J. V. Snellman
A people becomes a nation, and its state becomes real, only when its spirit grows conscious of itself in its own language, literature and education; for Finland this meant that Finnish, the language of the majority, had to become a language of culture and government.
Placement
Finnish philosopher, journalist and statesman, the leading Hegelian of his country: a state is the work of a national spirit that lives in a common language and culture; therefore Finnish, not only Swedish, had to become a language of education, literature and government.
Key ideas
- The state as national spirit
- Language and nation
- Personality and freedom
- Education as a national task
Influence
Influenced by 1
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
influenced by
Following Hegel, Snellman held that freedom and personality are realised only in ethical community life, the state embodying a people’s national spirit (The Theory of the State, 1842). J. V. Snellman, Versuch einer speculativen Entwicklung der Idee der Persönlichkeit (1841); Läran om staten (1842)
Evidence: AI draft
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel › 1770–1831
Works
Hegelian theory of the state, written in Swedish: the state is the realisation of a people’s ethical life and national spirit, which needs its own language and literature to become conscious of itself.
Position
Snellman is on the map as a leading Hegelian of the Nordic countries and the philosopher of the Finnish national movement. Following Hegel, he understood freedom and personality as realised only in the ethical life of a community: in his German “Attempt at a Speculative Development of the Idea of Personality” (1841) and above all in “The Theory of the State” (1842), the state is the realisation of a people’s national spirit, which becomes conscious of itself in its own language, literature and education. For Finland, whose educated class and administration spoke Swedish while most of the population spoke Finnish, this meant that a nation could exist only if Finnish became a language of culture and government. Snellman therefore argued, as a journalist and later as a senator, for schools, newspapers and literature in Finnish and for the gradual equality of the two languages. He combined this with a sober realism towards the Russian Empire: national culture and education, not revolt, would secure Finland’s autonomy. On the map he is linked to Hegel; his wider effect lies in Finnish history and politics rather than among the thinkers shown here.
Life & context
Johan Vilhelm Snellman was born on 12 May 1806 in Stockholm; his family moved to Finland, then a grand duchy of the Russian Empire, and settled in Kokkola in 1813. He studied at the university in Turku, which moved to Helsinki after the fire of 1827, and from 1835 lectured there in philosophy. His liberal views brought him into conflict with the university authorities; in 1839–42 he travelled in Sweden and Germany and published in Tübingen. Denied a university post, he became a school headmaster in Kuopio, where he edited the Swedish-language newspaper Saima (1844–46) and a Finnish-language paper for farmers. He was professor of philosophy in Helsinki from 1856 to 1863 and then a member of the Senate, where he secured the language decree of 1863, which provided that Finnish should gain equal standing with Swedish in official matters within twenty years, and in 1865 tied the new Finnish markka to silver. He died on 4 July 1881. His birthday, 12 May, is celebrated in Finland as the Day of Finnish Heritage.
Further main works
- Versuch einer speculativen Entwicklung der Idee der Persönlichkeit (1841)
- Läran om staten (1842)
- Kootut teokset (Collected Works, 24 vols., Finnish translation, 2000–2005)
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