Harald Høffding (11 March 1843 – 2 July 1931) was a Danish philosopher and theologian.

Harald Høffding
Harald Høffding c. 1915
Born11 March 1843
Copenhagen, Denmark
Died2 July 1931
Copenhagen, Denmark
Era19th-century philosophy
RegionWestern philosophy
Danish philosophy
Main interests
Theology, Psychology

Life edit

Born and educated in Copenhagen, he became a schoolmaster, and ultimately in 1883 a professor at the University of Copenhagen. He was strongly influenced by Søren Kierkegaard in his early development, but later became a positivist, retaining and combining with it the spirit and method of practical psychology and the critical school.[2] The physicist Niels Bohr studied philosophy from and became a friend of Høffding. The philosopher and author Ágúst H. Bjarnason was a student of Høffding.

Høffding's great-nephew was the statistician Wassily Hoeffding.

Høffding died in Copenhagen.

Work edit

His best-known work is perhaps his Den nyere Filosofis Historie (1894), translated into English from the German edition (1895) by B.E. Meyer as History of Modern Philosophy (2 vols., 1900), a work intended by him to supplement and to correct that of Hans Brøchner to whom it is dedicated. His Psychology, the Problems of Philosophy (1905) and Philosophy of Religion (1906) also have appeared in English.[2]

Among Høffding's other writings, most of which have been translated into German, are Den engelske Filosofi i vor Tid (1874); Etik (1876); Psychologi i Omrids paa Grundlag af Erfaring (ed. 1892); Psykologiske Undersøgelser (1889); Charles Darwin (1889); Kontinuiteten i Kants filosofiske Udviklingsgang (1893); Sören Kierkegaard als Philosoph (1896); Det psykologiske Grundlag for logiske Domme (1899); Rousseau und seine Philosophie (1901); Mindre Arbejder (1899).[2]

Selected publications edit

  • Harald Høffding, 1891 "Outlines of psychology". 1891. Retrieved 2010-09-25.
  • Harald Hoffding, 1906 "The Philosophy of Religion". Retrieved 2012-07-26.
  • Harald Høffding, 1919 "A brief history of modern philosophy". Retrieved 2010-09-25.
  • Harald Høffding, 1920 "Modern philosophers; lectures delivered at the University of Copenhagen during the autumn of 1902, and lectures on Bergson, delivered in 1913". Retrieved 2010-09-25.

References edit

  1. ^ Favrholdt, Martin (2007-03-21). Niels Bohr's Philosophical Background. Copenhagen, Denmark: Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters. ISBN 9788773042281.
  2. ^ a b c   One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domainChisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Höffding, Harald". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 13 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 561.

External links edit