Philosophical Analysis. The Lvov-Warsaw School and Other Currents in Analytical Philosophy in the 20th century

elective seminars
general courses

(in Polish) Jest pożądane, aby uczestnicy mieli za sobą kurs logiki elementarnej lub semiotyki logicznej.

Classroom

The Lvov-Warsaw School (LWS) is rightly regarded as the Polish branch of analytical tradition. Founded by K. Twardowski in Lvov at the turn of the 20th century, it experienced the apogee of development in the period 1920-1939. The aims of the seminar are: (a) to analyze the reception of early analytical philosophy in the LWS, (b) to reconstruct the reception of the results obtained in the LWS in other analytical centers; (c) to register the differences between the problems undertaken and methods of solving them in the SLW and other centers of analytical philosophy.

The Lviv-Warsaw School (LWS) is rightly considered to be a Polish branch of analytical tradition. The founder of the Lviv-Warsaw School was Kazimierz Twardowski (1866-1938), a pupil of Franz Brentano, who in 1895-1930 taught philosophy at the University of Lviv and raised several generations of scholars. The LWS includes Twardowski's students (such as Władysław Witwicki, Jan Łukasiewicz, Zygmunt Zawirski, Stanisław Leśniewski, Tadeusz Kotarbiński, Władysław Tatarkiewicz, Tadeusz Czeżowski, Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz, Izydora Dąmbska and Maria Kokosińska) and his students (including Maria Ossowska, Janina Kotarbińska and Alfred Tarski). Twardowski’s School played a great role in the Polish philosophy of the first half of the 20th century, and the tradition of the School continued in a certain form even after the Second World War. The main binding force of the School was methodological issues: compliance with the postulates of clarity of expression, sufficient justification of beliefs and reliable discussion. Representatives of the School used tools of broadly understood logic in their research.

Twardowski, as the spiritus movens of Polish philosophical life, was aware that modern philosophy in Poland can only develop in connection with world philosophy. Therefore, he made sure that his students were familiar with current research conducted in other centres. He did this through his lectures (which he constantly updated), as well as through publishing summaries, reviews and translations of works published abroad. Finally, it was a rule that after graduation in Poland, Twardowski's students received scholarships to travel abroad: initially mainly to German-speaking centres, later also to France and Great Britain. Closer contacts with LWS representatives (mainly Łukasiewicz, Kotarbiński, Ajdukiewicz, Tarski, Kokoszyńska, and from the younger ones - e.g. the Polish Academy of Sciences. They referred to thinkers from the Vienna Circle, especially Moritz Schlick, Otto Neurath and Rudolf Carnap, and later also to representatives of the British School of Analysis, especially Bertand Russell and George Edward Moore. This was in the 1930s and only then did the results of philosophers and logicians from Lviv and Warsaw become more widely known.

The aim of the seminar is: (a) to reconstruct early analytical philosophy at LWS (b) to analyse the results obtained at LWS in other centres of analytical philosophy, (c) to identify differences between the problems undertaken and the methods of solving them at LWS and other centres of analytical philosophy.

Three types of texts will be discussed during the seminar. Firstly, texts written by the members of LWS concerning the Vienna Circle and British analysis. Secondly, other philosophers’ writings about the member of LWS. Finally, we will analyse parts of Woleński’s „Filozoficzna Szkoła Lwowsko-Warszawska” and other other collective books of this type.

Acquired knowledge:

The graduate knows the main results of the Lviv-Warsaw School and is able to compare them with the results of other analytical philosophy centers, especially the British Analytical School and the Circle of Vienna.

Acquired skills:

The person who has completed the course reconstructs on his/her own the problems and discussions in the various centres of analytical philosophy, and is able to indicate the differences between the issues, theories and methods used in the centres.

Acquired social competences:

The person who completed the course is aware of the importance of the heritage of Polish analytical philosophy and that it is worth striving to preserve and develop this heritage.

regular attendance, oral presentation, raport paper