Jeanne Hersch was a Swiss philosopher of Polish origin, whose works dealt with the concept of freedom.
She studied under the existentialist Karl Jaspers in Germany in the early 1930s. In 1956, she was appointed to a professorship at the University of Geneva, one of the first women to hold such a post at a Swiss university, holding the post until 1977. From 1966 to 1968 she headed the philosophy division of UNESCO, and was a member of its executive commission from 1970 to 1972.
In 1968 she edited Le droit d'être un homme, une anthologie mondiale de la liberté in French, an anthology of writings on human rights, republished in French in 1984 and 1990.
In 1987, she received the Einstein Medal.
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