27 January 1921, Istanbul – 26 February 2016, Istanbul. Turkish philosopher and academic.
After completing her primary and secondary education at Çapa Primary School and Çapa Middle School, she graduated from İstiklâl High School. She pursued her higher education in the Department of Philosophy at Istanbul University, from which she graduated in 1943. She began her doctoral studies in the same department under the supervision of Ernst von Aster, and completed her dissertation titled “The Language Culture Connection in Wilhelm von Humboldt” under Joachim Ritter in 1954. She translated into Turkish a series of lectures given at Istanbul University by Arnold Gehlen and Hans Freyer, as well as Ritter’s courses.
Between 1956 and 1958, she went to Germany, where she attended Hans-Georg Gadamer’s phenomenology seminars at Heidelberg University and conducted research on Max Scheler. In 1960, she became an associate professor with her work “The Problem of Personality in Max Scheler.” In 1968, she was promoted to full professorship in the Chair of the History of Philosophy. She taught courses such as Ethics, Contemporary Philosophical Movements, and Philosophy History Seminar, and served as Chair of the Philosophy Department. From 1963 to 1983, she was a member of the Turkish Language Association (TDK) Executive Board, playing an active role together with Macit Gökberk in the efforts to develop Turkish philosophical terminology. She retired in 1984.
Between 1988 and 1989, she served as the founder of the Philosophy Group Teaching Department at the Faculty of Education, Çukurova University. From 1990 to 1996, she taught doctoral courses at the Atatürk Institute of Istanbul University.
While the phenomenology and philosophical anthropology tradition initiated by Takiyettin Mengüşoğlu at Istanbul University continued through Nermi Uygur, Bedia Akarsu also influenced by Ernst von Aster focused primarily on the philosophies of language, culture, and ethics. In her doctoral work, both her method and approach were strongly shaped by her advisor, the German historian of philosophy Joachim Ritter. The philosophical anthropology seminars she attended under Mengüşoğlu during her student years, as well as Gadamer’s phenomenology seminars in Heidelberg, also had a positive impact on her studies on Scheler.
The Vedat Günyol Library and her private archive collection are housed in the library of Maltepe University.
Works
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The Language–Culture Connection in W. von Humboldt (1955)
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The Problem of Personality in Max Scheler (1962)
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Woman in Modern Society (1963)
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Ethics of Happiness (1965)
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Kant’s Moral Philosophy (1968)
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The Atatürk Revolution and Its Interpretations (1969)
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Dictionary of Philosophical Terms (1975)
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Contemporary Philosophy (1979)
