On the impassivity of the human mind
- •
Anton Wilhelm Amo was the first African to study at a Christian European university and became the first African to practice philosophy in Europe since Roman times. He was born near Axim on the West African coast as a member of the Nzema tribe. Most likely he was sent to Amsterdam by Dutch missionaries in order to receive a Christian education, although it is also possible that he was sent as a slave–his brother was certainly a slave. In any event, he was presented as a boy to the dukes of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel, who treated him as a member of their family and provided him the opportunity to pursue a career in philosophy. He completed doctoral dissertations at the Universities of Halle and Wittenberg, and he earned a meager living teaching at Halle and Jena. There he became embroiled in fights over the philosophy of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716) and Christian Wolff (1679-1754), whose tenets Amo defended and authorities decried. Following the death of a powerful supporter he found his position increasingly embattled, and he seems to have decided that he could Anton Wilhelm Amo (c. 1703 – after 1753), was a philosopher from West Africa. Amo was born around 1703 in a village named Nkubeam near the town of Axim (today Ghana). In 1707, he was enslaved and sent to Europe by the Dutch East India Company. In the same year, he was given as a present to Anthony Ulrich, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel. Amo was baptised in 1708 and received the German Christian names “Anton Wilhelm”. The Duke realised Amo’s outstanding intelligence and sent to the University of Halle in 1727. It is uncertain, if Amo had visited the University of Helmstedt before, as many authors claim. He studied law and history. In 1729, he published his doctoral thesis “De jure Maurorum in Europa” (about the rights of the Moors in Europe), which is not preserved. At the University of Wittenberg, he studied medicine and philosophy and published his doctoral thesis in philosophy in 1734. From 1736 on, he worked as a lecturer for philosophy at the University of Halle, then from 1739 Anton Wilhelm Amo is considered the first and, for a very long time, the only Afro-German academic. He studied in Halle and Wittenberg, where he received his doctorate in 1734. His Halle dissertation was devoted to the legal status of black people in Europe (De iure Maurorum in Europa), the Wittenberg dissertation to the subject of the body and soul (De humanae mentis apatheia). Amo worked in Wittenberg, furthermore in Halle from 1736 on and in Jena in 1739 as a lecturer in philosophy. In 2019, Martin Luther University founded a working group, now active as the Rectorate Commission "Anton Wilhelm Amo", dedicated to the memory of Anton Wilhelm Amo. According to Ottmar Ette, a biographer and interpreter of Amo's work,(cf. Anton Wilhelm Amo. Philosophieren ohne feste Wohnsitz, Berlin 2nd ed. 2020), he was born around the turn of the century in 1700 in what is now Ghana and was enslaved as a child. Via Amsterdam, he presumably arrived at the court of the
•
Anton Wilhelm Amo
Biography
•
Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg
at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg
On the life of Anton Wilhelm Amo
Copyright ©fatunfo.pages.dev 2025