Harald Hoffding

Harald Hoffding lived from March 11, 1843 to July 2, 1931 and was a Danish philosopher and theologian, born in Copenhagen, who worked as a schoolmaster before becoming professor at the University of Copenhagen in 1883. His thinking was shaped early by Soren Kierkegaard and moved over his career toward positivism, while he kept a steady interest in practical psychology and critical method. His best known book, Den nyere Filosofis Historie of 1894, translated as History of Modern Philosophy, set out to supplement and correct earlier histories of philosophy, and he wrote further influential works on psychology and the philosophy of religion that were translated into English and several other languages. The physicist Niels Bohr studied philosophy under him and remained his friend.