Justin E. H. Smith

Philosophometry

I may have mentioned already that I am in the beginning stages of a massively ambitious, multi-year project: I have been asked to write a very long, but not nearly long enough, book called A Global History of Philosophy, to 1750. The manuscript is due in 2017.

I have been considering for the past several months the different possible ways to approach this project. One thing that is certain, and that I've made clear from the beginning, is that I don't want to write a sort of multicultural redux of Russell's History of Western Philosophy: a basically teleological how-things-led-up-to-me scenario, with some stuff about China and India tacked on to appeal to current sensibilities. As I see it, though, one is trapped between a Scylla and Charybdis however one approaches this project: either it amounts to offering one's own idiosyncratic twist on what this whole history has been about, or it amounts to a compendium of facts that aspire, within the bounds of the word-limit set by the publisher, to be genuinely comprehensive.

In the era of Wikipedia (and we will be much deeper into that era by 2017) we seriously need to rethink the purpose of presenting facts to readers at all. How can I write a book that relates the global history of philosophy, and  that provides readers something that online, collaborative information sources cannot? Again, one option is to offer the sort of idiosyncratic interpretation that one is allowed to have as the author of a book, rather than of an encyclopedia entry, but as I've already said, the Russellian danger there is one that I also wish to avoid. One possible way I've been considering to navigate a path that steers clear of both Russell and Wikipedia is what I've started thinking of as 'philosophometry' (check Google; you heard it here first!), but which might also perhaps be called 'quantitative metaphilosophy'.

I've been thinking a lot about the revolutionary work, for example, that Franco Moretti has done on the modern novel in books like Graphs, Maps, Trees. More generally, researchers in fields outside philosophy are learning the value of quantitative, digitally based study of the materials they are devoted to illuminating. The other humanities, if not yet philosophy, have come to understand the value of 'distant readings' as a complement to the sacred practice of 'close reading'. The idea, then, is to compile a massive database of texts, titles, key words key arguments from the first few millennia of philosophical activity across Eurasia, and to process these data in order to generate graphs, maps, and trees that could reveal new things about how we came to think about truth, reality, the self, etc., in the way we do.

Imagine, for example, an interactive website (or perhaps by 2017 'books' themselves will be interactive) that plots philosophical texts on a map of Eurasia, with different coloured blips indicating different doctrines defended in the texts (materialism vs. idealism, for example, or corruptibility vs. immortality of the soul). My model here is the surprisingly beautiful graphic made showing the history of nuclear explosions since World War II (replace the explosions by texts, and the nuclear states by schools of thought). Or imagine, further, the plotting of arguments or doctrines against extratextual factors like the political regimes, modes of production, population densities, and so on, that correlate with the texts. Of course, the huge problem here is compiling the database from which one could, once it's there, fairly easily generate the beautiful graphcs. This is what I have a few years to figure out how to do. Obviously I can only read a small portion of the texts myself. Equally obviously, I need some grant money.

I can already hear a certain kind of philosopher insisting that this project is futile at worst or, at best, that it contributes nothing to philosophy itself. But I am more convinced than ever that what is said by some guy who happens to be alive right now, and employed by a university to tell us what he happens to think about, e.g., whether there is a hard problem of consciousness or not, can be of next to no interest for our understanding of the philosophical question in question. The truth is I just don't think it's very grown up, intellectually, to set about actually trying to answer questions like these, at least in the way we are used to seeing philosophers try to answer them.

In this respect, I am sympathetic to the approach of experimental philosophy, even if I have not yet been able to convince any experimental philosophers that I'm on their side. Like them, I think the more sophisticated and fruitful approach to questions like, e.g., whether the mind is distinct from the body, is not try to answer them directly, but to somehow take a survey of the range of possible positions human beings take up on the question. Now, the experimental philosophers today think it is enough to survey their contemporaries, by methods borrowed mostly from psychology. I'm starting to think that what we need to do is, so to speak, to survey the past, using methods adapted from archeology, historical linguistics, and evolutionary biology, and recently applied with impressive results in unlikely fields such as comparative literature.

Again, I recognize that the philosophometric results will only be as valuable as the initial phase of data collection permits them to be, and that this collection will require the old, traditional methods of reading texts and determining what the arguments are. But still, I think this can be done as a collaborative project, and that it is the most urgent project we should be undertaking if we wish to better understand what this whole endeavor of philosophy has been all about. That I think this might, paradoxically, be an expression of my own idiosyncratic understanding of what human intellectual activity, such as philosophy, is; and that I think such an ambitious philosophometric project could actually be carried out might be a result of the fact that I'm living in an era in which the labors of scholars in the digital-huamanities are starting to bear fruit. In this respect then, I've avoided neither the Scylla of Russell nor the Charybdis of Wikipedia, but in fact have collided with and embraced both of them. 

Anton Wilhelm Amo: Some Early Sources

Johann Peter von Ludewig (1729):

In this very place a baptized Moor by the name of Mister Anton Wilhelm Amo, in the service of His Highness the Duke of Wolfenbüttel, spent some years for the purpose of studying. And after he had attained a proficiency in the Latin language, he showed such dedication and success in the lessons of private and public law that he became very well versed in this field. After this, with the consent of his most merciful Highness, who had supported him until know, he was permitted by the Chancellor von Ludwig to hold a public disputation under his [the Chancellor's] presidence. So that the argument of the disputation should be appropriate to his situation, the topic De iure Maurorum in Europa, or the law of Moors, was chosen. Therein it was not only shown from books and from history, that the kings of the Moors were enfeoffed by the Roman Emperor, and that every one of them had to obtain a royal patent from him, which Justinian also issued, but it was also investigated how far the freedom or servitude of Moors bought by Christians in Europe extends, according to the usual laws. 

Hieselbst hat sich ein in Diensten Sr. Hochfürstl. Durchl. des regierenden Hertzogs von Wolfenbüttel stehender getaufter Mohr Namens Herr Antonius Wilhelmus Amo, einige Jahre Studirens halber aufgehalten. Und nachdem er vorhero die Lateinische Sprache zum Grund geleget hat er hier die collegis iuris priuati und publici mit solchem Fleiß und succeß getrieben, daß er in solchem studio ziemlich geübet. Solchem nach er sich mit Vorbewußt seiner gnädigsten Herrschaft welche ihn bisher allhier unterhalten bey dem Herrn Cantzler von Ludewig angegeben unter deßen praesidio sich mit einer disputation öffentlich hören zu lassen. Damit nun das argument der disputation seinem Stande gemäß seyn möchte; so ist das thema de iure mavrorum in Europa oder vom Mohrenrecht beliebet worden. Darinnen daß nicht allein ex LL und der Historie gezeuget; daß der Mohren ihr König bey dem Römischen Kayser ehedem zu Lehen gegangen und jeder von denselben ein Königs-Patent welches auch Justinianus augetheilet hohlen müssen; sondern auch vornehmlich dieses untersuchet wie weit den von Christen erkaufften Mohren in Europa ihre Freyheit oder Dienstbarkeit denen üblichen Rechten nach sich erstrecke.

From Wöchentlichen Hallischen Frage- und Anzeigungs-Nachrichten, 28 November, 1729. 

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Johann Heinrich Zedler (1739):

Amo (Anton Wilhelm), a baptized Moor, originally from Guinea in Africa. His Highness the Elector of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel, at his own expense, sent Amo to study philosophy and law for some years at Halle. In the year 1729, in the month of November, he defended a dissertation in law, with the Chancellor von Ludwig presiding, entitled De jure Maurorum in Europa, or on the law of Moors. In this work he showed from laws and histories that the kings of the Moors were enfeoffed under the Roman Emperor, and that each of them had to obtain a royal patent, which Justinian also issued. After this, he investigates how far the freedom or servitude of baptized Moors in Europe extends according to the usual laws (see Ludwig's Universal-Historie, Part 5, p. 251). From this he obtained the Master's degree, and for some time gave private lessons in Halle (see Dreyhaupt's Beschreibung des Saalkreises, Part II, p. 28). He must however have subsequently visited the University of Wittenberg, since we possess from him a Disputationem philosophicam, continentem ideam distinctam eorum, quae competunt vel menti vel corpori nostro vivo & organico, which he publicly defended as praeses in Wittenberg on 29 May, 1734. In this dissertation he refers several times to another dissertation he defended, the Dissertatio de humana [sic] mentis apatheia.

From the Großes Universallexicon aller Wissenschaften und Künste, Leipzig, 1739-1750. Online version here. 

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Abbé Henri Grégoire (1808):

Amo (Antoine-Guillaume), born in Guinea, was brought at a very young age to Amsterdam, in 1707, and given to the duke of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel, Anton Ulrich, who gave him to his son August Wilhelm. The latter sent him to pursue his studies to the University of Halle, in Saxony, and to the University of Wittemberg. At the former, in 1729, under the chairmanship of the Chancellor von Ludwig, he defended a thesis, and published a dissertation On the Law of Moors.

Amo was versed in astronomy, and spoke Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French, Dutch, and German. 

He so distinguished himself by his good morals and by his talents, that the rector and the council of the University of Wittemberg found it fitting, in 1733, to do him public honor through an epistle of congratulations. They recalled that Terence too was from Africa; that many martyrs, doctors, and church fathers were born in that same country, where letters flourished, and that fell back into barbarism when it lost Christianity. 

Amo successfully gave individual courses, praised in the same epistle: in a program publiched by the dean of the faculty of philosophy, it is said of this learned Negro, that having treated of the systems of the ancients and the moderns, he selected and taught what was best in them. 

Amo, having become a doctor, defended a thesis and published a dissertation in 1744 [sic] at Wittemberg on the sensations, considered as absent in the human soul, and present in the human body. In a letter written to him by the president, he is addressed as a vir nobilissime et clarissime; thus the University of Wittemberg did not have, on the basis of a difference of color, the prejudices of so many men who claim to be enlightened. The president states that he never made any changes to Amo's dissertation, since it was so well written. Indeed, the work bespeaks a mind that is well exercised in reflection. He seeks to establish the differences of phenomena between beings that exist without life, and those that have life. A stone exists, but is not alive. 

It appears that abstract discussions held a particular attraction for our author, since, having become a professor, he saw to the defense, the same year, of a thesis that was similar to the preceding one, on the distinction that is to be made between the operations of the mind and those of the senses. The Berlin court conferred upon him the title of Councillor of State, but after the death of the prince of Braunschweig, his benefactor, Amo, having fallen into a deep melancholy, resolved to leave the Europe where he had lived for thirty years, and to return to his native land in Axim, on the Gold Coast. In 1753 he received the visit of the learned voyager and physician David-Henri Gallandat, who speaks of him in the Mémoires de l'Académie de Flessingue, of which he was a member.

Amo, at that time around 50 years old, led a solitary life there. His father and sister were still alive, and his brother was a slave in Suriname. Some time later, he left Axim, and settled in Chama, at the fort of the Dutch Saint-Sebastian Company. 

I made some unfruitful research in order to discover whether Amo published other works, and when he died. 

From De la littérature des Nègres, ou, recherches sur leurs facultés intellectueles, leurs qualités morales et leur littérature: suivies des notices sur la vie et les ouvrages des Nègres qui se sont distingués dans les sciences, les lettres et les arts, Paris, 1808, pgs. 198-202. Online version here.

Anton Wilhelm Amo (c. 1703-c.1753), A Partial Bibliography

Works by Amo:

Antonius Guilelmus Amo, Dissertatio inauguralis de iure Maurorum in Europa, Halle, 1729 (lost).

Antonius Guilelmus Amo, Dissertatio inauguralis de Humanae mentis apatheia, Wittenberg, 1734.

Antonius Guilelmus Amo, Tractatus de arte sobrie et accurate philosophandi, Halle, 1738.

Johannes Theodosius Meiner, Idearum distinctam eorum quae competunt vel menti vel corpori nostro vivo et organico (with Amo as 'Praeses'), Wittenberg, 29 May, 1734.

Translations and editions of Amo:

Burchard Brentjes (Ed.), Antonius Guilelmus Amo Afer, aus Axim in Ghana: Student, Doktor der Philosophie, Magister legens an den Universitäten Halle, Witttenberg, Jena, 1727-1747. Dokumente, Autographe, Belege, Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, Halle, 1968.

Anton William Amo, Treatise on the Art of Philosophising Soberly and Accurately, ed. and tr. T. Uzodinma Nwala, Nsukka, University of Nigeria Press, 1990.

Antoine Guillaume Amo, De Humanae mentis apatheia; Tractatus de arte sobrie et accurate philosophandi, ed. and tr. Simon Mougnol, Paris, Harmattan, 2010. 

Attacks on Amo:

Johann Ernst Philippi, Belustigende Poetische Schaubühne, und auf derselben I. Ein Poßirlicher Student, Hanß Dümchen aus Norden, nebst Zwölf seiner lustigen Cameraden. II. Die Academische Scheinjungfer, als ein Muster aller Cocketten. III. Herrn M. Amo, eines gelehrten Mohren, galanter Liebes-Antrag an eine schöne Brünette, Madem. Astrine. IV. Der Mademoiselle Astrine, Parodische Antwort auf solchen Antrag eines verliebten Mohren. Cöthen, in der Cörnerischen Buchhandlung, 1747.

Works about Amo (alphabetically ordered, by author):

Burchard Brentjes, "Ein afrikanischer Student der Philosophie und Medizin in Halle, Wittenberg und Jena (1727-1747)," in In memoriam Hermann Boerhaave (1668-1738), Halle, 1969.

Burchard Brentjes, "Anton Wilhelm Amo, First African Philosopher in European Universities," in Current Anthropology 16, 3 (1975): 443-444.

Burchard Brentjes, Anton Wilhelm Amo: der schwarze Philosoph in Halle, Leipzig, Koehler & Amelang, 1976.

Burchard Brentjes, "Der erste afrikanische Student in Halle," in Der Beitrag der Völker Afrikas zur Weltkultur. 32. Kongress und Tagungsberichte, Martin-Luther-Universität Halle, 1977.

Christine Damis, "Le philosophe connu pour sa peau noire: Anton Wilhelm Amo," in Rue Descartes 36, 2 (2002): 115.

Yawovi Emmanuel Edeh, Die Grundlagen der philosophischen Schriften von Amo. In welchem Verhältnis steht Amo zu Christian Wolff, dass man ihn als 'einen führnehmlichen Wolffianer' bezeichnen kann?, Essen, Die blaue Eule, 2003.

Monika Firla, Anton Wilhelm Amo (Nzema, Rep. Ghana). Kammermohr - Privatdozent für Philosophie - Wahrsager, in Tribus 51 (2002): 55-90.

Johannes Glötzner, Anton Wilhelm Amo. Ein Philosoph aus Afrika im Deutschland des 18. Jahrhunderts, Munich, Enhuber, 2002.

Johannes Glötzner, Der Mohr. Leben, Lieben und Lehren des ersten afrikanischen Doctors der Weltweisheit Anton Wilhelm Amo, Stekovics, Dössel, 2003.

Hannelore Heckmann, “Anton Wilhelm Amo (ca. 1707-ca.1756): On the Reception of a Black Philosopher,” in Lessing Yearbook 23 (1991): 149-158.

Ulrich van der Heyden, "Anton Wilhelm Amo, der afrikanische Philosoph," in Unbekannte Biographien. Afrikaner im deutschsprachigen Raum vom 18. Jahrhundert bis zum Ende des Zweiten Weltkriegs, Berlin, Homilius-Verlag, 2008.

Paulin J. Hountondji, Un philosophe africain dans l'Allemagne du XVIIIe siècle, Paris, Presses Universitaires de France, 1970.

Norbert Lochner, "Anton Wilhelm Amo. Ein Gelehrter aus Ghana im Deutschland des 18. Jahrhunderts," in Übersee-Rundschau (January, 1958): 22-25.

Jacob Emmanuel Mabe, Anton Wilhelm Amo interkulturell gelesen, Nordhausen, Traugott Bautz, 2007.

Simon Mougnol, Amo Afer. Un Noir, professeur d'université en Allemagne au XVIIIe siècle, Paris, Harmattan, 2010. 

Marilyn Sephocle, "Anton Wilhelm Amo (Eighteenth-Century African Philosopher)" in Journal of Black Studies 23, 2 (1992): 182-187.

Wolfram Suchier, "Ein Mohr als Student und Privatdozent der Philosophie in Halle, Wittenberg und Jena," in Akademische Rundschau 4 (1916).

Wolfram Suchier, "Weiteres über den Mohren Amo," in Altsachsen: Zeitschrift des Altsachsenbundes für Heimatschutz und Heimatkunde 1-2 (1918).

Brief discussion of Amo in the following sources (chronologically ordered):

Johann Peter von Ludewig, An announcement of Amo's first disputation in Wöchentliche Hallische Frage- und Anzeigungs- Nachrichten, 28 November, 1729. Transcription and translation here.

Carl Günter Ludovici, Entwurf einer vollständigen Historie der wolffischen Philosophie, Bd. 1, Teil 3., (pages 230-232; 361-362), Leipzig, 1738.

Hamburgische Berichte von Gelehrten Sachen, 24 November, 1739, p. 781.

Johann Heinrich Zedler, "Amo (Anton Wilhelm)," in Großes Universallexicon aller Wissenschaften und Künste, Leipzig, 1739-1750. Online version here. Translation here.

Samuel Gotthold Lange, Sammlung gelehrter und freundschaftlicher Briefe, Halle, 1747.

Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, "Abschnitt von den Negern," in Magazin für das Neueste aus Physik und Naturgeschichte, Band 4, Teil 3, Gotha, 1787, 9-11.

Henri Grégoire, De la littérature des Nègres, ou, recherches sur leurs facultés intellectueles, leurs qualités morales et leur littérature: suivies des notices sur la vie et les ouvrages des Nègres qui se sont distingués dans les sciences, les lettres et les arts, Paris, 1808, pgs. 198-202. Online version here. Translation here.

"Negroes in the Field of Philosophy," in The Negro History Bulletin 2, 9 (1939): 76.

Kwame Nkrumah, Consciencism: Philosophy and Ideology for De-Colonization, New York and London, Monthly Review Press, 1970.

Robert Fikes Jr., "Black Scholars in Europe during the Renaissance and the Enlightenment," in Negro History Bulletin 43, 3 (1980): 58-60.

Paulin J. Hountondji, African Philosophy: Myth and Reality, Bloomington, University of Indiana Press, 1983. 

Dedicatory Epistles to Amo's De Humanae mentis apatheia (1734)

To the benevolent reader, the Rector and the Council of the University of Wittenberg extend a cordial welcome

In the past, the veneration given to Africa was enormous, whether for its natural genius, its appreciation for learning, or its religious organization. This continent nurtured the growth of a number of men of great value, whose genius and assiduousness have made an inestimable contribution to the knowledge of human affairs and, much more, to the knowledge of divine things. From memory, no one has ever been judged better informed in matters of daily life, nor more a man of refined manners, than Terence of Carthage. Plato himself was reborn in the Socratic interventions of Apuleius of Madaurus. His discourses were so well received in centuries past that learned men were divided into two camps: that of Apuleius contended with that of Cicero for the first prize in eloquence. And in the development of Christian doctrine, how many were its promoters who came from Africa! Only to speak of the greatest of them, let us cite Tertullian, Cyprian, Arnobius, Optatus, Augustine, whose disputed with candor across the full range of the knowledge they had acquired. Monuments, facts, martyrs, councils, all proclaim the fidelity and constancy with which these African doctors labored for the preservation of the integrity of what is sacred. In fact, to suppose that the African church only ever made concessions is to do it an injustice. Even with the Arab invasion of Africa, which brought about great changes, many things did not disappear with the domination of these invaders: all of the radiance of African technical and literary genius was not at all extinguished. In fact, letters were admired among these peoples, where the liberal sciences were cultivated; as the Moors coming from Africa crossed through Spain, they brought knowledge of the ancient thinkers, while also bringing much assistance to the development of letters, which were coming out of the darkness little by little.

African learning thus had, in the most ancient times, something to be well received. This is no less true for us, to whom it is reported that that part of the earth has at its disposition other things richer still than the wealth of books and the applications of the technical arts, as is attested by the example given by the Master in philosophy and in the liberal arts, the very brilliant Anton Wilhelm AMO, an African from Guinea. He first saw the light of day in the most distant region of West Africa, and came to Europe as a small boy. He was introduced to sacred things at Halae Juliae. The most serene princes, dukes of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel, August Wilhelm and Ludwig Rudolph, deployed their goodness so that he should not suffer, in his education, from the absence of a father's assistance. After having demonstrated his genius, he was brought to Halle in Saxony: there he was initiated into diverse sciences, after which he came to us. As he showed an equal spirit [in philosophy], he rallied the entire department in his favor, and all of his masters unanimously accorded to him the degree of Doctor in Philosophy.

These encomia took on greater weight still, from the praises he received thanks to his genius, to his rank, and to his admirable sense of honor; to his industry, to the knowledge he demonstrated on the occasion of public or private performances. In conducting himself thus, he brought upon himself the affection of the best men, and of the most learned, surpassing others of his generation by a head. Strengthened by the fascination that he inspired in them, he was at home in explaining philosophy to a number of them, commenting on the positions of the ancients as well as of the moderns, always choosing the clearest explanation and giving the reasons for this choice swiftly and with precision. In so doing, he clearly demonstrated his ability to understand and to teach, indicating by this that he had everything needed to obtain, soon, a post in a university, and also that this would be in line with his natural penchant. It being understood that he has not disappointed us, this is why we cannot refrain from according to him the public judgment that he is right to hope for our appreciation. We place much hope in him, and we are convinced that he is worthy of the Prince whom he piously venerates, and whom he praises in all of his statements. We pray to God to pemit him to benefit for a long time from such happiness as this, and for him to achieve his goals for the glory of the very good and mighty PRINCE LUDWIG RUDOLPH.

We pray to God for the propserity of the whole House of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel, so reputed in all of Germany in view of its great merits.

Written publicly and marked with the seal of the University, this 24th of May, 1733

Johannes Gottfried Kraus, current Rector of the University

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The President solemnly salutes the brilliant author of this thesis

We publicly declare that Africa, and Guinea, one of its countries, so far from us, are your homeland. In view of its reserves of gold, this Guinea was previously called Côte d'Or by the Europeans, and was justly celebrated like a mother who bears natural goods and treasures in her womb, as also, still more, men of very great genius and of very great inventiveness. You count among these latter, very noble and very renowned Sir, with your badge of talent, of which fecundity and merit, as well as vigor and elegance, stand out among your intellectual attainments. All this led to your promotion in our university, with the unanimous applause of men of quality. No less, this thesis is today proof of all this. Because you have elegantly and knowledgeably composed it, I return it to you in its entirety and without any modifications, so tha your genius will radiate from it with that much more force. To conclude, I congratulate you with all my heart for this measure of the excellence of your erudition, but know that my esteem is still more affectionate than the words with which I express it. Permit me to sollicit, humbly and with all of my devotion, the grace of God and of the very great and very good prince, LUDWIG RUDOLPH, for whose salvation I shall never tire of calling upon Divine Majesty.

Composed at Wittenberg in Saxony, April, the year of our Lord 1734.