On Academic Genealogy
Posted on 25 Apr 2010
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.
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:
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.
