Background
Hedenius, Per Arvid Ingemar was born on April 5, 1908 in Stockholm.
Hedenius, Per Arvid Ingemar was born on April 5, 1908 in Stockholm.
Universities of Uppsala and Lund.
1947— Professor of Practical Philosophy, Uppsala University. 1979, Jur. Dr honoris causa, Uppsala University.
Two of Hedenius’s works in Swedish (1941, 49) stimulated the intellectual debate in Scantnavia to an exceptional degree. In the former he.ended Hägerström’s dictum, just mentioned, ^tth new arguments and expounded a theory ased upon it about practical syllogisms. On the net hand, he sharply criticized another thesis of agerström’s: that our common legal concepts imply absurd metaphysics and magic. He also made a constructive contribution to the development of Scandinavian legal realism. In his book of 1941 he also formulated an ethical principle for intellectual decisions. Hedenius returned to these themes in several later writings. He also dealt with many other problems of moral philosophy and philosophy of law: utilitarianism, the dignity of man and free will; command-sentences and performatives; retribution and punishment. In Faith and Knowledge (1949) Hedenius unfolded a criticism of different forms of Christianity. It is framed in a systematic way and based upon three explicitly stated postulates. He often returned to this and other subjects in the philosophy of religion, for example in ‘Disproofs of God’s existence?’ (1971). A few minor writings deal with literary or musical aesthetics, for example the problem of tragedy. Hedenius was deeply interested throughout his life in many of the great classics of philosophy, especially Plato, Hume and Kierkegaard. As a Plato researcher he published essays on problems concerning the Gorgias, the argumentation in the Euihyphro, eros and philia, Socratic irony, the views on lying in the dialogues, and other themes. His great admiration for Kierkegaard was combined with a negative attitude to contemporary existentialism in philosophy.