Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten

Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten studied at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg and University of Jena. The recorded working language is German. The field of work recorded is philosophy. Places of work recorded in the authority are Frankfurt (Oder). Residence is recorded at Berlin. Employment is recorded with Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg and University of Frankfurt an der Oder. Works named in the authority record are Aesthetica.

• Region — Western philosophy • Era — 18th-century philosophy • Name — Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten • School Tradition — Age of Enlightenment Rationalism • Born — 17 July 1714 • Birthplace — Berlin, Margraviate of Brandenburg • Died — 27 May 1762 • Place of death — Frankfurt an der Oder, Margraviate of Brandenburg • Education — University of Halle (PhD, 1735) University of Jena (no degree) • Main Interests — Metaphysics, ethics, aesthetics • Notable Ideas — Aesthetics as the perfection of sensuous cognition • Academic Advisors — Johann Peter Reusch • Notable Students — Christian Garve Georg Friedrich Meier • Institutions — University of Halle University of Frankfurt (Oder)

Baumgarten was born in Berlin as the fifth of seven sons of the Pietist pastor of the garrison, Jacob Baumgarten, and his wife Rosina Elisabeth. Both his parents died early, and he was taught by Martin Georg Christgau where he learned Hebrew and became interested in Latin poetry. In 1733, during his formal studies at the University of Halle, Baumgarten also attended lectures on the philosophy of Christian Wolff by Johann Peter Reusch at the University of Jena (Reusch had himself studied under Wolff).

• Dissertatio chorographica, Notiones superi et inferi, indeque adscensus et descensus, in chorographiis sacris occurentes, evolvens (1735) • Meditationes philosophicae de nonnullis ad poema pertinentibus ("Philosophical meditations pertaining to some matters concerning poetry", doctoral thesis, 1735) • De ordine in audiendis philosophicis per triennium academicum quaedam praefatus acroases proximae aestati destinatas indicit Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten (1738) • Metaphysica (1739) • Ethica philosophica (1740) • Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten eröffnet Einige Gedancken vom vernünfftigen Beyfall auf Academien, und ladet zu seiner Antritts-Rede [...] ein (1740) • Serenissimo potentissimo principi Friderico, Regi Borussorum marchioni brandenburgico S. R. J. archicamerario et electori, caetera, clementissimo dominio felicia regni felicis auspicia, a d. III. Non. Quinct. 1740 (1740) • Philosophische Briefe von Aletheophilus (1741) • Scriptis, quae moderator conflictus academici disputavit, praefatus rationes acroasium suarum Viadrinarum reddit Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten (1743) • Aesthetica (1750) • Initia Philosophiae Practicae. Primae Acroamatice (1760) • Acroasis logica in Christianum L.B. de Wolff (1761, 2nd ed. 1773) • Ius naturae (posthum 1763) • Sciagraphia encyclopaedia philosophicae (ed. Johs. Christian Foerster 1769) • Philosophia generalis (ed. Johs. Christian Foerster 1770) • Alex. Gottl. Baumgartenii Praelectiones theologiae dogmaticae (ed. Salomon Semmler; 1773) • Alexander Gottlieb Baumgartens Metaphysik (translated by Georg Friedrich Meier 1766) • Gedanken über die Reden Jesu nach dem Inhalt der evangelischen Geschichten (ed. F.G. Scheltz & A.B. Thiele; 1796–1797) English translations • Alexander Baumgarten, Reflections on Poetry: Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten's Meditationes philosophicae de nonnullis ad poema pertinentibus translated by Karl Aschenbrenner and William B. Holther, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1954. • Alexander Baumgarten, Metaphysics. A Critical Translation with Kant's Elucidations, Selected Notes, and Related Materials translated and edited by Courtney D. Fugate and John Hymers, London, New York: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2013. • Alexander Baumgarten, Immanuel Kant, Baumgarten's Elements of First Practical Philosophy: A Critical Translation with Kant's Reflections on Moral Philosophy translated and edited by Courtney D. Fugate and John Hymers, London, New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2020. • Alexander Baumgarten, Baumgarten's Philosophical Ethics: A Critical Translation translated, edited, and annotated by John Hymers, London, New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2024.