• This article examines the senses in which solidarity is a matter of acting “for our sake” and what its relationship to human flourishing is, in the three contexts of human solidarity, political solidarity and societal solidarity. It distinguishes between bottom-up and top-down relations between our good and my good and links these to different aspects of well-being. In the moral context of human solidarity and “the party of the humankind”, the idea of “all for one and one for all” illuminates so…Read more
  •  75
    On the Ambivalence of Recognition
    Itinerari 2021 (1). 2021.
    n this article I address the idea that recognition is fundamentally ambivalent: not only can there be bad forms of recognition – misrecognition, nonrecognition, disrespect – but that even the good or adequate forms of recognition may in some ways be detrimental to the recipient or sustain societal domination (Ikäheimo, Lepold, Stahl 2021). One version of the challenge is that social movements do better by focusing on other concepts than recognition, for their progressive aims. I will discuss the…Read more
  •  2
    What Is Collective Acceptance and What Does It Do?
    In Miguel Garcia-Godinez & Rachael Mellin (eds.), Tuomela on Sociality, Palgrave-macmillan. pp. 105-127. 2023.
    This article identifies and tries to solve five puzzles in Tuomela’s Collective Acceptance View of sociality and institutions. If it is framed in terms of collective acceptance of sentences as true for a group, and that need not mean objective truth, does collective acceptance shed any light on the ontology of institutions? Is it the CA-events or CA-states that have the possible ontological consequences for social reality? If theoretical claims about CA conflict, which ones should we revise? How…Read more
  • Introduction : Hegel and contemporary philosophy of action
    In Arto Laitinen & Constantine Sandis (eds.), Hegel on action, Palgrave-macmillan. 2010.
  •  248
    This paper argues that relations of mutual recognition (love, respect, esteem, trust) contribute directly and non-reductively to our flourishing as relational selves. Love is important for the quality of human life. Not only do everyday experiences and analyses of pop culture and world literature attest to this; scientific research does as well. How exactly does love contribute to well-being? This chapter discusses the suggestion that it not only matters for the experiential quality of life, o…Read more
  •  254
    Agents have powers to bring about change. Do agents have normative powers to bring about normative change directly? This chapter distinguishes between direct normative change and descriptive and institutional changes, which may indirectly be normatively significant. This article argues that agents do indeed have the powers to bring about normative change directly. It responds to a challenge claiming that all normativity is institutional and another claiming that exercises of normative powers wou…Read more
  •  18
    Dewey's Progressive Historicism and the Problem of Determinate Oughts
    Journal of Speculative Philosophy 31 (2): 245-259. 2017.
    ABSTRACT This article argues that Dewey has a “progressive historicist” theory of ethics and social philosophy. That theory is here explicated with the notion of an “evaluative framework,” which can be embodied both implicitly in practice and in explicit theories and judgments. Such historicism, in which each stage has overcome the deficiencies of the previous stage, has ample resources to avoid unconstrained relativism, in terms of three aspects: the “dynamic,” the “dialogic,” and the “historic…Read more
  • Editorial: For the reader
    Ajatus 74 (1): 5-9. 2017.
  • Editorial: For the reader
    Ajatus 75 (1): 5-6. 2018.
  •  1
    In memoriam: Reijo Wilenius
    Ajatus 76 (1): 7-9. 2019.
    Jyväskylän yliopiston filosofian emeritusprofessori Reijo Wilenius kuoli Helsingissä 89-vuotiaana 26. lokakuuta 2019. Hän oli syntynyt Helsingissä 22. huhtikuuta 1930.
  • Editorial: For the reader
    Ajatus 76 (1): 5-6. 2019.
  • Editorial: For the reader
    Ajatus 77 (1): 5-6. 2020.
  •  1
    Charles Taylor
    In Ludwig Siep, Heikki Ikäheimo & Michael Quante (eds.), Handbuch Anerkennung, Springer. pp. 219-221. 2018.
  •  268
    Recognition, Identity, and Difference
    In Ludwig Siep, Heikki Ikäheimo & Michael Quante (eds.), Handbuch Anerkennung, Springer. pp. 459-468. 2018.
    This entry discusses three forms of politics of recognition: politics of universalism, affirmative identity politics and deconstructive politics of difference. It examines the constitutive, causally formative, and normative role that recognition has for the relevant senses of universal standing, particular identity, and difference in these approaches.
  •  15
    Entre Nous: Charles Taylor’s Social Ontology
    International Journal of Philosophical Studies 29 (5): 723-737. 2021.
    This article discusses Charles Taylor’s philosophy of human sociality, focusing especially on Taylor’s analysis of what happens, when a linguistic exchange or conversation starts. On his view, a sh...
  •  96
    AI Systems and Respect for Human Autonomy
    Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence (-): -. 2021.
    This study concerns the sociotechnical bases of human autonomy. Drawing on recent literature on AI ethics, philosophical literature on dimensions of autonomy, and on independent philosophical scrutiny, we first propose a multi-dimensional model of human autonomy and then discuss how AI systems can support or hinder human autonomy. What emerges is a philosophically motivated picture of autonomy and of the normative requirements personal autonomy poses in the context of algorithmic systems. Rangin…Read more
  •  287
    Varieties of Normativity: Reasons, Expectations, Wide-scope oughts, and Ought-to-be’s
    In Rachael Mellin, Raimo Tuomela & Miguel Garcia-Godinez (eds.), Social Ontology, Normativity and Law, De Gruyter. pp. 133-158. 2020.
    This chapter distinguishes between several senses of “normativity”. For example, that we ought to abstain from causing unnecessary suffering is a normative, not descriptive, claim. And so is the claim that we have good reason, and ought to drive on the right, or left, side of the road because the law requires us to do that. Reasons and oughts are normative, by definition. Indeed, it may be that “[t]he normativity of all that is normative consists in the way it is, or provides, or is otherwise re…Read more
  •  36
    Social wrongs
    Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 26 (7): 1048-1072. 2023.
    In this paper we elucidate the notion of ‘social wrongs’. It differs from moral wrongness, and is broader than narrowly political wrongs. We distinguish conceptually monadic wrongness (1.1), dyadic wronging (1.2), and the idea of there being something ‘wrong with’ an entity (1.3). We argue that social and political wrongs share a feature with natural badness or wrongness (illnesses of organisms) as well as malfunctioning artifacts or dysfunctional organizations: they violate so called ought-to-b…Read more
  •  30
    Four conceptions of social pathology
    European Journal of Social Theory 22 (1): 80-102. 2019.
    This article starts with the idea that the task of social philosophy can be defined as the diagnosis and therapy of social pathologies. It discusses four conceptions of social pathology. The first two conceptions are ‘normativist’ and hold that something is a social pathology if it is socially wrong. On the first view, there is no encompassing characterization of social pathologies available: it is a cluster concept of family resemblances. On the second view, social pathologies share a structure…Read more
  •  1
    L’idea guida di questo saggio è la combinazione dell’antica idea che le buone società sono quelle che consentono e promuovono la vita buona, la prosperità o il benessere dei cittadini, con l’idea moderna che i cittadini devono essere considerati individui autonomi. Le teorie del riconoscimento (recognition), a partire da Fichte e Hegel in poi, forniscono una promettente cornice teoretica per provare a considerare le persone come individui e, nel contempo, come membri dell’insieme sociale. Queste…Read more
  •  6
    Foreword
    Hegel Jahrbuch 2019 (1): 7-7. 2019.
  •  15
    Personhood – Workshop papers of the Conference ‘Dimensions of Personhood’ (edited book)
    with Heikki Ikäheimo, Jussi Kotkavirta, Pessi Lyyra, and Petteri Niemi
    University of Jyväskylä, Publications in Philosophy. 2004.
    This volume contains the workshop papers of the philosophical conference Dimensions of Personhood held in August 13-15, 2004 at University of Jyväskylä, Finland. The conference was organized by the Finnish Academy research project The Concept of Person. In the call for papers, the theme of the conference was formulated as follows. Recent developments in neuroscience and information technology, in medicine and biotechnology, and in society and culture more broadly have made various questions conc…Read more
  • Recognition
    with Heikki Ikäheimo
    In Robin Celikates, Rahel Jaeggi & Martin Saar (eds.), Handbuch Kritische Theorie: Werke – Begriffe – Wirkung, J.b. Metzler. 2019.
  •  21
    Could robots strengthen the sense of autonomy of older people residing in assisted living facilities?—A future-oriented study
    with Jari Pirhonen, Helinä Melkas, and Satu Pekkarinen
    Ethics and Information Technology 22 (2): 151-162. 2020.
    There is an urge to introduce high technology and robotics in care settings. Assisted living is the fastest growing form of older adults’ long-term care. Resident autonomy has become the watchword for good care. This article sheds light on the potential effects of care robotics on the sense of autonomy of older people in AL. Three aspects of the residents’ sense of autonomy are of particular interest: interaction-based sense of autonomy, coping-based sense of autonomy, and potential-based sense …Read more
  •  21
    Demands of Dignity in Robotic Care
    with Marketta Niemelä and Jari Pirhonen
    Techné: Research in Philosophy and Technology 23 (3): 366-401. 2019.
    Having a sense of dignity is one of the core emotions in human life. Is our dignity, and accordingly also our sense of dignity under threat in elderly care, especially in robotic care? How can robotic care support or challenge human dignity in elderly care? The answer will depend on whether it is robot-based, robot-assisted, or teleoperated care that is at stake. Further, the demands and realizations of human dignity have to be distinguished. The demands to respect humans are based on human dign…Read more
  •  22
    Hegel on Purpose
    Hegel Bulletin 40 (3): 444-463. 2019.
    In this paper we propose a new interpretation of Hegel's views on action and responsibility, defending it against its most plausible exegetical competitors.1Any exposition of Hegel will face both terminological and substantive challenges, and so we place, from the outset, some interpretative constraints. The paper divides into two parts. In part one, we point out that Hegel makes a number of distinctions which any sensible account of responsibility should indeed make. Our aim here is to show tha…Read more