Secondary Qualities

On Academic Genealogy

I stumbled into some neat sources the other day for investigating academic genealogy. And, I’m a sucker for some history (especially when it’s personal), so I had to look into it. Read on for more.

Most of this information is thanks to the Mathematics Genealogy Project as well as the Neurotree – both of which, once you get far enough back, are happy to include scientists and philosophers that wouldn’t normally fall within their purview. In more recent history (especially the 20th century), I owe lots of this to the Philosophy Family Tree.

So, my academic advisor is Grant Ramsey. He was co-advised, by Alexander Rosenberg and Robert Brandon at Duke.

Broadly speaking, that gives me two philosophical “histories.” Brandon was a student of Hilary Putnam’s, who was himself a student of Hans Reichenbach. On the other side, Rosenberg was a student of Paul Achinstein, who was himself a student of Quine.

As for interesting philosophers, via the Rosenberg/Quine line you have:

W.V.O. Quine (1908–2000) is my academic great-great-grandfather
Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947) is my academic (great)³-grandfather
John McTaggart (1866–1925), of philosophy of time fame, is my academic (great)⁴-grandfather

But that line ends relatively quickly after that, as nobody’s looked much into the philosopher Christian Hermann Weisse.

On the other side, however, things are much more interesting, and go for a lot longer.

Hans Reichenbach (1891–1953) is my academc great-great-grandfather
The physicist Gustav Kirchhoff (1824–1887) is my academic (great)⁴-grandfather
The mathematician Carl Jacobi (1804–1851) is my academic (great)⁵-grandfather

Getting off of the main line of descent,

Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) and G.E. Moore (1873–1958) are both, via James Ward (1843–1925), my academic (great)⁵ uncles
Rudolf Carnap (1891–1970) is my academic fourth cousin once removed
Farkas Bolyai (1775–1856), pioneer in early non-Euclidian geometry, is my academic (great)⁸ uncle, which makes János Bolyai (1802–1860), one of the first developers of non-Euclidean geometry, and his son and student, my academic first cousin eight times removed
On the same line as the Bolyais, Carl Gauss (1777–1855) is my academic first cousin seven times removed, as is August Möbius. Gauss’s students are distinguished company, including Richard Dedekind (1831–1916) and Bernhard Riemann (1826–1866) as academic second cousins six times removed.

And if we broaden out a bit, we can head way back into history:

Friedrich Leibniz (1597–1652), the father of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716), is my academic (great)¹³-grandfather
Hieromymus Fabricius ab Aquapendente (1537–1619), one of the pioneers in early anatomy and physiology, is my academic (great)²⁰-grandfather, which makes his student William Harvey (1578–1657) my academic (great)²⁰ uncle
Petrus Ramus (1515–1572), famous Renaissance neo-Aristotelian, is my academic (great)¹⁹-grandfather
Tycho Brahe (1546–1601) is my academic (great)¹⁸ uncle
Philipp Melanchthon (1497–1560), theological right-hand man of Martin Luther, is my academic (great)¹⁶-grandfather
Nicholas Copernicus (1473–1543) is my academic (great)¹⁹-grandfather
Desiderius Erasmus (1466–1536) is my academic (great)²²-grandfather
Marsilio Ficino (1433–1499), famous Renaissance neo-Platonist, is my academic (great)²⁶-grandfather
The deepest line into history begins with the famed neo-Platonic mystic Gemistos Pletho (1355?–1452?), my academic (great)²⁸-grandfather, who was the product of a long tradition of Orthodox philosophers from Byzantium. The farthest back this line can be traced is to John Mauropous (990?–1075?), my academic (great)⁴³-grandfather, who received his education at a monastery in Constantinople some time around 1000. Note that I’m not exactly unique in having (at least) these roots: the Math Genealogy Project reports that Gemistos Pletho has some 78,813 academic descendants, some fifty-five percent (!) of the (mostly mathematicians) present in the database. Clearly, all of Western learning owes a lot to Byzantine neo-Platonism.

Want to see how to get from the 11th century in Constantinople to the 21st century in Indiana? Click here to see the gory details.

John Mauropous (990?–1075?) taught Michael Psellos at Constantinople
Michael Psellos (1018–1096) taught John Italus at Constantinople
John Italus (c. 1025–1082) taught Theodore of Smyrna at Constantinople
Theodore of Smyrna (mid 11th cen.–after 1112) taught Michael Italikos at Constantinople
Michael Italikos (c. 1090?–before 1157) taught Theodoros Prodromos at Constantinople
Theodoros Prodromos (c. 1100–1156) taught Nicephorus Blemmydes at Constantinople
Nicephorus Blemmydes (1197–1272) taught George Akropolites at Nicaea
George Akropolites (1217–1282) taught George Pachymeres at Constantinople
Georgius Pachymeres (1242–c. 1310) taught Manuel Byrennios at Constantinople
Manuel Byrennios (fl. 1300?) taught Theodore Metochites at Nicaea
Theodore Metochites (1270–1332) taught Nicephorus Gregoras at Nicaea
Nicephorus Gregoras (c. 1295–1360) taught St. Gregorius Palamas at Constantinople
St. Gregorius Palamas (1296–1359) taught Nilus Cabasilas at the Vatopedi Monastery on Mount Athos
Nilus Cabasilas (c. 1298–c. 1363) taught Demetrios Kydones in Thessalonica
Demetrios Kydones (1324–1398) taught Gemistos Pletho in Constantinople
Gemistos Pletho (1355–1452) taught Johannes Argyropolous at Mystras
Johannes Argyropolous (1395–1487) taught Marsilio Ficino at the University of Florence
Marsilio Ficino (1433–1499) taught Angelo Poliziano at the University of Florence
Angelo Poliziano (1454–1494) taught Scipione Fortiguerra at the University of Florence
Scipione Fortiguerra (1466–1515) taught Girolamo Aleandro at the University of Padua
Girolamo Aleandro (1480–1542) taught Rutger Rescius at the University of Paris
Rutgerus Rescius (c. 1497–1545) taught Johannes Winter von Andernach at the Catholic University of Louvain
Johannes Winter von Andernach (c. 1505–c. 1574) taught Johannes Sturm at the Catholic University of Louvain
Johannes Sturm (1507–1589) taught Petrus Ramus at the College of Navarre
Petrus Ramus (1515–1572) taught Theodor Zwinger at the College of France
Theodor Zwinger (1533–1588) taught John Craig at the University of Basel
John Craig (d. 1620) taught Duncan Liddell at the University of Frankfurt
Duncan Liddell (1561–1613) taught Cornelius Martini at the University of Helmstedt
Cornelius Martini (1568–1621) taught Georg Calixt at the University of Helmstedt
Georg Calixt (1586–1656) taught Johann Andreas Quenstedt at the University of Helmstedt
Johann Andreas Quenstedt (1617–1688) taught Michael Walther at the University of Wittenberg
Michael Walther (1638–1692) taught Johann Pasch at the University of Wittenberg
Johann Pasch (dissertation 1683) taught Johann Andreas Planer at the University of Wittenberg
Johann Andreas Planer (d. 1714) taught Christan August Hausen at the University of Wittenberg
Christian August Hausen (1693–1743) taught Abraham Gotthelf Kästner at the University of Leipzig
Abraham Gotthelf Kästner (1719–1800) taught Johann Tobias Mayer at the University of Göttingen
Johann Tobias Mayer (1752–1830) taught Enno Heeren Dirksen at the University of Göttingen
Enno Heeren Dirksen (1788–1850) taught Carl Gustav Jacobi at the University of Berlin
Carl Gustav Jacobi (1804–1851) taught Otto Hesse at the University of Königsberg
Otto Hesse (1811–1874) taught Max Noether at the University of Heidelberg
Max Noether (1844–1921) taught Hans Reichenbach at the University of Erlangen
Hans Reichenbach (1891–1953) taught Hilary Putnam at UCLA
Hilary Putnam taught Robert Brandon at Harvard
Robert Brandon taught Grant Ramsey at Duke
Grant Ramsey taught me at Notre Dame

Enough of that!

It would be nice to get all the way back to the Greeks, but as one commentator on the Neurotree line (which is the one that pushes the deepest) noted, the monasteries of the Byzantine early Middle Ages may just be too opaque to conquer.