- Werner Jaeger
Werner Wilhelm Jaeger (
July 30 ,1888 -October 9 ,1961 ) was a classicist of the 20th century.Jaeger was born in
Lobberich ,Rhenish Prussia . He attended school at Lobberich and at the Gymnasium Thomaeum inKempen before studying at theUniversity of Marburg . He received a Ph.D. from the University of Berlin in 1911 for a dissertation on the "Metaphysics" ofAristotle . Only 26 years old and withouthabilitation , Jaeger was called on that basis to a professorship with chair at theUniversity of Basel inSwitzerland . One year later he moved to a similar position at Kiel, and in 1921 he returned to Berlin. Jaeger remained in Berlin until 1936, when he emigrated to theUnited States because he was unhappy withAdolf Hitler 's regime; his wife wasJew ish and Nazi legislation thus forbade his teaching at the university.In the United States, Jaeger worked as a full professor at the
University of Chicago from 1936 to 1939, at which time he moved toHarvard University . He remained inCambridge, Massachusetts until his death.Jaeger is perhaps best known for his multivolume work "
Paideia : The Ideals of Greek Culture", an extensive consideration of both the earliest practices and later philosophical reflections on the cultural nature of education in Ancient Greece, which he hoped would restore a decadent early 20th century Europe to the values of its Hellenic origins.Jaeger was also the major contributor to the edition of the works of St. Gregory of Nyssa- Gregorii Nysseni Opera.
Works
*"Aristoteles; Grundlegung einer Geschichte seiner Entwicklung" (1923; English trans., "Aristotle: Fundamentals of the History of His Development", 1934)
*"Platons Stellung im Aufbau der griechischen Bildung" (1928)
*"Humanistische Reden und Vorträge" (1937)
*"Paideia; die Formung des griechischen Menschen", 3 vols. (from 1934), hismagnum opus on Greek thought and education fromHomer toDemosthenes (English trans., "Paideia: The Ideals of Greek Culture", 1939)
*"Humanism and Theology" (1943)
*"The Theology of the Early Greek Philosophers" (Trans. from the German ms. by Edward S. Robinson, 1947)Persondata
NAME=Jaeger, Werner Wilhelm
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION=classicist
DATE OF BIRTH=July 30 ,1888
PLACE OF BIRTH=Lobberich ,Germany
DATE OF DEATH=October 9 ,1961
PLACE OF DEATH=Cambridge, Massachusetts
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