August Friedrich Muller (15 December 1684 – 1 May 1761) was a German legal scholar and logician.
August Friedrich was born in Penig, the son of Johann Adam Muller and his wife Johanne Susanne, daughter of a pharmacist in Rochlitz, Johann Fromhold. Prefigured by his father, he attended school in 1697 and studied at the University of Leipzig from 1703. Here he completed a degree in early philosophical sciences; Andreas Rudiger (1673–1731) was his most important teacher. On the side he studied law under Gottlieb Gerhard Titius (1661–1714).
In 1707 he received his degree of Magister in Leipzig, where he set up a school of philosophy. After a stay at the University of Erfurt, where on 8 October 1714 he received his doctorate in law, he returned to Leipzig, where he also lectured on law. A position was offered to him at the University of Halle but he became an associate professor of philosophy at the University of Leipzig in 1732, succeeding Christian Thomasius and his pupil, Andreas Rudiger. He was Dean of Philosophy several times, first in 1736. He died in Leipzig, aged 76.
Bach composed the cantata Zerreiset, zersprenget, zertrummert die Gruft, BWV 205 in 1725 for the name day of Muller and performed the piece on the evening of 3 August 1725 in front of the professor’s house at 2 Katharinenstrase in Leipzig.
Works
Diss. de arte loquendi. Leipzig 1708
Diss. inaug. de rationibus legum investigandis; ad L. 20. 21 D. de LL. Erfurt 1714
Diss. de fictionum iuris Romani usu antiquo, non-usu hodierno. Leipzig 1715
Balthasar Graciaans Qracul, das man mit sich fuhren und stets bey der Hand haben kann, das ist: Kunst – Regeln der Klugheit, vormahls von Mr. Amelot de la Houffaye unter dem Titel l'Homme de Cour ins Franzosische, anietzo aber aus dem Spanischen Original, welches durch und durch hinzngefuget worden, ins Teutsche ubersetzt und mit neuen Anmerkungen, in welchen die Maximen des Autoris aus den Principiis der Sitten-Lehre erklahret und beurtheilet werden, versehen. 1. Centurie. Leipzig 1716, 2. Centurie Leipzig 1717, 3. Centurie. Leipzig 1719, new edition Leipzig 1738 (2 volumes)
Einleitung in die philosophischen Wissenschaften. 3 volumes. Leipzig 1728, 2nd edition Leipzig 1733
Progr. inaug. sub aufpiciis Professionis philosophiae extraord. Leipzig 1731
Progr. inaug. cum Professionem Organi Aristotelici capesseret. Leipzig 1732
Diss. pro loco in facultate philosophica obtinendo de emigratione religionis caussa suscipienda. Leipzig 1732
Progr. de argumentatione dialectica Aristoteli usitata. Leipzig 1736
Progr. de Stoicorum Paradoxis. Leipzig 1736
Progr. de notione legis. Leipzig 1740
Progr. de successione hereditaria ex iure naturali. Leipzig 1743 Continuatio. Leipzig 1743
Progr. de praemiis viris strennis a Platone decretis. Leipzig 1744
Progr. de usucapione et praescriptione longi temporis ex principiis naturalibus. Leipzig 1744
Progr. I et II de principio contradictionis. Leipzig 1746
Progr. I et II de origine civitatum. Leipzig 1750
Progr. de lectione librorum docta. Leipzig 1752
Progr. de perceptione clara et distincta. Leipzig 1754
Progr. I et II de notione legis naturalis detracta utilitatis ratione concepta. Leipzig 1758
Progr. de libertate naturali et imperii humani limitibus. Leipzig 1760
