Axel Hägerström

Axel Anders Theodor Hägerström (6 September 1868, Vireda – 7 July 1939, Uppsala) was a Swedish philosopher.

Teaching there from 1893 until his retirement in 1933, he attacked the then dominant philosophical idealism of the followers of Christopher Jacob Boström (1797-1866).

His disciples Karl Olivecrona, Alf Ross and Anders Vilhelm Lundstedt all take a similar basic view to Hägerström in their opinions on the language of Western law.

His motto was: "Praeterea censeo metaphysicam esse delendam", paraphrasing Cato's famous "delenda Carthago".

They may have influence or be able to direct a person who obtains such a right or duty but ultimately, if they could not stand up to a factual test, they were mere fantasies.