Eino Sakari Kaila (8 August 1890 – 31 July 1958 In some reference books there is an incorrect death date 1958-08-01.) was a

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

philosopher, critic and teacher. He worked in numerous fields including

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries between ...

(sometimes considered to be the founder of Finnish psychology),

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...

and

theater Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...

, and attempted to find unifying principles behind various branches of human and natural sciences.

Life

Eino Kaila was born in

Alajärvi Alajärvi is a town and municipality of Finland. It is located in the South Ostrobothnia region. The town has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is . The town is unilingually Finnish; there are fe ...

, Finland. Kaila's father, Erkki Kaila, was a

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

minister and later archbishop. He graduated from the

University of Helsinki The University of Helsinki ( fi, Helsingin yliopisto, sv, Helsingfors universitet, abbreviated UH) is a public research university located in Helsinki, Finland since 1829, but founded in the city of Turku (in Swedish ''Åbo'') in 1640 as the ...

in 1910. In the 1920s he worked in the field of literary criticism and

as a professor at the

University of Turku sv, Åbo universitet , latin_name = Universitas Aboensis , image_name = University of Turku.svg , motto = ''Vapaan kansan lahja vapaalle tieteelle'' , established = 1920 , type ...

and is said to have been the first to introduce

gestalt psychology Gestalt-psychology, gestaltism, or configurationism is a school of psychology that emerged in the early twentieth century in Austria and Germany as a theory of perception that was a rejection of basic principles of Wilhelm Wundt's and Edward ...

to Finland. He was a part of the cultural circles of the time with the likes of

Jean Sibelius Jean Sibelius ( ; ; born Johan Julius Christian Sibelius; 8 December 186520 September 1957) was a Finnish composer of the late Romantic and early-modern periods. He is widely regarded as his country's greatest composer, and his music is often ...

and

Frans Eemil Sillanpää Frans Eemil Sillanpää (; 16 September 1888 – 3 June 1964) was one of the most famous Finnish writers and in 1939 became the first Finnish writer to be awarded the Nobel Prize for literature "for his deep understanding of his country's pe ...

. In 1916 he married the painter Anna Lovisa Snellman, who was granddaughter of

Johan Vilhelm Snellman Johan Vilhelm Snellman (; 12 May 1806 – 4 July 1881) was an influential Fennoman philosopher and Finnish statesman, ennobled in 1866. He was one of the most important 'awakeners' or promoters of Finnish nationalism, alongside Elias Lönnrot an ...

. He had University positions as lecturer in Helsinki and professor in Turku, and in 1930 he was appointed professor of theoretical philosophy at the University of Helsinki. In the 1930s, Kaila was closely associated with the

Vienna Circle The Vienna Circle (german: Wiener Kreis) of Logical Empiricism was a group of elite philosophers and scientists drawn from the natural and social sciences, logic and mathematics who met regularly from 1924 to 1936 at the University of Vienna, ch ...

. During World War II, Kaila lectured in Germany. In 1948 Kaila became a member of the Finnish Academy. He died in

Kirkkonummi Kirkkonummi (; sv, Kyrkslätt, , Sweden ) is a municipality of inhabitants () in southern Finland. The literal meaning of the words "''Kirkkonummi''" and "''Kyrkslätt''" in English is "church heath". Geography The municipality is located just ...

on 31 July 1958.

Ideas

Despite being greatly influenced by the

logical positivists Logical positivism, later called logical empiricism, and both of which together are also known as neopositivism, is a movement in Western philosophy whose central thesis was the verification principle (also known as the verifiability criterion of ...

and critical of unempirical speculation, an aspect common to all of Kaila's work was in strive for a holistic, almost

pantheistic Pantheism is the belief that reality, the universe and the cosmos are identical with divinity and a supreme supernatural being or entity, pointing to the universe as being an immanent creator deity still expanding and creating, which has ...

understanding of things. He also maintained a more naturalist approach to psychology. His book ''Persoonallisuus'' (1934, Personality) was a psychological study with philosophical dimensions, in which emphasized the biological nature of psychological phenomena. During the last years of his life he attempted to construct a

theory of everything A theory of everything (TOE or TOE/ToE), final theory, ultimate theory, unified field theory or master theory is a hypothetical, singular, all-encompassing, coherent theoretical framework of physics that fully explains and links together all asp ...

in ''Terminalkausalität Als Die Grundlage Eines Unitarischen Naturbegriffs'', but this, what was meant to be the first installment in a more extensive study, was not met with much enthusiasm outside of Finland. Though he withdrew his support of the

National Socialists Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...

before the end of the Second World War, he wrote about the differences between "western" and "eastern" thought and claimed that the homogeneity of the people was a necessity for a functioning democracy. After the war his close friendships with

Edwin Linkomies Edwin Johannes Hildegard Linkomies (22 December 1894 – 9 September 1963, until 1928 ''Edwin Flinck)'' was Prime Minister of Finland from March 1943 to August 1944, and one of the seven politicians sentenced to five and a half years in pris ...

and

Veikko Antero Koskenniemi Veikko Antero Koskenniemi (8 July 1885 – 4 August 1962) was a Finnish poet born in Oulu. From 1921 to 1948, Koskenniemi served as Professor of Literary History at the University of Turku. He was the university's rector from 1924 to 1932. ...

put a political shadow even over Kaila.

Influence

Kaila's most famous pupil was

Georg Henrik von Wright Georg Henrik von Wright (; 14 June 1916 – 16 June 2003) was a Finnish philosopher. Biography G. H. von Wright was born in Helsinki on 14 June 1916 to Tor von Wright and his wife Ragni Elisabeth Alfthan. On the retirement of Ludwig Wittgenste ...

, who was the successor of

Ludwig Wittgenstein Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein ( ; ; 26 April 1889 – 29 April 1951) was an Austrian-British philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. He is con ...

at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a public collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world's third oldest surviving university and one of its most pr ...

. The tradition of highly German-influenced analytical-

idealist In philosophy, the term idealism identifies and describes metaphysical perspectives which assert that reality is indistinguishable and inseparable from perception and understanding; that reality is a mental construct closely connected to id ...

philosophy which Kaila championed remained unchallenged in Finnish philosophy until the appearance of

continental Continental may refer to: Places * Continent, the major landmasses of Earth * Continental, Arizona, a small community in Pima County, Arizona, US * Continental, Ohio, a small town in Putnam County, US Arts and entertainment * ''Continental'' ( ...

influences in the 1980s. Kaila founded the psychological laboratory at the University of Helsinki, and educated the next generation of psychologists. He contributed to founding professorship in psychology, and to establishment of the Faculty of Political Science together with

Notable works

*1930. ''Der Logistische Neupositivismus: Eine kritische Studie'' English translation by Ann and Peter Kirschenmann "Logistic Neopositivism: A critical study" in ''Reality and Experience: Four Philosophical Essays'', 1979, D. Reidel Publishing Company. *1934.
Persoonallisuus
' (''Personality'') 8th edition, 1982, Helsinki: Otava. *1936.
Über das System der Wirklichkeitsbegriffe: Ein Beitrag zum logische Empirismus
' English translation by Ann and Peter Kirschenmann "On the System of the Concepts of Reality: A contribution to logical empiricism" in ''Reality and Experience: Four Philosophical Essays'', 1979, D. Reidel Publishing Company. *1939. ''Inhimillinen tieto: Mitä se on ja mitä se ei ole'' English translation by Anssi Korhonen ''Human Knowledge: A Classic Statement of Logical Empiricism'', 2014, Open Court. *1941.
Über den physikalischen Realitätsbegriff: Zweiter Beitrag zum logischen Empirismus
' English translation by Ann and Peter Kirschenmann "On the Concept of Reality in Physical Science: Second contribution to logical empiricism" in ''Reality and Experience: Four Philosophical Essays'', 1979, D. Reidel Publishing Company. *1943.
Syvähenkinen elämä: Keskusteluja viimeisistä kysymyksistä
' (''Deep-Spiritual Life: Conversations on Final Questions'') 3rd edition, 1985, Helsinki: Otava. *1956.
Terminalkausalität Als Die Grundlage Eines Unitarischen Naturbegriffs
' *1960.
Die perzeptuellen und konzeptuellen Komponenten der Alltagserfahrung
' English translation by Ann and Peter Kirschenmann "The Perceptual and Conceptual Components of Everyday Experience" in ''Reality and Experience: Four Philosophical Essays'', 1979, D. Reidel Publishing Company.

References

External links

*
Gestalt Theory in Eino Kaila ́s Psychology and Philosophy
Ilkka Niiniluoto * *

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kaila, Eino Vienna Circle Atheist philosophers Finnish psychologists Academic personnel of the University of Helsinki Finnish expatriates in Austria 1890 births 1958 deaths 20th-century Finnish philosophers Analytic philosophers 20th-century atheists 20th-century psychologists