Background
Wahl, Jean was born in 1888 in Marseilles.
Wahl, Jean was born in 1888 in Marseilles.
Passed his agrégation in 1910.
Professor of Philosophy, Sorbonne. Created Collège Philosophique. Director of Revue Je Métaphysique et de Morale.
President of the Société Française de Philosophie.
The importance of Jean Wahl to twentiethcentury French philosophy is mainly as a teacher. His lectures at the Sorbonne were influential in disseminating existentialist and Hegelian thought. Wahl's philosophy concentrates on the opposition of Kierkegaard and Hegel and his existentialism is presented in opposition to Hegelian dialectics. This approach came to form the critical aspects of the reception of Hegel by French philosophers in the 1930s and beyond. The influence of Wahl’s teaching was reinforced by the many important professional positions he held and by his efforts to disseminate philosophy outside academic spheres, notably through the Collège Philosophique.