Jacob Philip van Praag (11 May 1911, Amsterdam

Amsterdam

Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...

 - 12 April 1981, Utrecht

Utrecht (city)

Utrecht city and municipality is the capital and most populous city of the Dutch province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern corner of the Randstad conurbation, and is the fourth largest city of the Netherlands with a population of 312,634 on 1 Jan 2011.Utrecht's ancient city centre features...

) was a Dutch

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 humanist who played a prominent role in establishing the Dutch Humanist League. He was its Chairman from 1946 to 1969. And, from 1954 to 1974, he was a member of a provincial Executive.

Van Praag was one of the first professors in Humanist studies in University of Leiden (1964-1979). He played a major role in the founding of the International Humanist and Ethical Union

International Humanist and Ethical Union

The International Humanist and Ethical Union is an umbrella organisation embracing humanist, atheist, rationalist, secular, skeptic, freethought and Ethical Culture organisations worldwide. Founded in Amsterdam in 1952, the IHEU is a democratic union of more than 100 member organizations in 40...

.

Sources

• Biography by Pieter Edelman in the Encyclopedie van het Humanisme (in Dutch).