NOTE: This page is still under construction. I am in the process of collecting more material on Spir. Anyone with information should e-mail me at mgreen1 |at| gmu |dot| edu.
Works on Spir
Most of the material on Spir's philosophy is almost a century old and not very helpful.
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., Encylopedia of Philosophy 544 (New
York: Macmillan 1972).
A very brief introduction to
Spir's philosophy.
Works on Nietzsche's Relationship to Spir
The literature on Spir's influence on Nietzsche is still in its infancy.
Thomas Brobjer, Nietzsche's Knowledge
of Philosophy: A Study and Survey of the Philosophical Influences on
Nietzsche (Urbana & Chicago: University of Illinois Press -
International Nietzsche Studies Series forthcoming 2004).
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).
See my website for the
book.
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). I use 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.
Michael Steven Green, "Was Afrikan Spir a Phenomenalist (and What Difference Does It Make for Understanding Nietzsche)?," 44 Journal of Nietzsche Studies (forthcoming)
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.
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on Afrikan Spir
Updated 21 February, 2013