Esa Itkonen (born January 3, 1944) is a Finnish linguist, philosopher and language theorist. He is professor emeritus of general linguistics at the University of Turku.[1][2] Itkonen has authored several publications on linguistic methodology, philosophy of linguistics, history of linguistics, and linguistic typology. He has defended a humanist approach to linguistics, criticising sociobiology, generative grammar, and Cognitive Linguistics.