jective grounds and, on the other, rejecting the scientific possibility of moral objectivism.The reasons for this are both epistemological and ontological.The essence of the lecture is that no values exist autonomously in nature, just things.There are no absolute moral values and consequently it is impossible to obtain definite objective moral knowledge, regardless of choice of philosophy, because such moral knowledge must entail a synthetic a priori.4 According to Konrad Marc-Wogau, the definite break with subjectivism came after to the publication of Das Prinzip der Wissenschaft, which still contained some basically subjectivistic lines of thought,5 while Svante Nordin dates the origins of the break to 1898.6 The texts written by Hägerström between1908 and 1911 are of interest when attempting to determine at what point that Hägerström’s anti-subjectivistic position was fully embraced. For while “Botanisten och filosofen” is a popularized summary of Das Prinzip derWissenschaft 7 (which according to Konrad Marc-Wogau is idealistically tainted), the subsequent works “Kritiska punkter i värdepsykologien” and Till analysen af det empiriska själfmedvetandet contain passages where subjectivism is thoroughly analyzed, criticized, and rejected. Finally, in his inaugural lecture, Om moraliska föreställningars sanning (hereinafter:“On theTruth of Moral Propositions”), Hägerström for the first time gives a systematic account of his moral theory (which is decidedly non- or antisubjectivistic as well as anti-objectivistic). Had Hägerström, in “Botanisten och filosofen”, shed all, or only some, of the idealistic and subjectivistic influences and ideas that can be found in Das Prinzip der Wissenschaft?8 That is the question that must be considered. a ca l l f o r s c i e n t i f i c p u r i t y 171 4 Hägerström, “Om moraliska föreställningars sanning,” in Moralfilosofins grundläggning: The foundation of moral philosophy, pp. 48-50; “Moral Propositions,” pp. 95-96. See also Part IV, below. 5 Marc-Wogau, Studier till Axel Hägerströms filosofi, p. 80. 6 Nordin, Hägerström till Hedenius, pp. 220-221. 7 Hägerström, Selbstdarstellungen, p. 5. 8 It has been argued that Hägerström’s philosophy did not change at all after Das Prinzip
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