Chancellor, esteemed members of the university community, distinguished guests,
In his book Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship (1795-1796), Romantic author Johann Wolfgang von Goethe tells the story of young Wilhelm Meister, whose life is shaken by sudden changes.
In the novel, set in the late 18th century, Wilhelm abandons the stability of his bourgeois mercantile life and the expectations of his family - and, in the parlance of our times, begins to pursue his dreams. He fulfils himself as an actor, joins a mystic secret society and tries out the teaching profession. He falls fiercely in love and eventually also dives into the world of scholarship.
All of these attempts entail bitter disappointment as well. Art does not ensure income, nor does romance bring satisfaction. And scholarship does not provide definitive answers to the wonders of the world.
In fact, the novel has been described as a journey from idealism to realism - to understanding the ruthlessness and limitations of the world.
There is another possible perspective. Goethe tells the story of humans as essentially incomplete beings defined by shortcomings. Scholarship, art and even love open up a view to a human being that is incomplete - a person surrounded by unexplored horizons, meanings hidden in social reality, nature or other people.
Indeed, authors in the Romantic movement called Goethe's novel a Bildungsroman, which referred to a new concept of human growth.
We know Bildung better as a term denoting education and cultivation, introduced here in the 1820s by Docent Reinhold von Becker of the Royal Academy of Turku to describe the idea of the diverse development of human capabilities - the power of the spirit.
While Becker also saw Bildung as adapting to the prevailing norms, the concept also encompassed the idea of unleashing human nature and its hidden potential.
The divinity of Bildung did not refer to the perfection of humans, but rather to the horizon of infinite progress opening up in front of them.
As J.V. Snellman, a pupil of Becker, stated:
"The essence of true humanity cannot be measured by natural qualities, but should be sought in the perfection that humanity strives for."
Honoured guests,
In this setting, these reflections on the nature of Bildung may seem old-fashioned, even pompous. Not a day goes by that we get to read in the papers how "the time for celebratory speeches is over".
With Russia's extensive war of aggression and the political change of course in the United States, a new kind of power and vigilance is now demanded from Europe - action instead of words.
At the same time, it is clear that the current transformation of world politics is a crisis of not only democracy, but also cultural and educational values. Political movements in both the United States and Europe share concerns about cultural shifts and the loss of national identity, seeking solace in the past and the stability it provides.
In this development, science, art and Bildung have become tools of the culture wars. For some, they represent luxury and excess, for others they pose a threat to traditional values, even national unity.
This debate is intensified by the fact that disappointment in the current administration of the United States is intertwined with a broader sense of the decline of shared Western values.
What are the values and principles that we ultimately defend? What is the tradition from which we draw inspiration in these circumstances?
Distinguished guests,
A week ago in this very hall, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy gave a concise answer to this question: It is about Europe.
For him, Ukraine's struggle for defence is above all, about protecting the European way of life, democracy and the rule of law, but most importantly, about freedom - a struggle shared by all of us.
The City of Helsinki demonstrated its commitment to the rule of law by issuing a parking fine to the Ukrainian delegation.
But here, in this room, within the University community, Zelenskyy was among friends.
What struck me the most was the way President Zelenskyy challenged us not only to support Ukraine's military capabilities but also to help build the country's democracy - a future rooted in its traditions yet focused on solving concrete problems.
Distinguished guests,
My answer to the question of Europe's role in this moment rests on two pillars: Bildung and democracy.
With these concepts, I am not referring primarily to objective achievements, such as book learning or the institutions of parliamentary democracy. I instead refer to a certain way of human existence and a specific way of approaching the world.
In fact, Bildung and democracy stand out as unique concepts precisely because they both embrace the idea that humans are ultimately incomplete and indeterminate.
Both traditions of thought also centre on the openness of the future and the potential for humans to shape it.
The power of Bildung and democracy therefore relates not only to structures or institutions, but also to the ability of humans to engage in dialogue between the present and the past.
Let's start with democracy.
As I posit in my book Demokratian aika ('The Time of Democracy'), modern democracy first and foremost rested on a new concept of time. The underlying republican thinking in the early modern period broke away from the cyclical concept of time in antiquity and the history of Christian salvation.
According to this philosophy established in the city-states of Italy, the foundation of political action was not in nature or in God, but in history, that is, human activity. Since the institutions of these city-states were the result of historical development, and thus human creations, it was also possible for humans to change them.
The way to an open future lay through the past.
Indeed, history became a central part and a distinctive characteristic of the new autonomy of politics. Thinkers such as Niccolò Machiavelli emphasised that politics was practised in time and in a historical context. Instead of a predetermined plan, politics began to be defined by an idea of constantly changing social relations.
Struggle taking place in historical circumstances became the core of politics.
This revolution in thinking made the future an unpredictable zone that was capable of bringing about new meanings and structures of meaning into the world. It inspired revolutionary thought in the 18th and 19th centuries in both the United States and Europe.
Democracy was one term used to capture the idea of the meaning inherent in new beginnings. As Alexis de Tocqueville noted, the special nature of democracy lies precisely in its opposition to the idea of the necessity of history, its one-directional nature. Rather than embodying fixed ideas, democracy came to represent discontinuity and transformation.
As Thomas Paine, one of the founding fathers of the United States, put it: "We have it in our power to begin the world over again."
A key element of this new culture of openness was the new notion of human individuality, which was integrally linked to the philosophy of Romanticism in the early 19th century. While Enlightenment theorists approached democracy above all as an idea guided by consensus or the general will, the currents of Romanticism shifted the focus to the individual and their personal relationship with the world.
Disagreement and its control gradually became central virtues of democratic thinking.
Bildung was one name for this ambition to reconcile the personal and inalienable freedom of the individual with the idea of the community and the limitations it brought with it. Bildung meant not only the adoption of legal norms and general moral principles, but also the ushering in of a new kind of responsibility and a developmental horizon.
It rested on a new understanding of human nature, which, in accordance with the ideals of Romanticism, was not complete, but something that is shaped by culture, the community and political systems.
In other words, democracy and Bildung both stemmed from the same source, which corresponded with the lesson of Wilhelm Meister's story. At the core of both was the idea of human indeterminacy and the openness of the future.
Our political institutions and laws are incomplete, as humans themselves are incomplete. Humanity itself is shaped by the dialogue of trial and error that characterises human culture and its development.
Distinguished guests,
We live in a time when scholarship and culture are on the defensive. This is particularly true of research that does not directly translate into product development or innovation.
We are now understandably looking for new foundations in security and crisis tolerance. Scholarship and art have become a source of mental resilience.
However, I would like to remind you of another role they play: the role of culture and research in nurturing the incompleteness and imperfection that are central to democracy and Bildung.
Scholarship and culture remind us that the world is not complete. They show that our political systems are imperfect, but their history offers lessons that enable new visions for the future.
Authoritarian populism, which is gaining ground in Europe and the United States, perceives politics differently. Even though the movement is happy to present itself as a herald of change, its fundamental message is the opposite. To its proponents, culture and nationhood are complete. The common folk know how things are. It is sufficiently educated, and the political community does not have to consider its own past or boundaries.
For authoritarianism, history is not a source of learning, but, above all, an escape from everything that is new - in some cases, even the opportunity to construct a narrative of victimhood for yourself.
Honoured guests,
I would like to think that we scholars are advocates of not only truth, but also Bildung and democracy. We carry out this duty in different ways: some through complex theories, others by means of concrete problem-solving.
Some scholars present their insights with the help of mathematically precise equations, others highlight specific historical cases, relying on the power of example.
What ultimately unites us is an understanding of the uncertainty and limits of current knowledge - as well as of the vista of human development before us.
While scholarly pursuits foster certainty and competencies, they are also evidence of the uncertainty inherent in humanity - of the fact that the world is incomplete.
And perhaps defending democracy in this time means defending not only knowledge and truth, but also the imperfection and incompleteness associated with our own perspectives.
As noted in the English translation of Goethe's work:
"It is not the duty of the educator of men to preserve them from error, but to instruct as to the wrong; and more, the masters' wisdom lies in letting the wrong sip from full cups their error." Goethe, J.W. (1923). Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship
"Nicht vor Irrtum zu bewahren ist die Pflicht des Menschenerziehers, sondern den Irrenden zu leiten, ja ihn seinen Irrtum aus vollen Bechern ausschlürfen zu lassen, das ist Weisheit der Lehrer."
Thank you for your attention.
