On the UNESCO
international philosophy day 17th November philosophical cafés and round
tables were once again organized all around the world. The AIIPh Baltic
Sea Net, the Finnish UNESCO ASPnet, The Finnish Association for Teachers
of Philosophy and Philosophy of Life and Societas Philosophica Fennica
organized for the fourth time a UNESCO philosophy day’s essay event for
pupils and students in the countries around the Baltic Sea. Some 70 essays
were sent to the essay event, and many of them were philosophically of
high quality.
Despite plentiful and very successful international participation in
previous years, this year’s Finnish jury were disappointed to find only
three participants from abroad (all of whom happened to be Polish) finally
managed to send essays, none of whom were found to qualify among the top
six, reducing the event to a national level. It was determined that
efforts to promote next year’s event need to be increased lest the event
entirely lose its international flavour.
Like before, a national essay event for pupils in primary and lower
secondary schools was arranged alongside the international event.
The award committee selected six essay writers to be awarded in the upper
secondary school category:
Elsi Autio (Ressun lukio, Helsinki). Elsi’s courageous essay took on the
challenge of questioning the justification of power. Proceeding from the
problems of monarchy to those of anarchy, she finally ended up with an
idea of democracy construed as the least of many evils. “People of the
modern world may not always like the people ruling their countries, but
after the couple of pages filled with very simplified theories of the use
of power that you’ve just read, you and I may have to end up on a theory
of democracy being the best option of these methods. Although even in a
democratic nation there are no guarantees of the political elements not
being corrupt.”
Sami Sinokki (Tikkurilan lukio, Vantaa). Sami’s painstaking argument ended
up with a cautiously affirmative answer to the question ‘Can the killing
of a human being be justified?’: “A fundamental part of ethics is human
interaction. It takes human life to have a certain intrinsic value and
therefore assumes that unjustly harming this value is wrong. In preventing
harm to human life, we are therefore acting ethically, and in certain
situations this might require the eradication of harmful elements. In
these cases the value of one human life overrides the value of another
human life.”
Carmen Kautto (Suomalainen Yhteiskoulu, Helsinki). Carmen’s essay, written
exceptionally in French, dealt with the relationship between a person’s
sense of justice and the written law. “But inside of this artificial
justice, there is always a personal justice. The latter is without
concepts or words. It is this personal justice of which romantics speak as
they tell us to follow our heart. (Mais à l’intérieur de cette justice
artificielle, il y a toujours une justice personnelle. Celle-ci est sans
notions et sans mots, et c’est de celle-ci que parlent les romantiques qui
nous ordonnent à suivre notre cœur.) ”
The top three essay writers were invited to a prize-giving ceremony in
Café Engel in Helsinki, where also a philosophical café discussion took
place in the evening, commemorating Jean-Paul Sartre’s 100th anniversary
in 2005.
The following three writers were also awarded:
• Onerva Alanen, Tampereen yhteiskoulun lukio
• Saila Kakko, Kajaanin lukio
• Krista Jokinen, Tampereen normaalikoulun lukio
In the category for primary and lower secondary schools, the following
pupils were awarded:
• Meri Lappalainen, Käpylän yläaste. Meri ventured to question why
philosophy should be reserved for adults only. “Why couldn’t the ‘science
of thought’ be taught even in primary schools? Miksei ‘ajattelun tiedettä’
voisi opettaa ala-asteellakin?)”
• Tiia Koistinen, Karkkilan yhteiskoulu.
• Eveliina Hanski, Roihuvuoren ala-aste.
The winners of the category of primary and lower secondary schools were
awarded with Matthew Lipman’s philosophical text books. The prize included
text books for the whole class of the winner, and a teacher’s guide.
Prizes in the upper secondary schools category consisted of philosophical
and world heritage –related literature.
The best essays can be read in the following internet addresses: http://www.unescokoulu.fi
and http://www.feto.fi.
Ask a Philosopher!
On the international UNESCO Philosophy Day the public had a chance to ask
a philosophical question that has been puzzling them to a group of the
most prominent philosophers in Finland. People were asked to send
philosophical essays by e-mail or by phone to the National Board of
Education, where they were redirected to an appropriate philosopher.
The questions and the answers given to them will be published in the
internet in the home pages of The Finnish Association for Teachers of
Philosophy and Philosophy of Life in the address http://www.feto.fi. The
answers will also be sent back to the enquirers as soon as the answers
have been written.
The philosophers who answer the questions are Jussi Kotkavirta (The
University of Jyväskylä), Ilkka Niiniluoto (The University of Helsinki,
department of philosophy, Rector of the University of Helsinki), Sami
Pihlström (The University of Helsinki, department of philosophy), Toivo
Salonen (The University of Lapland), Arto Siitonen (The University of
Helsinki, department of social philosophy), Tuukka Tomperi (The University
of Tampere)
The Ask a Philosopher! event was organised this year for the fourth time.
Around 100 questions are sent to the event every year, “What is the
meaning of life?” being the obvious all-time favourite.
Ks. myös
http://www.philosopiad.org/
