Faculty of Theology / Philosophy of Religion

P.O. Box 3 (Fabianinkatu 33), FI-00014 University of Helsinki,

FINLAND

Tel: +358-2941-23456

Email: sami.pihlstrom[at]helsinki.fi

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Sami Pihlström is Professor of Philosophy of Religion at the University of Helsinki, Finland, since 2014. Having received his PhD in theoretical philosophy from the University of Helsinki in 1996, he served as, e.g., Professor of Practical Philosophy at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland (2006-2014) and as the Director of the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies (2009-2015), an interdisciplinary institute for advanced study within the University of Helsinki.

Professor Pihlström has a long experience of academic research and teaching in philosophy, as well as academic leadership and positions of trust. He was the President of the Philosophical Society of Finland in 2016-2024, serving as a board member of the Society for 28 years (1996-2024). He is currently one of the Vice-Presidents of Institut International de Philosophie (I.I.P., 2022-2025). He was previously a Vice-Chair (2016-2018) and Chair (2019-2021) of the Research Council of Culture and Society within the Academy of Finland (Research Council of Finland). He is currently (2023-2024) the President of the William James Society and a board member of the Nordic Society for Philosophy of Religion (since 2015). Within the University of Helsinki, he has also served, e.g., as the Director of the Doctoral Program in Theology and Religious Studies (2018-2021). He is an invited lifetime member of Academia Europaea (since 2015), I.I.P. (since 2016), the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters (since 2017), and the Finnish Society of Sciences and Letters (since 2020). He was elected to the F.I.S.P. steering committee for the term 2024-2028.

He has published widely (ca. 30 books and hundreds of articles) on a wide variety of philosophical topics, including pragmatism, ethics, metaphysics, philosophy of religion, transcendental philosophy, and philosophical anthropology. His recent volumes include Why Solipsism Matters (Bloomsbury, 2020), Pragmatic Realism, Religious Truth, and Antitheodicy: On Viewing the World by Acknowledging the Other (Helsinki University Press, 2020), Pragmatist Truth in the Post-Truth Age: Sincerity, Normativity, and Humanism (Cambridge University Press, 2021), Toward a Pragmatist Philosophy of the Humanities (SUNY Press, 2022), Humanism, Antitheodicism, and the Critique of Meaning in Pragmatist Philosophy of Religion (Lexington, 2023), Realism, Value, and Transcendental Arguments between Neopragmatism and Analytic Philosophy (Springer, 2023), Critical Distance: Ethical and Literary Engagements with Detachment, Isolation, and Otherness (with Sari Kivistö, SpringerBriefs, 2023), “The Unthinkable” in Ethics, History, and Philosophical Anthropology: A Pragmatic-Transcendental View (Bloomsbury, forthcoming 2025), and the edited collection, The Bloomsbury Handbook of Pragmatism (Bloomsbury, 2024).

His full cv and list of publications are available upon request. For further information, see, e.g.: https://researchportal.helsinki.fi/fi/persons/sami-pihlstr%C3%B6m.