Eino Kaila facts for kids
Eino Sakari Kaila (born August 9, 1890 – died July 31, 1958) was an important Finnish thinker, writer, and teacher. He explored many different areas like psychology (he's even called the founder of Finnish psychology), physics, and theater. Kaila tried to find ways to connect ideas from both human studies and natural sciences.
Life of Eino Kaila
Eino Kaila was born in Alajärvi, Finland. His father, Erkki Kaila, was a Protestant minister who later became an archbishop. Eino Kaila finished his studies at the University of Helsinki in 1910.
In the 1920s, he worked as a professor at the University of Turku. He focused on literary criticism and psychology. Kaila was the first to bring a type of psychology called gestalt psychology to Finland. He was friends with famous people like the composer Jean Sibelius and writer Frans Eemil Sillanpää.
In 1916, he married the painter Anna Lovisa Snellman. She was the granddaughter of a well-known Finnish statesman, Johan Vilhelm Snellman. Kaila taught at the University of Helsinki and was a professor in Turku. In 1930, he became a professor of philosophy at the University of Helsinki. In the 1930s, Kaila was also connected to a group of thinkers called the Vienna Circle.
During World War II, Kaila gave lectures in Germany. In 1948, he became a member of the Finnish Academy, a group of important Finnish scholars. Eino Kaila passed away in Kirkkonummi on July 31, 1958.
Kaila's Main Ideas
Eino Kaila was very interested in logical positivism. This idea suggests that knowledge should come from things we can observe and test. He didn't like ideas that were just based on guesses.
However, Kaila also wanted to understand everything in a big, connected way. He believed that everything in the world was linked together. He also looked at psychology in a very naturalist way. This means he thought psychological things were connected to biology.
His book Persoonallisuus (which means Personality) came out in 1934. It was a study of psychology that also included philosophical ideas. In this book, he stressed how our biological nature affects our minds and personalities. Later in his life, he tried to create a "theory of everything." This theory would explain all of nature in one big idea. He wrote a book about it, but it wasn't very popular outside of Finland.
Kaila's Influence
One of Eino Kaila's most famous students was Georg Henrik von Wright. Von Wright later took over from another famous philosopher, Ludwig Wittgenstein, at the University of Cambridge. Kaila's way of thinking, called analytical philosophy, was very strong in Finland for a long time. It was the main way of thinking until new ideas came along in the 1980s.
Kaila also started the psychology laboratory at the University of Helsinki. He helped train many future psychologists. He played a big part in creating a professorship (a teaching position) in psychology. He also helped set up the Faculty of Political Science at the university.
