Afrikan Špir and his Philosophy (Symbols & Myths)

By Piero Martinetti

The rediscovery of Afrikan Aleksandrovich Spir represents one of the most compelling chapters in the critical reconsideration of late nineteenth-century European philosophy. Long overshadowed by the prevailing currents of his era-positivism, materialism, and academic Neo-Kantianism-Spir remained a solitary, unclassifiable figure whose rigorous metaphysics nonetheless left an indelible mark on thinkers of the stature of Friedrich Nietzsche and, later, the foremost exponents of Italian critical idealism.
Among those who recognized the profound value of Spir's thought, Piero Martinetti stands out as his most lucid and passionate Italian interpreter. In Martinetti's philosophical trajectory, the encounter with Spir was neither incidental nor purely scholarly; it was a profound spiritual and speculative affinity. Martinetti, who would himself choose an uncompromising intellectual independence over academic conformity-culminating in his historic refusal in 1931 to swear allegiance to the Fascist regime-found in the Russian thinker a kindred spirit: an austere seeker of truth who viewed philosophy not as a rhetorical exercise or a career, but as an existential vocation and a path toward metaphysical elevation.
Afrikan Spir and his Philosophy constitutes an extraordinary synthesis of Spir's system. Martinetti approaches Spir's magnum opus, Denken und Wirklichkeit, with remarkable penetrating clarity, dismantling the common misconception that reduced Spir to a mere epigone of Johann Friedrich Herbart. Instead, Martinetti reconstructs the core of Spir's thought: the irreconcilable dualism between the supreme a priori norm of thought-the principle of identity, which reveals the unconditioned, divine reality-and the empirical world of change, multiplicity, and pain, which can never be deduced from the Absolute.
In Martinetti's reading, this metaphysical rift is not an arid abstract postulate, but the very foundation of an authentic ethical and religious life. The deceptive constitution of the empirical world and the inherent presence of pain become the indirect revelation of a transcendent reality, summoning the human being to rise above the natural mechanism of egoism through moral consciousness and philosophical contemplation. Here, the Neoplatonic sensibilities of Martinetti converge seamlessly with Spir's rational mysticism, offering a vision of Christianity and the divine that is entirely liberated from dogmatic and confessional constraints.
By making this seminal essay available to an English-speaking audience, this edition restores a vital document of early twentieth-century speculative thought. It illuminates both the brilliance of Afrikan Spir's original metaphysics and the noble intellectual stature of Piero Martinetti, whose voice remains a timeless beacon of moral integrity and philosophical rigor.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0HKFRG2M8
• ISBN13: 9798175743075
• Release Date: September 2026
• Publisher: Independently published
• Length: 82 Pages
• Weight: 0.19 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.0" x 0.2" x 5.3"