The Development of Logic in the Lvov—Warsaw School. The Warsaw School of Logic

Abstract

The present chapter is intended to provide general information on the history of logic in the Lvov—Warsaw School; a detailed account of the results obtained in logic, especially of the achievements of the Warsaw School of Logic, will be given in the next six chapters. When speaking about logic I have in mind mathematical logic, and not logic in the broader sense of the term (i.e., mathematical logic + semiotics + methodology of sciences); only with respect to the early period of the development of the Lvov—Warsaw School will the term ‘logic’ mean logic in the broader sense of the word. There is a certain ambiguity in the interpretation of the Warsaw School which in time became more and more mathematical in character. This may give rise to doubts about whether it is correct to treat the Warsaw School as part of the Lvov—Warsaw School of philosophy, and to describe the achievements in logic as achievements in philosophy. I myself have doubts on this point but I have come to the conclusion that the Warsaw School should be presented in this book as completely as possible for the following reasons. First, the origins of the School were philosophical. Its founders, Leśniewski and Łukasiewicz, were educated as philosophers and, of its younger members, the same applied to Sobocinski. Explicit interest in philosophy was shown by Tarski, Mostowski, Slupecki and Jaśkowski, that is logicians who were mathematicians by training; this interest is apparent in their works.