Philosophy in Tampere covers both theoretical and practical philosophy. The main research areas are social and moral philosophy; the philosophy of language and metaphysics; the philosophy of science and technology. These constitute three intertwined research groups, each led by two senior PIs (or six subgroups each led by a senior PI), forming together a philosophical research group, whose strength lies not in one shared theme or subfield of philosophy, but in its multifaceted, complementary expertise and the capability for joint research with the other subgroups. This versatile competence can be fruitfully applied to formulating innovative research questions, often transcending the boundaries of conventional subfields of philosophy: Social Ontology unites metaphysics and social philosophy. Normativity in Language unites philosophy of language and ethics, the study of Social and Cognitive Diversity in Science combines philosophy of science with philosophy of language, metaphysics and ethics, and Social Philosophy of Technology the philosophy of technology and social philosophy.
Research projects on external funding are encouraged on diverse topics (at the moment they include e.g. philosophy of robotics, and research on social and cognitive diversity in science).
View the Philosophy Research Seminar 2023–2024 programme
Ongoing research
Arto Laitinen’s research interests include theories of mutual recognition, social ontology, normativity, personhood, and ethics of technology.
Panu Raatikainen's research has ranged from the realism issue to theories of truth and incompleteness theorems. His present research interests include mental causation, consciousness, theories of reference and fictional entities. He is the editor-in-chief of Ajatus.
Jani Hakkarainen works on metaphysics, metametaphysics, social ontology and David Hume's (1711-76) metaphysics and epistemology. In metaphysics, together with Markku Keinänen (see below), Hakkarainen specialises on trope theory, according to which the fundamental category of entities consists of particular thin natures. Part of this study is metaphysics of relations. In metametaphysics, Hakkarainen's approach is formal ontological (cf. Barry Smith, Kevin Mulligan, Peter Simons and E.J. Lowe), which he applies to ontological forms, categories and metaphysical fundamentality.
Kristina Rolin is University Lecturer in research ethics, teaching PhD students in all disciplines. Her research interests include Research Ethics, Philosophy of Science, Social Epistemology and Feminist Philosophy of Science and Epistemology. Kristina Rolin is a PI in an Academy of Finland research project "Cognitive and Social Diversity in Science: An Epistemic Assessment" (2018-2022).
Jaana Parviainen is a senior research fellow at Tampere University. She has specialised in the philosophy of technology, social epistemology, and phenomenology. Her research falls under the large field of how technology and humanities intersect and extend into philosophical questions about automation, robotization, decision-making, algorithms, disinformation, and epistemic inequalities. She has conducted and led several interdisciplinary research projects. One of her ongoing research projects, ‘Struggling with Ignorance: Negative Expertise and the Erosion of the Finnish Information Society at the Turn of 2020’ (NEGATE, 2018-2022) is motivated by the need to respond to intensified epistemic tensions between institutional authorities and citizens. The research project ‘Democracy, Language and the Politics of Algorithms Steering Vulnerable Citizens in Society’ (DIGITO, 2022-2025) interrogates AI ethics, power and epistemocracy, addressing questions such as: how the politics of algorithms changes the conditions of democracy in society from the perspective of vulnerable citizens. Her research has been published in journals, such as, Synthese; Social Epistemology; Ethics and Information Technology; Techné: Research in Philosophy and Technology and Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy."
Markku Keinänen has publications on trope nominalism, realist theories of universals and formal ontology, many of which are joint papers with Jani Hakkarainen. Keinänen is currently developing trope theory as a category system, which has analytic resources to replace traditional categories (objects, properties, relations and processes) with tropes. Together with Hakkarainen, he is also currently preparing a volume on the metatheory of formal ontology to Cambridge Elements-series.
Petri Räsänen (University Instructor) works on social and political philosophy, specially political philosophy of economics. His interests include the political significance of economics as the justification of competitive markets and capitalism, relating especially to the contradiction between economic rationality and democratic decision-making.
Pasi Valtonen (Researcher) works on philosophy of language, specializing in the nature of slurs and offensive language.
Renne Pesonen (Researcher) worked on Casual Reasoning in his PhD, and currently works as a post-doc in the Academy of Finland research project "Cognitive and Social Diversity in Science: An Epistemic Assessment".
Lauri Lahikainen (Post-Doc Researcher) and works on a post-doc project on the climate responsibility of cities; and is affiliated to a project on eco-welfare state. He worked on individual responsibility for climate change in his PhD
Matias Slavov (Post-Doc Researcher). His research interests are the history and philosophy of science, the philosophy of David Hume, and the philosophy of time.
Tommi Vehkavaara (Coordinator) has taught logic courses and various topics on classical pragmatism. His research interests concern C.S. Peirce's philosophy, philosophical logic and semiotic naturalism (biosemiotics, cognitive semiotics, interactivist representation theory, and evolutionary epistemology).
Aleksi Honkasalo (PhD Researcher) works on the normativity of meaning.
Otto Sahlgren (Doctoral Researcher) works on ethics of artificial intelligence and ethics of discrimination, focusing on substantial and methodological questions of algorithmic fairness, in particular.
Teemu Toppinen’s area of specialization is in ethics, very broadly construed. The philosophical issues that most occupy him concern the nature of normativity (oughts, reasons, values, etc.) – or, perhaps better: the nature and meaning of our thought and talk concerning normative issues. In addition to such metaethical or metanormative topics (e.g., expressivism, quasi-realism), Toppinen has also done some work in normative ethics (e.g., consequentialism, moral worth). His current research interests include transcendental arguments (the topic for his Academy of Finland project) and the history of the expressivist tradition in metaethics.
Corrado Piroddi (Post-Doc Researcher) mainly works on critical theory, social ontology, ethics. In his doctoral dissertation, he provided a novel comparative study of two prominent social theorists, Axel Honneth and Pierre Bourdieu, developing new conceptual tools useful for philosophical studies and social sciences. In his postdoctoral research project, Pandemics, Social Distancing, and Social Pathologies. An Ethical and Socio-Philosophical Perspective, Piroddi approaches bioethical and biopolitical topics concerning the ethical evaluation of social distancing and NPI from a perspective that is sensitive to social philosophy and theory of recognition.
Leila Haaparanta (Professor Emerita) works on 20th century philosophy and its roots in modern philosophy.
Ongoing doctoral research
Active PhD-students work e.g. on phenomenology; social construction of mathematical object and gender; theories of non-binary gender; 20th century receptions of Marx’s theories of value; normativity of meaning; nihilism and societal relevance of blockchain technology.
