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Hägerström, Axel Anders Theodor (1868–1939)

DOI
10.4324/9780415249126-DD025-1
DOI: 10.4324/9780415249126-DD025-1
Version: v1,  Published online: 1998
Retrieved March 28, 2024, from https://www.rep.routledge.com/articles/biographical/hagerstrom-axel-anders-theodor-1868-1939/v-1

Article Summary

Hägerström was professor of philosophy at Uppsala University, Sweden, from 1911 until 1933, and together with his pupil Adolf Phalén founded the Uppsala school of conceptual analysis. He first came to attention in 1902 with a study of Kant’s ethics, but his main claim to fame rests upon the anti-metaphysical and emotivist positions which he developed during the years 1905–39. Thus the two fundamental theses of his moral philosophy are that moral valuations are neither true nor false, and that the proper task of moral philosophy itself is only descriptive and not normative. In this connection he argued that the philosophical ideas of objective moral values and of absolute rights have created fanaticism and sharpened conflicts in human history. He is also well known for his work in jurisprudence as the founder of Scandinavian legal realism. Here again his thought is predominantly antimetaphysical, and he criticized many legal concepts for their metaphysical and magical elements.

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Citing this article:
Dahlquist, Thorild and Ann-Mari Henschen-Dahlquist. Hägerström, Axel Anders Theodor (1868–1939), 1998, doi:10.4324/9780415249126-DD025-1. Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Taylor and Francis, https://www.rep.routledge.com/articles/biographical/hagerstrom-axel-anders-theodor-1868-1939/v-1.
Copyright © 1998-2024 Routledge.

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