Afrikan Aleksandrovich Spir, or Shpir (Russian: Африкан Александрович Спир, Африкан Александрович Шпир ; born 1837 November 15, near Kirovohrad, Khersonskaya guberniya - died March 13, 1890, ) was a South Ukraine-born philosopher; known for his Agnosticism; with a Russian father and a Greek mother. | Queen Victoria, Queen of the United Kingdom (1837 - 1901) 1837 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... November 15 is the 319th day of the year (320th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 46 days remaining. ... Location Map of Ukraine with Kirovohrad highlighted. ... Kherson (Ukrainian and Russian Херсон) is a city in southern Ukraine, the capital of Kherson Oblast, with 303,900 inhabitants (2004). ... Guberniya (Russian: ) (also gubernia, guberniia, gubernya) was a major administrative subdivision of the Imperial Russia, usually translated as governorate or province. ... March 13 is the 72nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (73rd in leap years). ... 1890 (MDCCCXC) was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar). ... A philosopher is a person who thinks deeply regarding people, society, the world, and/or the universe. ... Agnosticism is the philosophical view that the (truth) values of certain claims—particularly theological claims regarding the existence of God, gods, or deities—are unknown, inherently unknowable, or incoherent, and therefore, (some agnostics may go as far to say) irrelevant to life. ...

His name is commonly spelled African Spir. An alternative spelling is Afrikan Spir.

He lived in Russia (until 1867), in Germany from 1867] until 1878, and in Switzerland (from 1878-to 1890). 1867 (MDCCCLXVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... 1867 (MDCCCLXVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... 1878 (MDCCCLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... 1878 (MDCCCLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... 1890 (MDCCCXC) was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar). ...

His surname is probably of Jewish origin, with two possible pronunciations; [spi^·r] like André Spire, or [špi^·r] like Karl Spiro; His given name was from Africanus. A family name, or surname, is that part of a persons name that indicates to what family he or she belongs. ... The word Jew ( Hebrew: יהודי) is used in a wide number of ways, but generally refers to a follower of the Jewish faith, a child of a Jewish mother, or someone of Jewish descent with a connection to Jewish culture or ethnicity and often a combination of these attributes. ... André Spire, French poet, writer, and Zionist activist. ... A given name is a word which specifies and differentiates between members of a group of individuals, especially a family, all of whose members usually share the same family name. ... Africanus is a cognomen of ancient Rome associated with the gens Scipio, especially Scipio Major and his grandson (by adoption) Scipio Minor, who were major players in the Punic Wars against Carthage. ...

He had a daughter Elona Afrikanovna Klapared-Spir / Hélène Claparède-Spir (Russian: Елона Африкановна Клапаред-Сипр (Шпир); [1]).

Biography

Afrikan Alexandrovich Spir was a little-known Neo-Kantian philosopher from Ukraine, whose book Denken und Wirklichkeit (Thought and Reality) exerted a very strong influence on the writings of Friedrich Nietzsche. Neo-Kantianism means a revived or modified type of philosophy along the lines of that laid down by Immanuel Kant in the eighteenth century. ... Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (IPA:) (October 15, 1844–August 25, 1900), a German philologist and philosopher, produced critiques of contemporary culture, religion, and philosophy centered around a basic question regarding the positive and negative attitudes of various systems of morality toward life. ...

Spir was born on the 15th of November 1837 near the city of Yelisawetgrad (Elizabethgrad, now Kirovohrad) in that part of the Russian Empire that is now Ukraine. His father, Alexander Alexandrovich Spir, was a doctor and former professor in Moscow. His mother, Helena Arsenowna Spir (née Poulevich), was the daughter of a famous painter. Alexander Spir gave each of his five children – four boys and one girl – names derived from months in the old Greek calendar. This is the source of the curious name “Afrikan.” From the age of eight Afrikan was educated at military academies, including a naval school at Nikolaijeff, to which he was sent at 14 and at which he first developed an interest in philosophy. In addition to reading (in a French translation) Immanuel Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason, Spir was also strongly influenced by David Hume at the time. Location Map of Ukraine with Kirovohrad highlighted. ... Official language Russian Official Religion Russian Orthodox Christianity Capital Saint Petersburg (Petrograd 1914-1925) Area Approx. ... A professor giving a lecture The meaning of the word professor (Latin: one who claims publicly to be an expert) varies. ... For other uses, see Moscow (disambiguation). ... Painting by Rembrandt self-portrait Detail from Las Meninas by Diego Velazquez, in which the painter portrayed himself at work For the computer graphics program, see Corel Painter. ... Immanuel Kant (22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804), was a German philosopher from Königsberg in East Prussia (now Kaliningrad, Russia). ... This article or section is incomplete and may require cleanup and/or expansion. ... David Hume (April 26, 1711 – August 25, 1776)[1] was a Scottish philosopher, economist, and historian who is one of the most important figures of Western philosophy and of the Scottish Enlightenment. ...

He participated in the Crimean War from 1855-56, during which he was twice decorated and made a lieutenant in the Russian navy. Spir defended the same bastion as Leo Tolstoy during the siege of Sevastopol. He inherited his father’s estates after his father’s death in 1852, his final remaining brother, Aristanrch, having died in 1841. In 1861, Spir freed his serfs and gave them land. The next year he left Elizabethgrad for a two year trip to Western Europe. His sister died soon after his return to Russia in 1864. After the death of his mother, he sold his estates and possessions in 1867 and left Russia permanently. Combatants United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Second French Empire, Ottoman Empire, Kingdom of Sardinia Russian Empire Strength 250,000 British 400,000 French 10,000 Sardinian 1,200,000 Russian Casualties 17,500 British 90,000 French 35,000 Turkish 2,050 Sardinian killed, wounded and died of... Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy (Russian: , Lev Nikolaevič Tolstoj), commonly referred to in English as Leo Tolstoy, (September 9, 1828 – November 20, 1910, N.S.; August 28, 1828 – November 7, 1910, O.S.) was a Russian novelist, philosopher, Christian anarchist, pacifist, educational reformer, vegetarian, moral thinker and an influential member of... Sevastopol (Ukrainian and Russian: ; Crimean Tatar: ), formerly known as Sebastopol, is a port city in Ukraine, located on the Black Sea coast of Crimean peninsula. ...

He first went to Leipzig and audited courses 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. In 1872 he married Elizabeth Gatternich and the two had a daughter, Hélène. In Leipzig, Spir befriended the publisher and fellow freemason J.G. 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. [] (Sorbian/Lusatian: Lipsk) is the largest city in the Federal State (Bundesland) of Saxony in Germany. ... Tübingen, Neckar front Tübingen, a traditional university town of Baden-Württemberg, Germany, is situated 20 miles southwest of Stuttgart, on a ridge between the River Neckar and the Ammer. ... Stuttgart [], a city located in southern Germany, is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg with a population of approximately 590,000 (as of September 2005) in the city and around 3 million in the metropolitan area. ...

In 1878 Spir contracted a lung infection. On the advice of his doctor, he moved to Lausanne, Switzerland, where he spent five years. In 1886 he moved to Geneva. He died there of influenza on March 26, 1890, survived by his wife and daughter. 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. Lausanne is a city in the French-speaking part of Switzerland, situated on the shores of Lake Geneva (French: Lac Léman), and facing Évian-les-Bains (France) and with the Jura hills to its north. ... Geneva (pronunciation //; French: Genève //, German: //, Italian: Ginevra) is the second most populous city in Switzerland, and is the most populous city of Romandy (the French-speaking part of Switzerland). ...

Six years after Spir's death, Tolstoy read the books of his former companion in arms and was deeply impressed and succeeded in gaining permission from the Russian censorship for publication of Russian versions of Spir's works, which had originally been published in German. 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 & logically controlled inference. This method led Spir to proclaim the principle of identity as the fundamental law of knowledge which is opposed to the changing appearance of the empirical. Socially, Spir demanded just distribution of material goods but disapproved of collectivism. In philosophy, the term empiricism is used to describe a set of philosophical positions that emphasize the role of experience. ... The Law of identity in logic, often incorrectly attributed to Aristotle, states that A = A. By the 17th century, reference to the law of identity was common amongst philosophers, but no reference to it exists during or before the time of St. ... Collectivism is a term used to describe any doctrine that stresses the importance of a collective, rather than the importance of the individual. ...

External links

• Website on Afrikan Spir.
• http://www.rustrana.ru/article.php?nid=12998&sq=19,25,999,1840,1842&crypt= (Russian)
• http://mirslovarei.com/content_beo/SHpir-Afrikan-Aleksandrovich-Spir-14330.html (Russian)

Selected works by Spir

• 1867. Die Wahrheit. Leipzig: J.G. Findel.

• 1868. Andeutung zu einem widerspruchlosen Denken. Leipzig: J.G. Findel.

• 1869. Erörterung einer philosophischen Grundeinsicht. Leipzig: J.G. Findel.

• 1869. Forschung nach der Gewissheit in der Erkenntniss der Wirklichkeit. Leipzig: J.G. Findel.

• 1869. Kurze Darstellung der Grundzüge einer philosophischen Anschauungsweise. Leipzig: J.G. Findel.

• 1869. Vorschlag an die Freunde einer vernünftigen Lebensführung. Leipzig: J.G. Findel.

• 1870. Kleine Schriften. Leipzig: J.G. Findel.

• 1873. Denken und Wirklichkeit: Versuch einer Erneuerung der kritischen Philosophie (). 1st ed. Leipzig: J. G. Findel.

• 1874. Moralität und religion. 1st ed. Leipzig: J.G. Findel.

• 1876. Empirie und Philosophie: vier Abhandlungen. Leipzig: J.G. Findel.

• 1877. Denken und Wirklichkeit: Versuch einer Erneuerung der kritischen Philosophie. 2d ed. Leipzig: J. G. Findel.
  French translation. Pensée et réalité: essai d'une réforme de la philosophie critique. Lille: Au siège des Facultés, 1896.

• 1877. Sinn und Folgen der modernen Geistesströmung. 1st ed. Leipzig: J.G. Findel.

• 1878. Moralität und religion. 2d ed. Leipzig: J.G. Findel.

• 1878. Sinn und Folgen der modernen Geistesströmung. 2d ed. Leipzig: J.G. Findel.

• 1879. Johann Gottlieb Fichte nach seinen Briefen. Leipzig: J. G. Findel.

• 1879. Recht und unrecht: Eine erörterung der principien. Leipzig: J.G. Findel.
  English translation. Right and Wrong. Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, 1954 (Alexander Frederick Falconer trans.).

• 1879. Ueber Idealismus und Pessimismus. Leipzig: J.G. Findel.

• 1880. Vier Grundfragen. Leipzig: J.G. Findel.

• 1883 Über Religion: Ein Gespräch. 1st ed. Leipzig: J.G. Findel.

• 1883-85. Gesammelte Schriften. Leipzig: J.G. Findel. (republished in 1896 by Stuttgart: Paul Neff).

• 1887. Esquisses de philosophie critique. Paris: Ancienne librairie Germer-Baillière et cie (F. Alcan, éditeur).

• 1897. Über Religion: Ein Gespräch. 2d ed. Leipzig: J.G. Findel.

• 1899. Nouvelles esquisses de philosophie critique. Paris: Félix Alcan.

• 1908-09. Gesammelte Werke. Leipzig: J.A. Barth (Hélène Claparède-Spir ed.)

• 1948. Lettres inédites de African Spir au professeur Penjon. Neuchâtel: Éditions du Griffon.

t* Autoroute A22 : Lille - Antwerp - Netherlands A sixth oher ejt weoitjh w newr0tipew roj40=9 dfiojg b o4it orpitre royieoy i53 -y035 3[49430ne — the proposed A24 — will link Amiens to Lille if built, but there is opposition to its route. ... Edinburgh (pronounced ; Dùn Èideann () in Scottish Gaelic) is Scotlands capital, and its second-largest city. ... Location within Switzerland Neuchâtel 47. ...

Selected works on Spir

• Hélène Claparède-Spir [Spir's daughter], Un précurseur: A. Spir (Lausanne & Paris: Payot & cie, 1920).

• Hélène Claparède-Spir, "Vie de A. Spir" in Afrikan Spir, Nouvelles esquisses de philosophie critique (Paris: Félix Alcan, 1899).

• Humanus, pseud., African Spir: ein philosoph der neuzeit (Leipzig: J.G.Findel, 1892).

• Theodor Lessing, African Spirs Erkenntnislehre (Giessen: Münchow 1900).
  Lessing's dissertation at Erlangen was accurately described by Lessing himself as "really bad." Theodor Lessing, "Gerichtstag über mich selbst", in Theodor Lessing, Einmal und nie wieder: Lebenserinnerungen 389, 401 (Gütersloh: Bertelsman 1969). Lessing mentions Nietzsche in passing and once describes Nietzsche and Spir as "antipodes", but he was not aware at the time that he wrote this work that Nietzsche had read Spir.

• Piero Martinetti (1872-1943), "Il dualismo di Africano Spir", in 28 Rivista di filosofia 240-250 (1937)

• Piero Martinetti (1872-1943), Il pensiero di Africano Spir (Torino: Albert Meynier, 1990).
  With an introduction by Franco Alessio.

• Andreas Zacharoff, Spirs theoretische Philosophie dargestellt und erläutert (Weida i. Th.: Thomas & Hubert, 1910).
  Zacharoff's dissertation at Jena.

• Mary-Barbara Zedlin, "Afrikan Alexandrovich Spir", in Paul Edwards ed., Encyclopedia of Philosophy 544 (New York: Macmillan 1972).
  A very brief introduction to Spir's philosophy.

Gießen (Giessen pronunciation) is a city in the federal state (Bundesland) of Hesse in Germany, capital of the Gießen district. ... Gütersloh is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, capital of the Gütersloh district. ... Antipodes (from Greek anti- opposed and pous foot) means diametrically opposed, and more specifically refers to the opposite side of the Earth, the region of the antipodal point, from where one is located. ... Torino or Turin is a major industrial city in north-western Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the west bank of the Po River. ... Weida can refer to the following: Weida (Thuringia), a city in the Thuringian district of Greiz, Germany Weida (river), a river in Eastern Thuringia Weida (creek), a creek in the district of Merseburg-Querfurt This article consisting of geographical locations is a disambiguation page, a list of pages that otherwise... Jena is a town in central Germany on the River Saale. ... Paul Edwards may refer to Paul Edwards, Canadian politician and lawyer. ... Macmillan Publishers Ltd, also known as The Macmillan Group, is a privately-held international publishing company owned by Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group. ...

Selected works on Nietzsche's Relationship to Spir

• Maudemarie Clark & David Dudrick, "Nietzsche's Post-Positivism," 12 European Journal of Philosophy 369-85 (2004).

• Hélène Claparède-Spir [Spir's daughter], Evocation: Tolstoi, Nietzsche, Rilke, Spir (Genève : Georg, 1944).

• Hélène Claparède-Spir, "Friedrich Nietzsche und Afrikan Spir," 6 Philosophie und Leben 242-50 (1930).

• Karl-Heinz Dickopp, "Zum Wandel von Nietzsches Seinsverständnis: Afrikan Spir und Gustav Teichmüller," 24 Zeitschrift für philosophische Forschung 50-71 (1970).
  Dickopp discusses Nietzsche's response to Spir's and Teichmüller's views on the Cartesian cogito.

• Domenico M. Fazio, "Il Pensiero del Giovane Nietzsche e Afrikan Spir," in 9 Bollettino di Storia della Filosofia dell'Università degli Studi di Lecce 243-62 (1986/9).

• Paolo D'Iorio, "La superstition des philosophes critiques: Nietzsche et Afrikan Spir," 22 Nietzsche-Studien 257-294 (1993).
  D'Iorio does a good job of chronicling Nietzsche's responses to Spir's thought in Nietzsche's Nachlaß.
• Michael Steven Green, Nietzsche and the Transcendental Tradition (Urbana & Chicago: University of Illinois Press - International Nietzsche Studies Series 2002).

• Michael Steven Green, "Nietzsche’s Place in Nineteenth Century German Philosophy," 47 Inquiry 168-88 (2004).
  Review of Will Dudley, Hegel, Nietzsche, and Philosophy: Thinking Freedom (Cambridge U. Press 2002). Uses Spir's influence on Nietzsche to emphasize the differences between Nietzsche and the tradition of German Idealism and to place Nietzsche within late-nineteenth century neo-Kantianism.

• Nadeem J. Z. Hussain, "Nietzsche's Positivism", 12 European Journal of Philosophy 326-68 (2004).

• Sergio Sánchez, "Logica, verità e credenza: alcune considerazioni in merito alla relazione Nietzsche–Spir” in La trama del testo: Su alcune letture di Nietzsche (Maria Cristina Fornari ed., Lecce: Millela, 2000), pp. 249-282.
  Sánchez is a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Córdoba in Argentina. This first work deals directly, and the next two more tangentially, with Spir's influence upon Nietzsche.

• Sergio Sánchez, “Linguaggio, conoscenza e verità nella filosofía del giovane Nietzsche: I frammenti postumi del 1873 e le loro fonti”, 16 Annuario Filosofico 213-240 (2000).

• Sergio Sánchez, El problema del conocimiento en la filosofía del joven Nietzsche (Córdoba, Argentina, 2001).

• Karl Schlechta & Anni Anders, Friedrich Nietzsche: Von den verborgenen Anfängen seines Philosophierens 119-22, 159-66 (Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt: F. Frommann 1962).

• Robin Small, "Nietzsche, Spir, and Time", 32 Journal of the History of Philosophy 85-102 (1994).
  Reprinted in Chapter One of Robin Small, Nietzsche in Context (Aldershot, U.K.: Ashgate 2001). Small discusses Spir's influence on Nietzsche's conception of time, including Nietzsche's "time atomism" fragment.

Please expand this article. Further information might be found in a section of the talk page or at Requests for expansion. Please remove this message once the article has been expanded.