Philosophical Dissertations on Mind and Body by Anton Wilhelm Amo (review)

Replete with insightful historical commentary on the life of Ghanaian-German Enlightenment philosopher Anton Wilhelm Amo, this fascinating volume by Stephen Menn and Justin Smith (henceforth "MS") offers a detailed study of two of Amo's most important works. In addition, the book offers a careful study of both the intellectual and political context in which Amo wrote and the reception of his work in the centuries following. The book is divided into four parts. The first part houses a substantial introduction, while the second part is devoted to notes on the texts and translations of Amo's dissertations. The third part contains the Latin text alongside MS's English translations of Amo's Inaugural Dissertation on the Impassivity of the Human Mind (Impassivity). The fourth part houses Amo's Philosophical Disputation Containing a Distinct Idea of Those Things That Pertain Either to the Mind or to Our Living and Organic Body (Distinct Idea), with, likewise, the Latin text and MS's translation.

Section 1 of the introduction begins with a brief general overview of Amo's life and philosophical achievements. MS then take the reader through a discussion of the complex and rapidly changing social status of Africans in eighteenth-century Germany. In this section, MS discuss not only Amo but other notable Africans in eighteenth-century Germany and Europe. Here we find an examination of Amo's life, including a careful analysis of documents bearing on the circumstances surrounding Amo's arrival in Germany, his identification in Germany, and the financial difficulties that befell him as a result of the death of Duke Ludwig Rudolph of Braunschweig-Lüneburg, the last of his patrons. In this section too is a discussion of his entrance into the University of Halle, his studies at the University of Wittenberg, and his tenure at the University of Jena. We are also introduced to Amo's two principal works: De Jure Maurorum in Europa (On the Right of Moors in Europe), and Tractatus de Arte Sobrie et Accurate Philosophandi (Treatise on the Art of Philosophizing Soberly and Accurately).

Section 2 gives an in-depth discussion of the history of the reception of Amo's life and work. MS trace the reception of Amo, from the mention of him by eighteenth-century white antiracists like Johann Friedrich Blumenbach to twentieth-century African and African-American writers like Kwame Nkrumah and William E. B. Du Bois, and the use of his work in twentieth-century debates about the delineation of African philosophy (49). MS argue convincingly that attempts to cast Amo as an African philosopher are mistaken: Amo was an early modern German philosopher. As such, Amo's philosophical views should be assessed against the intellectual context in which they were written (44–51).

Section 3 treats of the political and intellectual climates at Halle and Wittenberg, the two institutions Amo was most closely affiliated with, by giving a fascinating study of the complex interplay between the more conservative Pietists and the liberal advocates of Enlightenment sensibilities in eighteenth-century Protestant Germany. MS trace the development of the two camps, starting from the founding of Wittenberg and Halle universities, to well-known controversies between Leibniz and Wolff and Pietistic thinkers like Georg Ernst Stahl. Considered "one of the most prominent Wolffians," Amo was affiliated with Leibnizian-Wolffianism (30). MS emphasize, however, that the two schools were not clearly delineated sects, and that antagonism was often confined to individual thinkers. Section 4 adumbrates the conventions and purposes of eighteenth-century dissertations, and their differences with modern-day dissertations.

Sections 5 and 6 are devoted to a discussion of ancient and modern debates on action, passion, and sensation, as well as an explanation of the arguments of Impassivity and Distinct Idea. It is in this section that MS offer their interpretation of Amo's dissertations. MS situate both of Amo's dissertations in the modern debates about action/passion and...