Background
Pos, Hendrik Josephus was born on July 11, 1898 in Amsterdam.
Pos, Hendrik Josephus was born on July 11, 1898 in Amsterdam.
Classical Philology, Free(Orthodox-Protestant) University at Amsterdam. Philosophy, Universities of Heidelberg and Paris (Sorbonne).
Professor of General Linguistics, Free University at Amsterdam, 192332. Left because of conflicts about religion. Professor of Philosophy, University of Amsterdam, 1932 until his death.
Spent most of the German occupation in prison ( 1940-1943). A founder °f the Dutch Humanist League, 1946. First President of the FISP and President of its Congress at Amsterdam, 1948.
President of the editorial board of the Algemeen Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Wijsbegeerte.
P°s developed a linguistic theory stating the Primacy of language, that grew out into a general view on the primacy of the world as a whole in an °bjective-idealist manner. Pos remained rationabst in a neo-Kantian way and never became an empiricist. His theory of language gave a phen°menological correction to the then prevailing theory of structuralism. Pos defended the a priori °( Husserl against the pure descriptive attitude of *he structuralists. Phenomenological reflection can show that theoretical concepts and structures are founded in time as their ground. In his metaphysics and in his theory of knowledge Pos started with the a priori as the source of culture. The unity of all sciences is based uPon self-consciousness. Philosophy is the research of reason about itself. Metaphysics is |°unded in self-experience and reflection upon '(■ In the socio-political field, too, human reason bas its validity in shaping norms and maxims. Pos attacked irrational tendencies, especially Nazism.,r°m the beginning. He defended human dignity a°d human rights in theory, but also in practical organizations. After the Second World War he engaged in left-wing socialism.