Oiva Ketonen first arrived at the University in the 1930s. In the early stages of his career he mainly focused on philosophy, but the mathematics lecture rooms were not entirely unfamiliar. The chair in philosophy was held by a man widely regarded as an excellent lecturer, Eino Kaila. It was as Kaila’s student that Ketonen truly engaged with the realm of philosophy.

Ketonen graduated in 1938 and embarked directly on a research career. Notwithstanding the disruption of the Second World War, the doctoral thesis was completed in 1943 and in the following year he was duly ‘promoted’ Doctor of Philosophy as well as getting married to Sirkka Munter, with whom he had four children.

Having demonstrated his abilities as an independent scholar, Ketonen was in a position to apply for the chair in philosophy in 1948. Eino Kaila was transferring to the Academy of Finland leaving the position vacant. Competition was tight, with Sven Krohn as a rival candidate. Krohn’s views reflected a more continental tradition and diverged from those of Kaila, but after a vote, Oiva Ketonen was finally selected in 1951. The chair was not quite the one occupied by his mentor, since psychology had been hived off as its own subject with its own professorship.

Ketonen’s new status did not confine him to just research. Instead he took a leading position in the development of higher education, first in a committee tasked with the same, and later in a working group appointed by the president of the republic. Ketonen’s policy advice for higher education is still in evidence today with the so-called provincial universities and the so-called universities of applied sciences, or polytechnics. Indeed the idea of a more practically oriented education found favour with Ketonen. He also emphasised the place of the universities as practitioners of science and more generally “the importance of a purely academic quest for truth.” Like many other professors, Ketonen did not abandon the academic world completely when he retired from his professorship in 1977. And in 1980 he was given the title Academician for his work on philosophy.

Sources:

• Sami Pihlström, ’Ketonen, Oiva’ National Biography of Finland online. Accessed May 18, 2015. 
• ”Akateemikko Oiva Ketonen kuollut” (’Academician Oiva Ketonen has died’). MTV3 online news. Accessed May 18, 2015.
• Wikipedia, Oiva Ketonen. Accessed May 18, 2015.
• Tuomo Rintamaa, ”Korkeakoulutuksen kehittäjä Oiva Ketosen syntymästä 100 vuotta”(’The centenary of Academician Oiva Ketonen’s birth’) . Accessed May 18, 2015.

Citation:

Sami Pihlström, ’Ketonen, Oiva’. National Biography of Finland online.