Cristopher Jacob Boström

1797-1866.

Philosopher.

Christopher Jacob Boström was born in Piteå and became a student in Uppsala in 1815.

From 1842 to 1863, he was professor of practical philosophy in Uppsala and was Sweden's most influential philosopher in the 19th century. He built up a metaphysical system with roots in German and Swedish idealism. Boström was a persuasive lecturer and excelled in speeches.

Boström's so-called rational idealism, with its strong emphasis on the individual's duties in a moral and rational society, came to exert a profound influence on thinking in Sweden in the latter half of the 19th century.

Boströmianism, named after its originator, was the only original philosophical system to emerge in Sweden in the 19th century and, through Boström's disciples, came to dominate Swedish university philosophy throughout the latter part of the 19th century.

His disciples included Sigurd Ribbing, Yngve Sahlin and Axel Nyblaeus. Boström's niece is Ebba Boström, founder of the Samaritan Home. She is also buried in the Old Cemetery.

 

Burial site: 0119-0995

Image description: Christopher Jacob Boström, 1865. Photo: Litografiskt allehanda, fifth edition. Sigrid Flodin's publishing house. / Wikimedia Commons. [The image is cropped]
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Pontus Wikner

1837-1888.

Philosopher, author.

Pontus Wikner was born in a poor crofter's home in Valbo-Ryrs parish in Dalsland.

He came to Uppsala in 1856, where he was permanently influenced by neo-evangelicalism and by Rydberg and Geijer.

As a disciple of the philosopher Christopher Jacob Boström, Wikner initially developed Boström's ideas, and later subjected them to criticism in terms of philosophy of religion and epistemology. Against Boström's philosophy, which was based on God as the absolute reason, Wikner placed an image of God characterized by holy will and saw religion as an I-Thou relationship.

Between 1863-1884 Wikner was associate professor of theoretical philosophy in Uppsala and became a lecturer in theology and Hebrew at the Högre allmänna läroverket in Uppsala in 1873, and professor of philosophy and aesthetics in Kristiania (Oslo) in 1884.

In his most widely read work, Tankar och frågor inför Människones Son (1872; Thoughts and Questions for the Son of Man ), Wikner took a personal stand in the Christological battles of his day. He wanted to combine a biblically inspired revivalist piety with a culturally open humanism, and he was supported in Christian circles, especially in the Young Church and the Association for Christian Humanism.

When Pontus Wikner died in Oslo after a life marked by illness and personal crises, his remains were brought to Uppsala by the Student Union. A large number of students followed the remains to the grave.

More than 80 years (1971) after Wikner's death, his notes were published, in which he describes his homosexual orientation and the suffering it caused him.

Wikner also became an inspiration at the time when the modern gay movement emerged in Sweden in the 1970s; a movement that developed and today can be called the LGBTI movement.

 

Burial site: 0121-1085

Image description: Pontus Wikner, ca 1850-1888 Photo: Unknown photographer / UUBThe image is cropped]
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