Jaap van Praag

Jacob Philip ( Jaap ) van Praag ( born May 11, 1911 in Amsterdam, † April 12, 1981 in Utrecht ) was a Dutch politician and one of the founders and chairman of the humanist organization Humanistic Verbond.

Curriculum vitae

His parents were physical education teacher Manus van Praag (* 1884) and the teacher Sara Vleeschhouwer (* 1880). Van Praag studied philology and philosophy cum laude and worked, from 1938, as a high school teacher for the subject of Dutch.

From May 1940 to May 1945 were the Netherlands under German occupation. Due to a cancellation by the Nazi occupiers prohibition against persons who said they were Jews in their ideology, van Praag could no longer work at his school in December 1940 as a teacher. From 1941 to about 1942, he was a teacher at Joodse Middelbare school in Rotterdam. Van Praag wrote from February to August 1941, a dissertation on Henriėtte Roland Holst From October 1943 until the liberation of the southern Netherlands in September 1944, he went into hiding in Eindhoven.

1946 doctorate van Praag cum laude. He participated in the founding of the organization humanistic Humanistic Verbond and became its chairman. Furthermore, he was a Member of the Provincial Parliament of South Holland for the social democratic PvdA from 1954 to 1974 he was a member of he provincial government. From 1964 to 1979, van Praag professor of Humanities (one thought up by himself term ) and the anthropology of humanism at the Rijksuniversiteit Leiden. On the occasion of farewell van Praag as Chairman of the Humanistic Verbond 1969 was " JPvan Praag - prijs " donated and presented to him first scheduling.

Van Praag was married since 1936 and had four children.

Creation

Van Praag was influenced in his youth by the works of Multatuli and Albert Schweitzer, later by Bart de ligt. In hiding in Eindhoven, he wrote the work " Modern humanisme: een renaissance? ". On the cover is the text: "This book is out of the need for a responsible belief on non- religious basis, which could be both the foundation for the personal life as well as policy for a culture-creating activity, was born. This belief is the modern humanism, which testifies to this book, " he calls it, among others, a movement for the organization and formation of non - religious people. ; this organization was to their figures of Humanistic Verbond.

In the speech, whose founding van Praag two different subject matters. The small force serving on equal rights for non-church people in society. The big dispute is directed according to the Humanistic Verbond against any form of " nihilism " (moral indifference ). As Christians, conscious or conscious humanists would have been less receptive to Nazism, the spiritual valor of the people had to be enlarged.

1953 wrote van Praag " Geestelijke verzorging op humanistic grondslag " about spiritual assistance on a humanistic basis.

Works

• Modern humanisme: een renaissance? Contact, Amsterdam 1947.
• Geestelijke verzorging op grondslag humanist. 2nd edition. Humanistic Verbond, Utrecht, 1958 ( PDF file of the first edition, 900 KB).
• Grond documents van humanisme: inleiding dead een humanistic levens -en denkwereld. 4th edition. Boom, Meppel 1996 ( first edition 1978 ), ISBN 90-6009-286-4.