Harald Høffding

Harald Høffding’s life spans a time of momentous change in Europe as a whole, and in Denmark in particular. Høffding was born in 1843 in Copenhagen — the very year that a 30-year old Søren Kierkegaard published his first book: Either-Or. Høffding died in 1931, when Niels Bohr was already 46 years old, and almost two decades after the publication of Bohr’s groundbreaking papers about the quantum atom. (Høffding’s lifespan runs almost completely parallel to Georg Brandes, who lived from 1842 to 1927. They were also students together at the university, and later debated each other in print.)

Working backwards from our goal (understanding Bohr), the important data are that Høffding was a family friend of the Bohrs when Niels was growing up; he was Niels’ teacher for a year-long intensive university course in philosophy; and they maintained a friendship for a long time after that. Also, Høffding’s philosophical voice was pretty much dominant in Denmark from the 1890s to the 1920s. There is simply no doubt that the philosophical climate was set, to a great degree, by Høffding.

Høffding was originally intending to study theology. Like all students at the University of Copenhagen in the 1860s, we had a year-long philosophy course. In Høffding’s case, the teacher was Rasmus Nielsen, and the syllabus included heavy doses of Kierkegaard (whom Nielsen idolized).

As recounted in Høffding’s memoirs, his interaction with Kierkegaard repelled him from theology. Høffding went on to study philosophy, specializing at first in the Greeks. But very quickly, he turned to psychology — which had been a part of the standard syllabus in philosophy at the University of Copenhagen. His most famous book Psykologi i omrids paa grundlag af erfaring (Outlines of psychology) was first published in 1882 (see Pind 2019).

Høffding was also an excellent historian of philosophy. He published Den nyere filosofis historie in 1894, a work that covers all the major movements in philosophy from the Renaissance through the late 19th century. (His treatment of Kant is rather creative: he argues that there is a lot of continuity between the pre- and post-critical work of Kant (see Høffding 1893).) Høffding also wrote the first book-length treatment of the philosophy of Søren Kierkegaard (omitting the propaganda pieces published by Rasmus Nielsen, or the literary treatment of Georg Brandes) (see Høffding 1892), as well as a general history of Danish philosophy (see Høffding 1909).

Høffding wrote several topical works later in his life, and these give his considered opinion on matters of epistemology, ethics, etc. (Høffding offers less in the way of opinion about metaphysical matters.) We offer some selected commentary below, although these works cover a lot more than we mention here.

• Den menneskelige Tanke 1910

• Totalitet som Kategori 1917

• Oplevelse og Tydning 1918

• Relation som Kategori 1921

• Begrebet Analogi 1923

• Erkendelsesteori og Livsopfattelse 1925

Høffding wrote a long memoir about his life and development as a philosopher: Erindringer 1928.

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