Afrikan Alexandrovich Spir, also spelled African Spir (1837–1890), was a Russian-born philosopher of German-Greek descent who wrote primarily in German, but also French.Afrikan Spir. Dictionnaire historique de la Suisse.Spir, Afrikan Alexandrovich (1837–1890). Encyclopedia.com.Zeldin, Mary-Barbara (1950) History of Russian Philosophy. Spir, Afrikan Alexandrovich. Kropyvnytskyi Region Universal Research Library.
His book Denken und Wirklichkeit (Thought and Reality, 1873) had a significant influence on several eminent philosophers, scholars and writers such as Hans Vaihinger, Friedrich Nietzsche, William James, Leo Tolstoy and Rudolf Steiner.
Biography Early life and family Afrikan Spir was born on 10 November 1837 in his father's estates of Spirovska, near the city of Elizabethgrad, Kherson Governorate, Russian Empire (now Kropyvnytskyi, Ukraine).
His father, Alexander Alexandrovich Spir, of German-Jewish descent, was a Russian Empire 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 granddaughter of the Greek painter Logino, who arrived in Russian Empire under the reign of Catherine the Great.
Alexander and Helena had four children—three boys and one girl— Aristarque, Kharitine, Alexandre and African.Papiers de la famille Spir. Official documents attesting to the dates of birth of Alexandre Spir's children, Ms. l. e. 250/6, pièce 15. Bibliothèque de Genève. The names were chosen, on the whim (un caprice) of their father, from an old synaxis of the Orthodox calendar, which is the source of the curious name "Afrikan" (a very uncommon name of a minor orthodox saint, the father of Šimon).Lettres inédites de African Spir au professeur Penjon. Neuchâtel, Éditions du Griffon (Introd. d'Émile Bréhier), 1948, p.207. 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.
Education He described his education as follows: "I spent my childhood 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".Fabrizio Frigerio (1990) Catalogue raisonné du fonds African Spir. Autobiographical notice, Personal Papers of African Spir, Ms. fr. 1409, 5, no.7. Bibliothèque Publique et Universitaire de Genève.
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.
Later he went to Leipzig where he attended the lectures of Moritz Wilhelm Drobisch (1802–1896), a Herbartian philosopher and one of the forerunners of the neo-Kantian revival of the 1860s. He was there at the same time that Nietzsche was a student, although it does not appear that they met.
Military service After gymnasium, Spir entered the Midshipmen's School in Nikolayev (now Mykolaiv), not far from the Black Sea. 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 (Order of St. Andrew and Order of St. George). Spir defended the same bastion (N. 4 at Malakoff) as Leo Tolstoy during the siege of Sevastopol.
Later life, marriage and Swiss citizenship After his father's death in 1852, he inherited his father's estates (his last remaining brother, the poet Aristarch, having died in 1841) whereupon he emancipated his serfs and gave them land, goods and money, presaging the reform of 1861.
In 1862, he left Elizabethgrad for a tour in Germany, where he spent two years "to know better the mind's matter". His sister Charitis died soon after his return to Russia in 1864. After the death of his mother, in 1867, he sold his estates at a ridiculously low price, distributed almost all of his possessions and left Russian Empire permanently.
In 1869, he moved to Tübingen and to Stuttgart in 1871. Here, at the orthodox Church of the Court, he married on 30 January 1872, Elisabeth (Elise) Gatternich.Papiers de la famille Spir. Certificat de mariage d'African Spir et Elisabeth Gatternicht, Ms. fr. 1406/10. Bibliothèque de Genève. The couple had a daughter, Hélène.
In 1884, Spir asked the Russian Emperor for an allowance to forsake Russian citizenship and to obtain Swiss citizenship. In 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. In 1886, to enjoy the facilities of a bigger library (the "Société de Lecture", a private reading society), he moved to Geneva. On 17 September 1889, he received authorization for his wife, his daughter, and himself to become Swiss citizens from the Swiss Federal Government.Fabrizio Frigerio (1990) Catalogue raisonné du fonds African Spir. Authorization N. 347, Personal Papers of African Spir, p.6, no.25. Bibliothèque Publique et Universitaire de Genève.
Death 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.
He died of influenza on 26 March 1890 in Geneva, at 6 rue Petitot. He was buried in the Saint-Georges cemetery. He was survived by his wife Elisabeth and his daughter, Hélène.
The surname and lineage are reported to persist in modern times, with some pointing to Mikhailo Fyodorovich Spir (b. 1986), Deputy Minister in the Kherson region, as a possible descendant.
Writings 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 reach a broader readership, Spir wrote directly in French his Esquisses de philosophie critique (Outlines of critical philosophy), published for the first time in 1877. 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.
Manuscripts, personal papers, photographs, books by or on African Spir were donated in March 1940 by his daughter Hélène Claparède-Spir (who was married to the Swiss neurologist Édouard Claparède) 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.Papiers de la famille Spir. Bibliothèque de Genève.Fabrizio Frigerio (1990) Catalogue raisonné du fonds African Spir. Bibliothèque Publique et Universitaire de Genève.
To celebrate the centenary of his birth, a selection of Spir's writings, Paroles d'un sage ("Words of a sage"), was collated and published by his daughter, Hélène Claparède-Spir in 1937.Spir, A. and Claparède-Spir, H. (1937) Paroles d'un sage, choix de pensées d'African Spir. Félix Alcan. Some of these thoughts were later reproduced in a collection of Spir's letters.Lettres inédites de African Spir au professeur Penjon, Neuchâtel, Éditions du Griffon (Introd. d'Émile Bréhier), 1948, pp.223-228.
Other papers concerning Spir, his daughter Hélène Claparède-Spir and her family can be consulted at Harvard University Library.
Autobiography Spir provided a biographical sketch ("esquisse biographique") of himself that he added to some of his letters of correspondence, after 1882:
Honours Order of St. Andrew Order of St. George (fourth class)
Philosophy Epistemology Spir referred to his philosophy as "critical philosophy". He 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 empirical reality.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.
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).Forschung nach der Gewissheit in der Erkenntniss der Wirklichkeit, p. 13. 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"Hélène Claparède-Spir, Paroles d’un sage : choix de pensées d’African Spir, op. cit., p. 59. and the awareness of this dualism is the sole true foundation of moral judgment.Moralität und Religion, Leipzig, J.G. Findel, 1874.
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.Recht und Unrecht: Eine Erörterung der Principien, Leipzig, J.G. Findel, 1879. He set the example, redistributing his personal inherited land properties to his former serfs.
Critical reception