Jakob Thomasius

Jakob Thomasius
Jakob Thomasius (1622–1684)
Born	27 August 1622 Leipzig, Electorate of Saxony
Died	9 September 1684 Leipzig, Electorate of Saxony
Alma mater	University of Leipzig (B.A., 1642; M.A., 1643)
Scientific career
Fields	Philosopher
Institutions	University of Leipzig
Academic advisors	Friedrich Leibniz
Doctoral students	Otto Mencke
Other notable students	Gottfried Leibniz
Notes
He was the father of Christian Thomasius and the brother of Johann Thomasius.

Dissertation about plagiarism at Leipzig University (1679) with Thomasius as praeses

Jakob Thomasius (27 August 1622 – 9 September 1684) was a German academic philosopher and jurist. He is now regarded as an important founding figure in the scholarly study of the history of philosophy. His views were eclectic, and were taken up by his son Christian Thomasius.

Work

Thomasius was influential in the contemporary realignment of philosophy as a discipline. Martin Mulsow writes:

According to Thomasius’ “Schediasma historicum” of 1665, from a theological point of view, philosophy needed to guarantee a clear separation of Creator from Creation, of God from Nature. It should thus only spring from Christian Aristotelianism, not from Stoicism or Neoplatonism.

He wrote on a wide range of topics, including plagiarism and the education of women.

He was the teacher of Gottfried Leibniz at the University of Leipzig, where Thomasius was professor of Rhetoric and Moral Philosophy, remaining a friend and correspondent, and has been described as Leibniz's mentor.

Bibliography

• Philosophia practica (1661)
• Schediasma historicum (1665)
• De foeminarum eruditione (1671) with Johannes Sauerbrei and Jacobus Smalcius
• Praefationes sub auspicia disputationum suarum (1681)
• Dissertationes ad stoicae philosophiae (1682)
• Orationes (1683)

Further reading

• Richard Sachse, Das Tagebuch des Rectors Jakob Thomasius, Leipzig 1894.

External links

• Works by or about Jakob Thomasius at Internet Archive
• Mathematics Genealogy Project
• Thomasius' Neurotree profile
• "Jakob Thomasius". Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL) (in German).
• Jakob Thomasius in the German National Library catalogue