Sami Syrjämäki
Sami Syrjämäki, born 1968, is a Ph.D. of Philosophy working in the Department of World Cultures at the University of Helsinki, Finland.
His main interests are anachronisms and the concept of liberty. In his doctoral thesis ”Sins of A Historian” on the concept of anachronism Sami Syrjämäki makes demarcations between different kinds of anachronisms and constructs a productive view on anachronisms that will have practical value for historians, especially for conceptual historians, and enlarge theoretical understanding of questions related to the concept of anachronism in general. The main classification between types of anachronisms is between sin and original sin. Anachronisms, which can be avoided – at least in principle – belong to the first group and those types of anachronisms that stem from our being inescapably tied to the present belong to the latter class. In his research special attention is given to the history of concepts and ways of analysing discontinuities and continuities within different meaning levels of concepts under investigation. The dissertation can be downloaded in PDF-format at: http://acta.uta.fi/teos.php?id=1000012.
As well as being a member of the CONCEPTA board, he is involved with the “Freedom as an historical, moral and economical concept” –project. He is also editor of the Finnish philosophical journal niin & näin; an editor of the philosophy portal www.filosofia.fi and editor (editori in chief 2005-2010) of the Finnish internet encyclopaedia of philosophy Logos.
He has published articles on the concept of liberty, Quentin Skinner, the historiography of philosophy and the relation of history and philosophy. His articles include “Mark Bevir on Quentin Skinner and the ’Myth of Coherence’” (Intellectual History Review), “An Exercise in Philosophy – Danto on Nietzsche” (Rivista di estetica) and encyclopedia article on ”Quentin Skinner” (together with Petri Koikkalainen). His publications also include translations (e.g. Quentin Skinner’s “Third Concept of Liberty”) and interviews (e.g. with Quentin Skinner, Philip Pettit).
Sami Syrjämäki is the webmaster of the Concepta-pages.