Axel Hägerstrom

Hägerstrom, Axel (äk'səl häg'ərstrôm), 1868-1939, Swedish philosopher. He was a student (1886-93) at Uppsala Univ. and taught there from 1893 until his retirement in 1933. The son of a Lutheran minister, his interests shifted from theology to philosophy soon after he began his studies at Uppsala. Influenced by Kant, he explored the concept of reality in The Principle of Science (1908). He was critical of subjectivism and the Austrian school of value theory, holding that all value statements are essentially emotive and lack any truth value. Hägerstrom, with Adolf Phalén, founded the Uppsala school of philosophy, which flourished in the 1920s and 30s, although most members of the school disagreed with much of his work. Near the end of his career Hägerstrom's interest was in practical philosophy, particularly the philosophy of morals, religion, and law.