Papers of Herman Jean de Vleeschauwer (1899-1986) (MSS Acc 32)

Abstract

HERMAN JEAN DE VLEESCHAUWER (1899-1986) Prof Herman Jean de Vleeschauwer was born on 9 July 1899 in Dendermonde, Belgium. He studied philosophy at the University of Ghent under Colle. In 1923, at the age of 24, he completed his doctorate magna cum laude on the philosophy of the 1908 Nobel Prize winner, Rudolf Eucken. Two years later he became Professor of Logic, Metaphysics and History of Philosophy at his Alma Mater. In 1937 the University of Glasgow conferred an honorary doctor’s degree on De Vleeschauwer for his many research articles on the German philosopher, Immanuel Kant. During World War ll Prof De Vleeschauwer was Director-General of Tertiary Education in Belgium.

He immigrated to South Africa in 1950. After a brief period as a library assistant at the University of Pretoria Library, Prof Herman Jean de Vleeschauwer accepted a lecturing post in philosophy at the University of South Africa in 1951. He later became head of the Department. From 1955 onwards, Prof de Vleeschauwer was also responsible for the Department of Library Science. In 1964 Professor De Vleeschauwer retired from Unisa. He died in 1986. He left his vast personal archive to the Unisa Archives and his library to the Rand Afrikaans University (now the University of Johannesburg).

HERMAN JAN DE VLEESCHAUWER PAPERS (340 boxes) The De Vleeschauwer Papers in the Unisa Archives comprise about 34 linear metres. The records in the De Vleeschauwer Papers reflect his language skills. He wrote in and corresponded in Dutch, French, German, Italian, Spanish, English and Afrikaans. He was the author of more than sixty publications and three hundred academic articles. He published articles in scientific journals in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, the United States of America and South Africa. He also co-edited scientific journals in several of these countries. He is recognised as one of the world’s most important Kantian scholars. He is also remembered as an authority on René Descartes and Arnold Geulincx. The De Vleeschauwer Papers include publications, manuscripts of published and unpublished materials, correspondence, and press cuttings on subjects such as Philosophy, Library Science, History and Theology. There is also a unique publisher’s copy of De Vleeschauwer’s 1944 Constanten in het Nederlandsche denken. The Papers further include correspondence with his family and friends in Europe and South Africa, certificates, photographs and his last will and testament.