Lvov-Warsaw School: Historical and Sociological Comments

Abstract

Kazimierz Twardowski, a student of Brentano, established an analytical philosophical school in Lvov at the end of the nineteenth century. As charismatic teacher, he trained a group of young philosophers very soon. This group became the Lvov-Warsaw School (LWS) just after the end of World War I; in fact, its particular members obtained positions in other Polish universities (in Cracow, Vilna and Poznan). Although some philosophers from LWS were active until the end of the twentieth century (even at the beginning of twenty-first century), the School itself existed as an organised and compact scientific enterprise until 1939. Its end was caused by World War II and the later political changes. LWS was a large and complex community (about 80 persons) with several generations and circles. Twardowski and his oldest students (like Jan Łukasiewicz, Stanislaw Leśniewski, Wladyslaw Witwicki, Tadeusz Kotarbinski, Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz, Zygmunt Zawirski and Tadeusz Czezowski) constituted the first generation of LWS. They trained the second generation, mostly acting in Lvov and Warsaw. The Warsaw Logical School with Leśniewski, Łukasiewicz and Alfred Tarski as the main representatives, became the most famous branch of LWS, working on various problems of mathematical logic. This circle had close connections with Polish Mathematical School. Philosophers like Ajdukiewicz, Czezowski, Kotarbinski or Zawirski contributed to epistemology, ontology, philosophy of language and philosophy of science. On the other hand, LWS was also active in the history of philosophy, ethics, aesthetics and psychology. Thus, all basic parts of philosophy were represented in LWS. Due to the multi-ethnic character of Polish society in the interwar period, LWS consisted not only of Poles (the majority), but also Jews and Ukrainians. The significance of LWS can be considered from the following two axes. Logicians achieved many fundamental results which influenced the world logical research. Some of them (Tarski’s theory of truth, Łukasiewicz’s many-valued logic, Leśniewski’s systems) were important for general philosophy. Taking into account the role of LWS in Poland, this school essentially contributed to philosophical culture of this country.