 1877. In an attempt to be read by a broader lectorate, Spir wrote directly in French his Esquisses de philosophie critique (Outlines of critical philosophy), published for the first time in 1877.[15] A new edition was published forty years after his death, in 1930, with an introduction by the French philosopher and professor at the Sorbonne Léon Brunschvicg.

In 1878, having suffered from pneumonia, in order to treat the consequences of his illness (a chronic cough), Spir moved to Lausanne, Switzerland, where he spent five years. In 1884 Spir asked the Russian Emperor to be authorized to leave the Russian citizenship and to obtain the Swiss citizenship, the same year he received the imperial authorization and applied for a certificate of registry at Belmont-sur-Lausanne, where he lived with his family.[16] In 1886, to enjoy the facilities of a bigger library (the "Société de Lecture", a private reading society),[17] he moved to Geneva.[18] At 17 September 1889 he received from the Swiss Federal Government the authorization for his wife, his daughter, and himself to become Swiss citizens.[19] He died of influenza in Geneva, at 6 rue Petitot, on 26 March 1890, and was buried in the Saint-Georges cemetery. He was survived by his wife Elisabeth and his daughter, Hélène. Although he spent most of his life as a philosopher, he never held a university appointment and his writings remained relatively unknown and unrecognized throughout his life.[20]

Manuscripts, personal papers, photographs, books by or on African Spir were donated in March 1940 by his daughter Hélène Claparède-Spir to the Library of Geneva (Bibliothèque de Genève, formerly Bibliothèque Publique et Universitaire de Genève), where they compose the "Fonds African Spir" and can be consulted.

Others Papers concerning Spir, his daughter Hélène Claparède-Spir and her family can be consulted at Harvard University Library.

Philosophy

Due to his personal readings and his attending of Drobitsch's lectures, Spir must be considered as a Neo-Kantian philosopher, Nietzsche presented him as "an outstanding logician".[21] Spir referred to his philosophy as "critical philosophy".

Epistemology

Spir sought to establish philosophy as the science of first principles, he held that the task of philosophy was to investigate immediate knowledge, show the delusion of empiricism, and present the true nature of things by strict statements of facts and logically controlled inference. This method led Spir to proclaim the principle of identity (or law of identity, A ≡ A) as the fundamental law of knowledge, which is opposed to the changing appearance of the empirical reality.[22]

Ontology

For Spir the principle of identity is not only the fundamental law of knowledge, it is also an ontological principle, expression of the unconditioned essence of reality (Realität=Identität mit sich), which is opposed to the empirical reality (Wirklichkeit), which in turn is evolution (Geschehen).[23] The principle of identity displays the essence of reality: only that which is identical to itself is real, the empirical world is ever-changing, therefore it is not real. Thus the empirical world has an illusory character, because phenomena are ever-changing, and empirical reality is unknowable.

Religion and Morality

Religion, morality and philosophy, have for Spir the same theoretical foundation: the principle of identity, which is the characteristic of the supreme being, of the absolute, of God. God is not the creator deity of the universe and mankind, but man's true nature and the norm of all things, in general. The moral and religious conscience live in the consciousness of the contrast between this norm (Realität) and empirical reality (Wirklichkeit). "There is a radical dualism between the empirical nature of man and his moral nature" [24] and the awareness of this dualism is the sole true foundation of moral judgment.[25]

Social Justice

Socially, Spir was not favourable to inherited wealth's accumulation in private hands and demanded just distribution of material goods, but disapproved of collectivism.[26] He set the example, redistributing his personal inherited land properties to his former serfs.[27]

Reception

In 1896 Leo Tolstoy read Thought and Reality and was deeply impressed, as he mentioned in a letter to Hélène Claparède-Spir: "reading Thought and Reality has been a great joy for me. I do not know a philosopher so profound and at the same time so precise, I mean scientific, accepting only what is strictly necessary and clear for everybody. I am sure that his doctrine will be understood and appreciated as it deserves and that the destiny of his work will be similar to that of Schopenhauer, who became known and admired only after his death".[28] We read in Tolstoy's journal, 2 May 1896 : "Still another important event the work [Thought and Reality] of African Spir. I just read through what I wrote in the beginning of this notebook. At bottom, it is nothing else than a short summary of all of Spir's philosophy which I not only had not read at that time, but about which I had not the slightest idea. This work clarified my ideas on the meaning of life remarkably, and in some ways strengthened them. The essence of his doctrine is that things do not exist, but only our impressions which appear to us in our conception as objects. Conception (Vorstellung) has the quality of believing in the existence of objects. This comes from the fact that the quality of thinking consists in attributing an objectivity to impressions, a substance, and a projecting of them into space." The most important works on Spir's philosophy were published between 1900 and 1914 (Lessing, Zacharoff, Segond, Huan, Martinetti). After the first World War, the interpretation of Spir's thought by the Italian philosopher Piero Martinetti (1872–1943)[29] gave it a second life for a short while, in the form of a "religious idealism".[30] Before the second World War, Hélène Claparède-Spir published some new editions of her father's books in French and had an extensive exchange of letters to promote her father's thought.[31] In 1937, for the centennial of Spir's birth, Martinetti published in Italy a monographic edition on Spir of the Rivista di Filosofia (Philosophical Review).[32] After the second World War, African Spir fell into oblivion. In 1990, for the centennial of Spir's death in Geneva, the Geneva Public Library organized an exhibition of the African Spir's corpus[33] and published the analytical catalogue.[34] Many of Spir's books have not been entirely sold and are still available in their first or second edition (in German, French, Italian, English, or Spanish translations). Presumably, due to the increasing interest in the argument at the beginning of the twenty-first century, a reprint of the Italian translation by Odoardo Campa in 1911 of Spir's Moralität und Religion (1874) has been published in 2008.[35]

Notes

  1. ^ "I was 21 years old when in 1873 was published this important book (Thought and Reality by A. Spir ), which I started immediately to study diligently. The book produced immediately a great impression." 8 March 1930, in a memory on an article of the Nouvelles littéraires (Literary News) on Nietzsche and Spir.
  2. ^ "William James, of Harvard, was among the first foreigners to take cognizance of Thought and Reality, already in 1873, then Max Müller of Oxford, in Holland Spruyt, Lund and G.[erardus] Heymans, the latter declared later that Spir exerced a real influence on the elaboration of his thought." Lettres inédites de African Spir au professeur Penjon (Unpublished Letters of African Spir to professor Penjon), Neuchâtel, 1948, p. 231, n. 7.
  3. ^ Spir died at 9 PM, Fabrizio Frigerio, Catalogue raisonné du fonds African Spir (Analytical Catalogue of Afrikan Spir's Corpus) p. 6, n. 28. Death certificate of African Spir, 26 March 1890 (Vol. 1890, n. 139).
  4. ^ Rüdiger Safranski, Nietzsche: A Philosophical Biography (trans. Shelley Frisch), W. W. Norton & Company, 2003, p. 161: "This work [Thought and Reality] had long been consigned to oblivion, but it had a lasting impact on Nietzsche. Section 18 of Human, All Too Human cited Spir, not by name, but by presenting a "proposition by an outstanding logician" (2,38; HH I §18).
  5. ^ For Nietzsche's annotations in his copy of African's Spir Thought and Reality, as well as Hélène's Claparède-Spir comments on these annotations in a letter in German to Hans Vaihinger (dated Geneva, March, 11th, 1930), cf. Fabrizio Frigerio, op. cit., p. 15, n. 29 c., Ms. l.e. 253.
  6. ^ Ibid., p. 4, 2, n.2. Birth Certificate of African Spir (in Russian) and n.3. German translation of the Birth Certicate and the Certificate of Baptism of African Spir.
  7. ^ Or to abridge it, if it was absolutely necessary to maintain it, like in his engagement-card: "A. v. Spir-Elise Gatternicht Verlobte Odessa December 1871 Stuttgart", cf.Ibid., p. 4, Personal papers of African Spir, Ms. fr. 1406, 2, no.7.
  8. ^ Autobiographical notice, cf.Ibid., p. 7, Personal Papers of African Spir, Ms. fr. 1409, 5, no.7.
  9. ^ "two philosophers, Stuart Mill and David Hume, that he appreciated very particularly, and who always stayed his preferred authors, “because, he said, of their clarity et of their perfect sincerity.” Hélène Claparède-Spir, Paroles d’un sage : choix de pensées d’African Spir, (Words of a wise man: choice of Spir's words) Paris-Genève, Je Sers-Labor, 1937, p.24.
  10. ^ Fabrizio Frigerio, op. cit., p. 7, Personal Papers of African Spir, Ms. fr. 1409, 5, no.7.
  11. ^ Hélène Claparède-Spir, Un précurser A. Spir, Lausanne-Genève, 1920, p. 18
  12. ^ Ibid.: "I was educated and baptized in the Greco-Russian faith, although my father was a Protestant."
  13. ^ Elise Sophie Adelaïde Gatternicht, born on 4 June 1850 in Stuttgart, daughter of Johann Adam Gatternicht and Jeanne Catherine, born Heuss (Excerpt of Certificate of Birth, Stuttgart, 19 July 1883), Fabrizio Frigerio, op. cit., p. 4, Personal Papers of African Spir, Ms. fr. 1406, 5, nos. 8 and 9.
  14. ^ Hélène-Catherine-Augusta Spir (Stuttgart, 14.2.1873 – Geneva, 12.11.1955), who will marry the Swiss neurologist and psychologist Edouard Claparède (Geneva, 24.3.1873 – Geneva, 29.9.1940) and became Hélène Claparède-Spir (or Elena Afrikanovna Klapared-Spir, in russian: Елона Африкановна Клапаред-Спир (Шпир).
  15. ^ "The author of the present Outlines who, without being himself a German, has published many books in German, will submit his philosophy to the scrutiny of the French Public.", Fabrizio Frigerio, op. cit., p. 9, no. 14, Ms. fr. 1410.
  16. ^ Ibid., p. 5, nos. 18, 19, 20, 21.
  17. ^ Due to his chronic cough, it was not possible for Spir to read books in a public library; as a member of the "Société de Lecture" it was possible for him to take at home the books that he wanted to read.
  18. ^ Establishment's Setting n. 18529, delivered 19 June 1886, to Mr. African De Spir, without profession, born 10 November 1837, from Russia, married to Miss Eisabeth De Gatternicht, Fabrizio Frigerio, op. cit., p. 5 , no. 24.
  19. ^ Authorization N. 347, Fabrizio Frigerio, op. cit., p. 6 , no. 25.
  20. ^ For Spir's biography cf.Hélène Claparède-Spir, Un précurseur: A. Spir [ A Forerunner: A. Spir], Lausanne-Genève, Payot & Cie, 1920.
  21. ^ Human, All Too Human (2,38; HH I §18)
  22. ^ Forschung nach der Gewissheit in der Erkenntniss der Wirklichkeit, Leipzig, J.G. Findel, 1869 and Denken und Wirklichkeit: Versuch einer Erneuerung der kritischen Philosophie, Leipzig, J. G. Findel, 1873.
  23. ^ Forschung nach der Gewissheit in der Erkenntniss der Wirklichkeit, p. 13.
  24. ^ Hélène Claparède-Spir, Paroles d’un sage : choix de pensées d’African Spir, op. cit., p. 59.
  25. ^ Moralität und Religion, Leipzig, J.G. Findel, 1874.
  26. ^ Recht und Unrecht: Eine Erörterung der Principien, Leipzig, J.G. Findel, 1879.
  27. ^ Hélène-Claparède Spir, "Un précurseur: A. Spir", in: African Spir, Principes de justice sociale, précédés de "Un précurseur", avec une préface de Georges Duhamel, Genève, 1945, p. 19.
  28. ^ Published in: Hélène Claparède-Spir, Evocation: Tolstoi, Nietzsche, Rilke, Spir, Genève, Georg, 1944; the original letter can be consulted at the Bibliothèque de Genève, cf. Fabrizio Frigerio, op. cit., p.17, n. 2. Manuscript letter (in French) to Hélène Claparède-Spir in Stuttgart, 1/13 May 1896.
  29. ^ Piero Martinetti, Il pensiero di Africano Spir (African's Spir Thought), edited by Franco Alessio, Torino, Albert Meynier, 1990.
  30. ^ Franco Alessio, L'idealismo religioso di Piero Martinetti, Brescia, Morcelliana, 1950 (Alessio's dissertation at Pavia).
  31. ^ Fabrizio Frigerio, op. cit., p.16, n. 30. Letters to Hélène Claparède-Spir concerning her father African Spir, Ms. 1.e. 254.
  32. ^ Rivista di filosofia, 1937, a. XXVIII, n. 3, Africano Spir nel primo centenario della nascita.
  33. ^ Fabrizio Frigerio, "Un philosophe russe à Genève: African Spir (1837–1890)", in Musées de Genève, 1990, 307, p. 3-7.
  34. ^ Fabrizio Frigerio, Catalogue raisonné du fonds African Spir, Genève, Bibliothèque Publique et Universitaire de Genève, 1990.
  35. ^ Africano Spir, Religione, Traduzione dal tedesco con prefazione e una bibliografia di Od. Campa, Lanciano, Carabba editore, 2008 (Ristampa anastatica dell'edizione originale).

Spir's Works

Selected works on Spir

Selected works on Nietzsche's Relationship to Spir

External links