Common Activities Resume after Summer

On last Tuesday, the 26th of August, the common activities of the CoE officially resumed with two meetings and a gathering of the whole CoE in the evening.

The first meeting at the Collegium focused on preparations related with organizing The 5^th Nordic Conference in Philosophy of Religion in Helsinki on 8–11 June 2015. Timo Koistinen, who is also a member of our Team 3, bears the main responsibility for organizing the conference. He is assisted in this by Dan Eklund and Hanna Ronikonmäki.

Timo Koistinen and Simo Knuuttila

In conjuction with the Nordic conference, the CoE also organizes a special symposium on the 11^th of June with the title “Recognition and Religion”. As the title indicates, the themes of this one-day event are closely related with the CoE’s central research topics. The group dealing with the organization includes Sami Pihlström, Hanne Appelqvist, and myself.

After the first meeting, it was time for all three CoE teams to have their parallel discussion sessions. We continued at the Collegium, and in addition to our team members, enjoyed the pleasure of Simo Knuuttila’s presence in the session.

Risto Saarinen and Sami Pihlström

Risto Saarinen also arrived at our team meeting, straight from Budapest, where he had attended The 18^th Academic Consultation of the Societas Oecumenica. Saarinen brought news from the event according to which our team member Minna Hietamäki had been elected as the secretary of The European Society for Ecumenical Research. In addition, the 19^th Academic Consultation of the Society would be held in Helsinki in late August 2016.

Aku Visala and Elina Hellqvist

After the meetings, members from all three teams got together in an informal and friendly atmosphere at a local beer house.

Outi Lehtipuu and Raimo Hakola

[Picture from previous gathering]

The CoE in Helsingin Sanomat

Helsingin Sanomat, Finland's largest subscription newspaper featured a full-page story (B 6) on our Centre of Excellence on Tuesday the 12th of August. The CoE was represented by Risto Saarinen and Joona Salminen, and the text dealt with our research on the interaction between religion and society.

• A link to the first part of the story can be found here.
• A link to the second part here.

King Gustav Vasa, recognizable for the Lutheran Reformation

and the founding of Helsinki

Recognition Weekend with Axel Honneth

Professor Axel Honneth (University of Frankfurt / Columbia University) gave the 12th Annual Collegium Lecture at the University of Helsinki's main building on Friday the 23rd of May. In conjuction with the 2014 Collegium Lecture, a two-day Workshop on Pathologies of Recognition was organized by the research project Pathologies of Recognition (Academy of Finland), Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Study, and The School of Social Sciences and Humanities (University of Tampere).

Axel Honneth giving his Collegium Lecture

My personal research and reading focuses at the moment very much on Honneth as well as on Arto Laitinen and Heikki Ikäheimo, who have contributed to explicating and further developing the Honnethian concept(s) of recognition. Therefore, it was very nice indeed to be able to meet all three at once in Helsinki.

Arto Laitinen, Axel Honneth, and Heikki Ikäheimo

Our own CoE Reason and Religious Recognition was represented in the workshop programme by our Director Risto Saarinen, who discussed interesting cases of recognition in the pre-Hegelian sources of Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499), and John Calvin (1509-1564).

Saarinen giving his talk at the workshop

All in all, from a research point of view, the two days were highly interesting, very educating, and intellectually stimulating. They also provided a good opportunity to make new contacts with people working on themes related with recognition. Below are some more photos from "the recognition weekend".

Federica Gregoratto, who spoke on Pathologies of Love

Cillian McBride, who recently published his book on recognition

Nora Hämäläinen speaking on Emotional Capitalism

and the Epistemology of Suspicion

Axel Honneth and Sami Pihlström, who chaired the Collegium Lecture

Sari Roman-Lagerspetz with Honneth in the audience

CoE Ladies Anna-Liisa Tolonen and Maijastina Kahlos

ouside the main building after Honneth's lecture

The Honneth Reception at the Collegium Common Room

Simo Knuuttila's Farewell Lecture

On last week's Thursday, the 8th of May, Simo Knuuttila gave his farewell lecture at the Main Building of the University of Helsinki. Knuuttila's topic dealt with the origins of religion, and the lecture hall was packed full. Below are some photos from the event.

Simo Knuuttila giving his talk on the origins of religion

Flowers presented

Ismo Dunderberg chairing the event

Celebrations of Knuuttila and Niiniluoto

Below are some photos from last week’s Monday, 14 April, when two consecutive events were organized to celebrate Simo Knuuttila and Ilkka Niiniluoto. The first occasion was a workshop for Knuuttila organized at the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies. The second event of the day was a farewell lecture by Niiniluoto at the Small Hall of the Main Building of the University of Helsinki.

Simo Knuuttila in discussion

Some of the workshop participants

Niiniluoto giving his lecture

Audience at the Small Hall

Jaakko Hintikka attended both events

Academy's CoE Brochures Published

The Academy of Finland has published a brochure on its Centres of Excellence in Research Programme 2014-2019 including our CoE Reason and Religious Recognition. The brochures are available both in English and in Finnish. Pdf versions of these can be downloaded here:

• Leading the Way in Science [English]
• Tieteen huipulla [Finnish]

Theology, Philosophy, and Cognitive Science on Religion

AID, the new forum for interdisciplinary conversation coordinated by the Finnish Centre of Excellence in the Philosophy of the Social Sciences, organized a discussion session at the University of Helsinki on Monday 7 April. The topic of the event was "Religion: Viewed from Theology, Philosophy, and Cognitive Science". The themes were obviously important also for our own CoE, and especially for its Team 3, which focuses on contemporary philosophy of religion, and includes a subgroup of cognitive study of religion.

The interesting themes were discussed by Simo Knuuttila, Professor of Theological Ethics and Philosophy of Religion, and Ilkka Pyysiäinen, University Lecturer in Study of Religions. The discussion was moderated by Academy Professor Uskali Mäki, all three being affiliated with the University of Helsinki, and Pyysiäinen also counting as a part of our very own Team 3 mentioned above.

Both discussants first gave their own short presentations and then commented on each other's views. Finally, the floor was opened for a wider discussion in which the audience could also take part.

Simo Knuuttila and Ilkka Pyysiäinen