__NOTOC__ Erkki Juhani Hartikainen (24 June 1942, in

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 Bo ...

– 11 July 2021) was the chairman of ''Atheist Association of Finland'' ("Suomen Ateistiyhdistys" in Finnish, an atheistic association in Finland). He qualified for a

Master of Science A Master of Science ( la, Magisterii Scientiae; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree in the field of science awarded by universities in many countries or a person holding such a degree. In contrast ...

in 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 1967. His subjects were mathematics,

theoretical philosophy The modern division of philosophy into theoretical philosophy and practical philosophyImmanuel Kant, ''Lectures on Ethics'', Cambridge University Press, 2001, p. 41 ("On Universal Practical Philosophy"). Original text: Immanuel Kant, ''Kant’s G ...

and

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to practical disciplines (includin ...

. Hartikainen has been the chairman of Atheist Association of Finland since 1985. Hartikainen has served as the actuary since the late 1960s, for nearly 20 years as a teacher of mathematics and science in schools, and after that, since 1989, as teacher of information technology at a college in

Vantaa Vantaa (; sv, Vanda, ) is a city and municipality in Finland. It is part of the inner core of the Finnish Capital Region along with Helsinki, Espoo, and Kauniainen. With a population of (), Vantaa is the fourth most populated city in Finland ...

. From 1994–1998, he worked as a

statistician A statistician is a person who works with theoretical or applied statistics. The profession exists in both the private and public sectors. It is common to combine statistical knowledge with expertise in other subjects, and statisticians may wor ...

in Vantaa. Hartikainen retired in 2005. In Union of Freethinkers of Finland ("Vapaa-ajattelijan liitto" in Finnish, the biggest atheist association in Finland) Hartikainen operated for 40 years, as a chairman in 1999–2005. He was one of the leading atheist freethinkers in Finland. He was the

editor Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, photographic, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, ...

in chief of the Freethinkers Union's ''Vapaa Ajattelija'' magazine for several periods since 1969. In 1982–1983 as secretary general of the Union of Freethinkers his objective was get to Finland the teaching of the "elämänkatsomustieto" ("

life stance A person's life stance, or lifestance, is their relation with what they accept as being of Intrinsic value (ethics), ultimate importance. It involves the presuppositions and theories upon which such a stance could be made, a belief system, and a co ...

education", an alternative to religion teaching in schools), which indeed came true later. Hartikainen complained to the human rights committee of the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmonizi ...

from the curriculum of the comprehensive school subject of the "uskontojen historia ja siveysoppi" (history of religions and ethics) in 1978. The complaint was successful and "elämänkatsomustieto" was adopted by schools as a subject. Hartikainen was the chairman of Finland's Atheist Association (Suomen Ateistiyhdistys) since its establishment on 16 May 1985. The Atheist Association was founded as an allowance organisation in case other organisations give up the defending of the Atheist's

human rights Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...

. Hartikainen was one of the head organisers of The Third World Atheist Conference with

Madalyn Murray O'Hair Madalyn Murray O'Hair (née Mays; April 13, 1919 – September 29, 1995) was an American activist supporting atheism and separation of church and state. In 1963 she founded American Atheists and served as its president until 1986, after which h ...

and other of American Atheists. Conference was held in

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

in 1983. In addition to the domestic operation, Hartikainen participated in the operation of the Atheist business through the foreign countries visits and corresponded regularly with other foreign atheist activists. In the 1980s he delivered the doctrine material of the "elämänkatsomustieto" of the irreligious (the history of religions and ethics of that time) into use. It was intended for WSOY to publish it but the project was cancelled. Nowadays the material is available freely on the Internet. As a thinker, Hartikainen supported

atheism Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...

and

ontological materialism Materialism is a form of philosophical monism which holds matter to be the fundamental substance in nature, and all things, including mental states and consciousness, are results of material interactions. According to philosophical materialism ...

. He favoured the words 'reality research', 'realityconception' (conception of

reality Reality is the sum or aggregate of all that is real or existent within a system, as opposed to that which is only imaginary. The term is also used to refer to the ontological status of things, indicating their existence. In physical terms, r ...

) and 'lifeconception' as better alternatives for words '

science Science is a systematic endeavor that Scientific method, builds and organizes knowledge in the form of Testability, testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earli ...

', '

world view A worldview or world-view or ''Weltanschauung'' is the fundamental cognitive orientation of an individual or society encompassing the whole of the individual's or society's knowledge, culture, and point of view. A worldview can include natural ...

' and 'philosophy of life' (

). He supported Finnish

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate ca ...

Kari Enqvist Kari-Pekka Enqvist (born February 16, 1954 in Lahti, Finland) is a professor of cosmology in the Department of Physical Sciences at the University of Helsinki. Enqvist was awarded his PhD in theoretical physics in 1983. Enqvist is the chairman o ...

's view, that

emergence In philosophy, systems theory, science, and art, emergence occurs when an entity is observed to have properties its parts do not have on their own, properties or behaviors that emerge only when the parts interact in a wider whole. Emergen ...

means 'coarsening' and the losing of information relating to the description of reality (examples:

statistical thermodynamics In physics, statistical mechanics is a mathematical framework that applies statistical methods and probability theory to large assemblies of microscopic entities. It does not assume or postulate any natural laws, but explains the macroscopic be ...

classical electrodynamics Classical electromagnetism or classical electrodynamics is a branch of theoretical physics that studies the interactions between electric charges and currents using an extension of the classical Newtonian model; It is, therefore, a classical fi ...

thinking In their most common sense, the terms thought and thinking refer to conscious cognitive processes that can happen independently of sensory stimulation. Their most paradigmatic forms are judging, reasoning, concept formation, problem solving, an ...

of an animal etc.) Hartikainen was a modern

logical empiricist 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 he recommended not using words "a priori truth" and saying "correct by definition" or "derivable from

axiom An axiom, postulate, or assumption is a statement that is taken to be true, to serve as a premise or starting point for further reasoning and arguments. The word comes from the Ancient Greek word (), meaning 'that which is thought worthy o ...

s" instead.Atheism
/ref> Hartikainen was member of

Social Democratic Party of Finland The Social Democratic Party of Finland (SDP, fi, Suomen sosialidemokraattinen puolue ; sv, Finlands socialdemokratiska parti), shortened to the Social Democrats ( fi, link=no, Sosiaalidemokraatit; sv, link=no, Socialdemokrater) and commonly kno ...

Bibliography

*Hartikainen, Erkki (1980): ''Tieteellinen maailmankatsomus''. Helsinki: Vapaa-ajattelijain liitto ry. *Hartikainen, Erkki (Editor in chief) (1982): ''Yläasteen etiikka: Peruskoulun uskontojen historian ja etiikan oppikirja 1–3''. (Experiment hand-out accepted by the national board of education for school years 1982–83, 1983–84, 1984–85.) Additional edition in 1985. Helsinki: Vapaa ajatus. *Hartikainen, Erkki, Kyösti Kiiskinen & Jussi Rastas (Editors) (2005): ''Suomalaisen filosofian 'enfant terrible': Kriittinen ajattelija ja tiedepoliittinen keskustelija: Juhlakirja tohtori Pertti Lindforsin 75-vuotispäivänä: Monitieteinen antologia''. Contains texts in Finnish, English and German. Helsinki: Luonnonfilosofian seura. .

Translations into Finnish

* Shibles, Warren (1979): ''Etiikkaa lapsille ja nuorille''. (Original work: Ethics, 1978.) Translator into Finnish: Erkki Hartikainen. Helsinki: Vapaa-ajattelijain liitto ry. *Shibles, Warren (1979): ''Emootiot: Lisää etiikkaa lapsille ja nuorille''. (Original work: Emotion, 1978.) Translator into Finnish: Erkki Hartikainen. Helsinki: Vapaa-ajattelijain liitto ry. *Baggini, Julian (2005): ''Ateismi: Lyhyt johdanto''. (Original work: Atheism: A Very Short Introduction, 2003.) Translators into Finnish: Erkki Hartikainen, Suvi Laukkanen ja Paula Vasama. Kustannus Oy Vapaa Ajattelija. .

References

External links

Homepage

in The Finnish Society for Natural Philosophy 30 October 2003

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hartikainen, Erkki 1942 births 2021 deaths Atheism activists Finnish atheists Finnish skeptics Finnish socialists University of Helsinki alumni 20th-century atheists 21st-century atheists