On18 March1911 Hägerström began work as Professor of practical Philosophy at the University of Uppsala.As is customary, he held an inaugural lecture.The lecture was entitled Om moraliska föreställningars sanning (“On the Truth of Moral Propositions”). In it he dealt with the fundamentals of practical philosophy.58 Despite the fact that Hägerström’s personal radicalism in philosophical and political matters was common knowledge among his fellow academics, the radical ideas that he advanced in this inaugural lecture neither passed unnoticed nor uncommented, nor did they fail to shock certain parts of the auditorium.59 The commentators mainly focused their attention upon Hägerström’s dismissal of the traditional philosophical notion that it was scientifically possible to determine an objective morality,60 which was an idea that Hägerström clarified and expounded in his lecture by arguing that science could not be the handmaid of morality or the handmaid of faith, and still retain its scientific character.61 Any such attempts necessarily entail that: “… seen from a purely scientific point of view, one has actually only made a declaration of bankruptcy.”62 Hägerström’s conclusion is that in any investigation of objective morality the scientific issues regarda ca l l f o r s c i e n t i f i c p u r i t y 261 Case Study: “On the Truth of Moral Propositions” chap te r 3 58 The lecture was published in its entirety later that year. 59 Mautner, “Inledning,” pp. 7-8. See also: Hägerström, Social teleologi i marxismen; De socialistiska idéernas historia. 60 Mautner, “Inledning,” pp. 7-8. 61 Hägerström, “Moraliska föreställningar,” p. 33; “Moral Propositions,” p. 82. 62 Hägerström, “Moraliska föreställningar,” p. 33; “Moral Propositions,” p. 82. Swedish: “… man i verkligheten rent vetenskapligt sett endast gjort en bankruttförklaring.”
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjYyNDk=