Harald Høffding (11 March 1843 – 2 July 1931) was a Danish

philosopher Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

and

theologian Theology is the study of religious belief from a religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of ...

Life

Born Høffding was born in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

, the son of businessman Niels Frederik Høffding and Martha Høffding (née Jhellerup). The family lived at the corner of Gammeltorv and Nørregade. Høffding became a schoolmaster, and ultimately in 1883 a professor at the

University of Copenhagen The University of Copenhagen (, KU) is a public university, public research university in Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded in 1479, the University of Copenhagen is the second-oldest university in Scandinavia, after Uppsala University. ...

. He was strongly influenced by

Søren Kierkegaard Søren Aabye Kierkegaard ( , ; ; 5 May 1813 – 11 November 1855) was a Danes, Danish theologian, philosopher, poet, social critic, and religious author who is widely considered to be the first existentialist philosopher. He wrote critical tex ...

in his early development, but later became a positivist, retaining and combining with it the spirit and method of practical

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...

and the critical school. The physicist

Niels Bohr Niels Henrik David Bohr (, ; ; 7 October 1885 – 18 November 1962) was a Danish theoretical physicist who made foundational contributions to understanding atomic structure and old quantum theory, quantum theory, for which he received the No ...

studied philosophy from and became a friend of Høffding. The philosopher and author

Ágúst H. Bjarnason Ágúst H. Bjarnason (20 August 1875 – 22 September 1952) was the son of Hákon Bjarnason, and Jóhanna K. Þorleifsdóttir. Ágúst was a pioneer in teaching psychology in Iceland and the first one to write books on psychology in Icelandic. A ...

was a student of Høffding. Høffding's great-nephew was the statistician Wassily Hoeffding. Høffding died in Copenhagen.

Work

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. 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 Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English Natural history#Before 1900, naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all speci ...

'' (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).

Commemoration

A commemorative plaque on the facade of Alexandrahus in Copenhagen (Nørregade 1) commemorates that Høffding was born on the site.

Selected publications

*Harald Høffding, 1891 *Harald Hoffding, 1906 *Harald Høffding, 1919 *Harald Høffding, 1920

References

External links

* * * *
Presentation of Harald Høffding, ''in portuguese''
1843 births 1931 deaths 19th-century Danish philosophers Danish schoolteachers University of Copenhagen alumni Academic staff of the University of Copenhagen People from Copenhagen Rectors of the University of Copenhagen Spinoza scholars Corresponding fellows of the British Academy 20th-century Danish philosophers {{Denmark-philosopher-stub