Background
Hersch, Jeanne was born on July 13, 1910 in Geneva.
Hersch, Jeanne was born on July 13, 1910 in Geneva.
Universities of Geneva, Heidelberg, Freiburg and Paris.
1933-1955, Teacher. École Internationale, Geneva. 1956, Professor of Systematic Philosophy, Geneva. 1966-1968, Director of Philosophy Department, UNESCO, Paris.
1970-1972, Swiss representative, UNESCO Executive Council. Paris; 1973-1974, President, Karl Jaspers Foundation, Basel. 1973, Awarded Prize of the Fondation pour les Droits d’Homme.
1977, Honorary Director, Faculty of Theology, University of Basel. 1979, Awarded the Montaigne Prize: 1980, Awarded the Max Schmidheiny Freedomprize. 1994. Awarded the Prix Jaspers.
Hersch has worked extensively on topics in Political and social theory, law, history and education, always relating her enquiries to her broad concern with the human condition and her Prevailing interest in existentialism and the nature °t Being, an interest first generated by her meeting w>th Karl Jaspers when she was a student in Heidelberg. She developed a sustained enquiry mto the varying relationships that can hold between what is ‘given’ and the specific ‘form[atlons]’ imposed by humankind through activities such as art and science. A major aim in all her work was to restore to significance the neglected questions of the philosophia perennis, questions to bo with self-consciousness, conscience, values, freedom and responsibility, approaching them from a standpoint of philosophical wonder and With the intention of engaging others in a vivid and creative philosophical activity. Hersch’s interests were wide. Her writings encompass literature, morality, ideology and reality, the phenomena of time, history, religion, myth and education. She has been deeply concerned with social issues such as euthanasia, brugs, abortion and the oppression of minorities such as the Jews and people with disabilities. Her reflections on finitcncss. freedom and wholeness mform all her thought.