Erfarenhet, föränderlighet och arv Gottfrid Adlerz. Om människans ursprung och striden om kulturvärdena

Abstract

The purpose with this essay is to analyze Adlerz writing within the context of the fiery debate in the 1880’s between the liberal so called ‘cultural radical’ members of the student organization called Verdandi, and the conservative, uniform oskarian culture named after the Swedish king of the period. I have applied a version of Quentin Skinner’s method, which focuses on the context of a specific writing in order to find out the authors intention, the effect the author hoped to achieve. My questions regard certain themes I discovered in the text and, more importantly, the relationship between these themes and the surrounding debate. This complementary source-material I have found in anthologies and other literature. My conclusion is that Adlerz, while keeping a relatively neutral and scientific language a message which I read as polemical against the idealistic, rationalistic philosophy of J. C. Boström and his disciples, but also against the Swedish church. At the same time, Adlerz spread the message of Verdandi, especially regarding the education of the working-class people.