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5 unusual facts about Hans Driesch


Emanuel Rádl

Influenced by the German biologist and philosopher Hans Driesch, he became interested in philosophy of life and in a large work The History of Biological Theories (in German 1905–1909, in English 1930; reprint in 1988) he criticized the evolutionism of the 19th century.

Hans Driesch

It appeared that any single monad in the original egg cell was capable of forming any part of the completed embryo.

In 1919 he was ordinary professor of systematic philosophy at Cologne and in 1921 professor of philosophy at Leipzig, though he was a visiting professor in Nanjing and Beijing during 1922-23, and in 1923 he received honorable doctor's degree from National Southeastern University (later renamed National Central University and Nanjing University) where he taught for a semester.

Henri Piéron

He took part in the first Davos University Course (a project to start an international university based in Davos) in 1928, along with many other prominent academics such as Albert Einstein and Hans Driesch.

Leo Jung

Rabbi Jung cites the contemporary philosophies of Havelock Ellis, “The Dance of Life” (1923), Hans Driesch, and Henri Bergson to prove the vitality of life.


Nanjing University

Many scholars visited and instructed there, including the American educationist Paul Monroe, W. H. Kilpatrick, E. L. Thorndike, philosopher John Dewey, British philosopher Bertrand Russell, German philosopher Hans Driesch and the Indian (also Bengali) poet Rabindranath Tagore.


see also