Arto Haapala (born 1959) is a Finnish philosopher, aesthetician and Professor of

Aesthetics Aesthetics, or esthetics, is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of beauty and taste, as well as the philosophy of art (its own area of philosophy that comes out of aesthetics). It examines aesthetic values, often expressed thr ...

at the Department of Philosophy, History, Culture and Art Studies at

Helsinki University The University of Helsinki ( fi, Helsingin yliopisto, sv, Helsingfors universitet, abbreviated UH) is a public university, public Research university, research university located in Helsinki, Finland since 1829, but founded in the city of Turk ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

. Haapala received his PhD from

Birkbeck, University of London , mottoeng = Advice comes over nightTranslation used by Birkbeck. , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £4.3 m (2014) , budget = £10 ...

in 1985. He is also active in the work of the Finnish Society for Aesthetics and the International Institute of Applied Aesthetics in

Lahti Lahti (; sv, Lahtis) is a city and municipality in Finland. It is the capital of the region of Päijänne Tavastia (Päijät-Häme) and its growing region is one of the main economic hubs of Finland. Lahti is situated on a bay at the southern e ...

, Finland. In addition to aesthetics, Haapala also specialises in hermeneutics, especially the philosophy of

Hans-Georg Gadamer Hans-Georg Gadamer (; ; February 11, 1900 – March 13, 2002) was a German philosopher of the continental tradition, best known for his 1960 ''magnum opus'', '' Truth and Method'' (''Wahrheit und Methode''), on hermeneutics. Life Family an ...

and

Martin Heidegger Martin Heidegger (; ; 26 September 188926 May 1976) was a German philosopher who is best known for contributions to phenomenology, hermeneutics, and existentialism. He is among the most important and influential philosophers of the 20th centur ...

A selection of Haapala's writings in English

*''Emotion, the role of experience and fiction''. International Yearbook of Aesthetics. 1 (1996), pp. 27–37. *''Artistic creativity: Skills and style''. Selected papers of the 15th International Congress of Aesthetics. Edited by Kiyokazu Nishimura, Ken-ichi Iwaki, Tanehisa Otabe, Ken-ichi Sasaki, and Eski Tsugami, pp. 87–96. *''Aesthetics in the Human Environment''. Edited by Arto Haapala and Pauline von Bonsdorff. Taiteiden tutkimuksen laitos, Helsinki, 1999. *''Aesthetic experience and the ethical dimension: Essays on moral problems in aesthetics.'' Edited by Arto Haapala and Oiva Kuisma. Taiteiden tutkimuksen laitos, Helsinki, 1999. *''Truth, game and art: Heidegger and Gadamer on the ontology of the work of art''. Festskrift till Johan Wrede 18.10.1995. Taiteiden tutkimuksen laitos, Helsinki, 1995.

References

1959 births 20th-century Finnish philosophers 21st-century Finnish philosophers Alumni of Birkbeck, University of London Living people Philosophers of art Hermeneutists Heidegger scholars Academic staff of the University of Helsinki {{Finland-philosopher-stub