“There is more to us than meets the eye – more that is good.” Esa Saarinen emphasises a person’s potential for good. He won a lifetime achievement award for positivity in 2014.

On March 5, 2014, Saarinen was stabbed in front of the Dipoli Building in Otaniemi, the main campus of Aalto University, as he was on his way to deliver a lecture as part of his Philosophy and Systems Thinking lecture series. After a life or death struggle, Saarinen and his assistant, together with two students who came to the rescue, were able to disarm the attacker who was arrested on the spot.  The assailant was tried for attempted murder, but not convicted on medical grounds. He was sent to a medical institution for treatment. Before the stabbing, the assailant had sent the reporter Saska Saarikoski messages related to Saarinen in which he criticised “the extremely powerful speaker” for “supporting everything without being against anything”.    

Saarinen immediately forgave the assailant from his hospital bed and expressed his hope that the attacker would get the help he needed.

• Esa Saarinen returns to the scene of the crime: “Se oli taistelua elämästä ja kuolemastaˮ(‘It was a matter of life and death’), Helsingin Sanomat newspaper, March 16, 2014
• Esa Saarinen’s return lecture after recovering from the stabbing (in Finnish, with English subtitles)

In a career spanning several decades, Esa Saarinen has been subjected to some stiff criticism from time to time. Saarinen himself calls his approach “the practice of positive philosophy”, at the core of which is “a tender and dynamic” style of life philosophical lecturing and “a movement of thought” that emerges in people that participate.