The Scandinavian Value Nihilists and the Crisis of Democracy in the 1930s and 40s

Abstract

In the 1930s and 40s many theories were raised about some kind of connection between relativistic or nihilistic moral theories and the rise of totalitarianism in Europe. In Scandinavia these allegations were directed at the adherents of the value nihilistic theory of Axel Hägerström. This article explores the ways in which three democratically-minded followers of Hägerström (Ingemar Hedenius, Herbert Tingsten and Alf Ross) struggled to overcome these charges and to reconcile their democratic convictions with Hägerström’s value nihilistic theory.