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Anton Wilhelm Amo's philosophical dissertations on mind and body
Anton Wilhelm Amo (c. 1703-after 1752) is the first modern African philosopher to study and teach in a European university and write in the European philosophical tradition. We give an extensive historical and philosophical introduction to Amo's life and work, and provide Latin texts, with facing translations and explanatory notes, of Amo's two philosophical dissertations, On the Impassivity of the Human Mind and the Philosophical Disputation containing a Distinct Idea of those Things that Pertain either to the Mind or to our Living and Organic Body, both published in 1734. The Impassivity is an extended argument that the mind cannot be acted on, that sensation is a being-acted-on by the sensed object and therefore that sensation does not belong to the mind, and must belong instead to the body The Distinct Idea works out the implications for the mind's actions, and tries to show how the mind understands, wills and effects things through the body by 'intentions' which direct motions in our body intentionally toward external things. Both dissertations try to show how far each type of human act belongs to the mind, how far to the body, and expose and resolve earlier philosophers' self-contradictions on these questions.
1 The Life of Anton Wilhelm Amo p. 4 -- 2 The History of Amo Reception p. 39 -- 3 The Political and Intellectual Context at Halle and Wittenberg p. 51 -- 4 On Dissertations and Disputations, and Amo's Two Dissertations p. 60 -- 5 Ancient and Modern Debates on Action and Passion and on Sensation p. 88 -- 6 The Argument of the Impassivity and the Distinct Idea p. 101 -- II Note on the Text and Translation of Amo's Dissertations p. 148 -- III Inaugural Dissertation on the Impassivity of the Human Mind (1734) (Latin and English) p. 153 -- IV Philosophical Disputation Containing a Distinct Idea of Those Things That Pertain Either to the Mind or to Our Living and Organic Body (1734) (Latin and English) p. 199.
edited, translated, and with an introduction by Stephen Menn and Justin E. H. Smith.
Facing page translation with original Latin on the verso and English translations on the rectos.
Includes bibliographical references (pages [227]-234) and indexes.