My name is Dr. Otto Lehto. Send me an e-mail. I am a philosopher, political economist, public intellectual, and composer. Follow me on Linkedin, Substack, Facebook, and Twitter!
My current work focuses on PPE, complexity theory, evolutionary theory, political philosophy, basic income, social epistemology, ethics, human enhancement, and naturalism. I am a postdoctoral research fellow at NYU School of Law’s Classical Liberal Institute (2022-), research fellow at NYU Center for Bioethics (2025-2026), and a visiting scholar at University of Freiburg’s FRIBIS Institute (2021-).
I have a PhD from King’s College London’s Department of Political Economy (2022) on the topic of Complex Adaptation and Permissionless Innovation: An Evolutionary Approach to Universal Basic Income (supervised by Mark Pennington and John Meadowcroft). Prior to that, I obtained an MA in Social and Moral Philosophy from University of Helsinki (2015).
I have published in, e.g., Journal of Moral Philosophy, Constellations, Economy and Society, Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy, Public Choice, European Economic Review, Constitutional Political Economy, Mind and Society, and Basic Income Studies.
See my academic publications. For most up-to-date content and preprints, you can also head out to my PhilPeople profile.
I am especially interested in the creative dynamics of the Open Society and the possibility of a naturalised social ontology of human progress; a research program at the intersection of several domains:
– Philosophy, politics, and economics (PPE)
– anarchism, classical liberalism, and libertarianism
– theories of complexity, emergence, and self-organization
– evolutionary theory and generalized Darwinism
– (social) epistemology and (social) ontology
– progress studies, transhumanism, and philosophy of AI
(Photo credit: Teemu Perhiö, 2013.)
In my free time I compose music and enjoy art and videogames. I was the host of an online interview/talk show called Skyperadio.
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I have been a long-running member of the Finnish Basic Income Network (BIEN Finland – Suomen perustuloverkosto), whose secretary I was in 2012-2014, and its chairman in 2015-2016.
Come and join the Basic Income Earth Network of Finland:
You can read my earlier (now defunct) blogs (in Finnish):
Dear Otto, I read your paper on line regarding the “Seven Veils of Ishtar”, which you wrote in 2009, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for the information you provided. Your research was well presented and I feel that most of what you have interpreted is correct. Of course, as we know, there is much interweaving of the various aspects of the Divine Feminine which Ishtar represents. If you would like to have online communication regarding my own interpretations of Ishtar in relation to your work, I would be happy to connect with you. Thank you for seeking the truth of Ishtar and I can see from your website that you are a seeker of spirit. As above, so below, all things mythological are so much more than myth, and in these changing times all roads lead back to these ancient truths. Many blessings to you ~ Michelle (msomar@ymail.com)
I came across your article on “Nothingness as Nihilism – Karatani Kojin and Nishitani Keiji”. I thought you encapsulated and connected the various themes and thoughts on this subject perfectly! It was not only academically interesting but your prose style made it easy to read and enjoyable. I’m currently doing a PhD in existential philosophy and psychology and have recently embarked on the philosophy of Nihilism through Nishitani’s the “Self Overcoming Nihilism” and your piece has certainly whetted my appetite to purse more on the subject.