Kazimierz Twardowski Research Articles

Semantical Issues in Maria Kokoszyńska’s Letters to Kazimierz Twardowski

Maria Kokoszyńska‑Lutman, the outstanding female member of the Lvov‑Warsaw School, played an important role in the rise of the modern version of semantics. She very early noticed the importance of Alfred Tarski’s results for the established tradition of Lvov‑Warsaw investigations on truth, including Twardowski’s refutation of relativism. She contributed to the common recognition of these results, among others in Vienna and during the Congress for the Unity of Science in Paris in 1935. In the paper, I examine some Kokoszyńska’s semantical views. They are supplemented by the translation of Kokoszyńska’s letters to Kazimierz Twardowski written from Vienna and Paris.

Czy psychologia szkoły lwowsko‑warszawskiej ma coś do zaoferowania współczesnej psychologii?

At the end of the 19th century, two monographs on empirical psychology were published: W. Wundt’s Grundzüge der physiologischen Psychologie and F. Brentano’s Psychologie vom empirischen Standpunkt. They set different research standards, indicating a differently defined subject as well as the methodology of the new science. The psychology of the 20th and 21st centuries focused mainly on Wundt’s program, while Brentano’s program was included in philosophical analyses. However, this led to significant changes in psychology, which today can be seen as deep reductionism, narrowing the subject matter, and difficulties in constructing theories. In the article, I suggest that it might be helpful to recall the basic assumptions of Brentano’s psychology and the schools derived from it, such as e.g. the Lvov‑Warsaw School. Therefore, the article aims to indicate the theoretical space that has been emerging for some time, in which the school of Kazimierz Twardowski could present original philosophical and psychological achievements.

The Nature of the Anti-Psychologistic Turn in Kazimierz Twardowski’s Philosophy

Abstract In this paper, I analyze the shift in Twardowski’s views between his early psychologistic theory of logic and his later anti-psychologistic theory. In particular, I point out that the interpretation suggesting that this change merely involves Twardowski enriching his ontology with products encounters a certain problem in light of his earlier views. To present this problem more precisely, I discuss the foundations of Twardowski’s theory of products, focusing on aspects relevant to the issue of psychologism. Based on this, I reconstruct Twardowski’s theory of logic and highlight where he identified the fallacy of psychologism. I contrast this reconstructed theory with Twardowski’s earlier views at key points and demonstrate that the difference between his early psychologistic theory and his later anti-psychologistic theory is a matter of a shift in emphasis rather than a significant change in the theoretical system itself, and that Twardowski himself understood it as such.

Religiousness in the Light of Kazimierz Twardowski’s Concept of Actions and Products

The aim of the present article is to approach religiousness and prayer with the aid of the conceptual apparatus of K. Twardowski’s concept of actions and products. Both actions and their products are psychic phenomena, so the idea is to present the psychological mechanism of the formation of religiousness as a product of a person’s actions. This requires a description of the phenomena that are the object of morality, as well as of religion, which is a special aspect of morality. In order to make this description clear, a psychological model of the personal subject will be outlined to explain not only the essence of morality, i.e., how man becomes good, but also how he comes to partake in eternal life.

Information on the worldwide reception of Kant's philosophy in Przegląd Filozoficzny

The reception of Immanuel Kant's philosophy in Poland was achieved in many different ways. One of these was the presentation of Kantian literature in the pages of Przegląd Filozoficzny. Moreover, it took place through various reporting sections, supervised by Kazimierz Twardowski. It was up to him to decide to whom and with what work to entrust for review. Reports, reviews and other dissertations were written in a fair, concise manner, reflecting mainly the content of the reviewed work. The reporting section was continued after 1911 by Kazimierz Twardowski in Ruch Filozoficzny. This does not mean that the section was discontinued in Przegląd Filozoficzny. It continued to develop, showcasing the achievements of world philosophy, including Kantian philosophy.

The early Polish attempts at translating Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason

This article presents the history of the first Polish translation of the Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics. An active role in its creation was played by: Henryk Struve, Romuald Grzymała-Piątkowski, and Kazimierz Twardowski. The study reveals the problem of the organisers of this initiative to the appointment of a translator and the preparation of the translation's publication. The key role was played by Struve. Twardowski limited himself to criticism, both of the editors of the "Biblioteka Filozoficzna" and of the translator himself. The translation was eventually published in 1901. Despite its flaws and numerous shortcomings, it was the first work by Kant representing a mature critical philosophy to be published in Polish.

Roman Witold Ingarden's academic lectures on Kant's Criticism in Lviv

After the retirement of Kazimierz Twardowski and Mścisław Wartenberg, research on Kant’s philosophy in Lviv significantly declined. This tradition was resumed and continued with great success only by Roman Witold Ingarden. The present article explains the origins of Ingarden’s lectures on Kant’s Criticism in Lviv. It also presents the main theses of Ingarden’s lectures.

Polish Logicians on Social Functions of Logic

ABSTRACT The paper examines the interplays between logic and politics in the Polish School of Logic starting from 1914. The Polish School of Logic flourished between 1920 and 1939. Philosophically, it was influenced by Kazimierz Twardowski (1866–1938). For Twardowski logic is fundamental for every kind of human activity, professional and private and this means that every argument should be formulated and proceed by correct inferential rules. These rules involve semiotics, formal logic and methodology of science. The paper shows how this position was shared by Twardowski’s students, including Jan Łukasiewicz, Stanisław Leśniewski, Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz and Tadeusz Kotrabiński, as well as by the next generation of logicians and philosophers and especially by Alfred Tarski. These authors considered logic, philosophy and science as completely neutral with respect to politics and ideology but they also considered logical skills as indispensable in political activities.

Maria Kokoszyńska-Lutmanowa about Wittgenstein in Cambridge (1978)

Maria Kokoszyńska-Lutmanowa (1906-1981) was a Polish philosopher and student of Kazimierz Twardowski, the founder of the Lvov-Warsaw School. In 1938 she went to the University of Cambridge (Newnham College) on a Sarah Smitton Fellowship. There she attended George Edward Moore’s lectures as well as one of Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Lectures on the Foundations of Mathematics in 1939. In this interview which was conducted with Alois Eder she talks about her encounter with Wittgenstein. It was published in 1978 in the Polish art and culture magazine Odra and is her only published memoir about Wittgenstein. The interview is republished here both in English translation and as facsimile of the original publication with the kind permission of the Odra magazine.

Psychology of the Lvov-Warsaw School and the shape of postcommunist Polish psychology (unfinished dialog with Brentanian tradition).

This article presents the development of Polish psychology from the perspective of the most important intellectual formation in Poland-the Lvov-Warsaw School of Kazimierz Twardowski. The representatives of the school played an extraordinary role in the history of Polish psychology in the first half of the 20th century. Unfortunately, this influence was halted by the outbreak of the war in 1939 and by communist oppression and propaganda after the war. After 1989, Polish psychology underwent a deep transformation in the spirit of Western psychology but with no continuation of the most significant achievements of Twardowski's School. Although this process has integrated Polish psychologists into the mainstream of psychology in the world, it has not led to the integration of one of the most original European psychological traditions into world psychology.

Brentano's psychology and Kazimierz Twardowski School: implications for the empirical study of psychological phenomena today.

The article presents the most important and almost forgotten theses of Franz Brentano's empirical psychology, which have significance for conceptualization and the method of psychological research. The psychology programme, introduced as early as 1874, remains on the fringes of mainstream empirical psychology, but it was the starting point for Kazimierz Twardowski and his students. The continuation and development of Brentano's thought in the twentieth century can significantly enrich and broaden psychology's theoretical and empirical perspective. This applies primarily to reductionism and the social dimension of mental phenomena.

KASIMIERZ TWARDOWSKI’S ANALYSIS OF THINKING AND RATIONALISM

In this article, the author considers Kazimierz Twardowski’s conception of thinking and his rationalism. The author argues that rationalism of Kazimierz Twardowski is atypical, because it is a combination of inductive and deductive methods of cognition and acquisition of knowledge. Beside this, his rationalism has constructive tendencies. Kazimierz Twardowski was an analytic philosopher, who payed big attention to the process of thinking and analyzed the forms of thinking, i.e. notions and judgments. Polish philosopher and the founder of Lviv-Warsaw School was convinced that a specialist in philosophy in order to do good philosophy must understand the specificity of thinking process, its forms and how to construct them. Therefore psychology of thinking is very important for philosopher, because it can help to understand the nature of thinking. Beside psychology of thinking, logic is also very important tool for doing philosophy. Logic is very helpful for philosopher, who takes care about the strictness and clearness of thinking, about formation of strict and clear judgments. Logical analysis of notions and judgments provides strong protection against linguistic mistakes which are connected with linguistic inaccuracy and obscurity.

Dzienniki, tom I, lata 1944–1960 [Diary, vol. 1, 1944–1960

<i>Dzienniki, tom I, lata 1944–1960</i> [Diary, vol. 1, 1944–1960

The Cognitive Value of Introspection according to Kazimierz Twardowski

Kazimierz Twardowski attributed high cognitive value to introspection because he believed it plays a fundamental role in psychology, the primary philosophical discipline. He believed that basing philosophy on inner experience would allow it to obtain universal and justified results. Internal experience consists of perceiving one’s own mental facts; it is non-sensual and selfevident. Twardowski referred to introspection in his investigations in various ways, which is presented in the article.

The Concept of Aesthetic Value in the Lvov-Warsaw School: An Overview

This article discusses selected conceptions of aesthetic value formulated by representatives of the Lvov-Warsaw School, including Kazimierz Twardowski, Władysław Witwicki, Władysław Tatarkiewicz, Tadeusz Czeżowski, Mieczysław Walfisz-Wallis, Stanisław Ossowski, Leopold Blaustein, and Tadeusz Kotarbiński.

Karol Frenkel and the tradition of ethics

Abstract Karol Frenkel was one of Kazimierz Twardowski’s first disciples to undertake an attempt to develop their own concept of ethics. In his case, the process of developing his own ethical concept involved questioning the tradition in which he had been educated. Accordingly, he was able to formulate an original concept of independent ethics. In his doctoral dissertation, Frenkel analyzed two ethical systems, formulated by David Hume and Arthur Schopenhauer respectively which sought ethical determinants in the affective sphere. For Frenkel, these proposals turned out to be unsatisfactory, and thus he proposed his own solution derived from the accepted concept of morality. From today’s perspective, it was the first reflection in Poland referring to scientific ethics, which – chronologically speaking – in many respects preceded the analogous solutions proposed later by British analytical philosophers.

In search of unity: Twardowski, Husserl, and Ingarden on the unity of the object

AbstractThis paper is devoted to Kazimierz Twardowski's thesis that the unity of a compound object (a whole) can be ensured only by the relations between its parts and the object itself. Twardowski's idea of unity raises many difficulties, especially the threat of petitio principii: the whole is presupposed as furnishing the ground for the unification of its parts, and yet it also seems to be the result of this unification. To avoid these problems, Edmund Husserl sought to refute Twardowski's thesis, and ascribed the role of a principle of unity to the foundational relationships which directly hold between the parts of a whole. Roman Ingarden then seemed to return to Twardowski's concept of unity, but employed it within a different theory of objects, according to which to be an object is to be a subject of properties. I seek to demonstrate that: (1) Twardowski's thesis is sound if a compound object is something over and above its parts; (2) with respect to Husserl's solution, it is not clear as to whether the whole is really something over and above its parts; (3) Ingarden's conception of the subject‐properties structure saves Twardowski's thesis; (4) Ingarden's theory of higher‐order objects is invalid.

Kasimir Twardowski: From Local Philosophical School to Global Recognition. Review of: “Rozum i wola. Kazimierz Twardowski i jego wpływ na kształt kultury polskiej XX wieku”. Jacek Jadacki (red.). Lublin: Wydawnictwo Academicon, 2021. 574 s.

A new collective monograph on the founder of the Lviv-Warsaw School Kazimierz Twardowski, edited by Jacek Jadacki, a professor at the University of Warsaw, deepens our knowledge of this outstanding figure in Polish culture and science. This collective monograph reveals Kazimierz Twardowski as a multifaceted personality: a patriot, a philosopher, a teacher, and a scholar. The review examines all sections of the collective monograph, which are united by a common goal – to show the uniqueness of the figure of Kazimierz Twardowski. He managed to create a philosophical school with its methodology and approaches to solving philosophical problems, which gradually changed its meaning from local to global, pan-European and even global within the framework of analytical philosophy.

Yakym Yarema’s Views on the Problem of Unconscious Mental Processes and their Background in Philosophy of Kazimierz Twardowski and Franz Brentano

This article introduces the views of Yakym Yarema, the Ukrainian representative of the Lviv-Warsaw School, on the problem of unconscious mental processes and proves the direct influence of Kazimierz Twardowski on them and indirect influence of Franz Brentano. The first part of the paper analyses the framework of Yarema’s manuscript “The problems of unconscious mental processes” (1926). The second part demonstrates the background of Yarema’s views on the problem of unconscious mental processes. The article demonstrates that Yarema’s interest in terms of unconscious mental phenomena did not contradict to the tradition of Twardowski’s philosophical school, but was determined by the development of psychology as an independent science.

"Polish Logicians in the Years 1918-1948 on Social Functions of Logic"

The Polish School of Logic flourished in the period 1920-1939. Philosophically, it was influenced by Kazimierz Twardowski, professor at the University of Lwow (now Lviv in Ukraine), who established the Lwow-Warsaw School, to which the mentioned logical group belonged. Twardowski claimed that logic is very important in every kind of human activity, professional as well as private. Hence, every argument should be clearly formulated and proceed by correct inferential rules. These postulates involved semiotics, formal logic, and methodology of science — that is, logica sensu largo. This position was accepted by Twardowski’s most distinguished students, such as Jan Łukasiewicz, Stanisław Leśniewski, Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz, and Tadeusz Kotarbiński, who graduated before 1914, as well as the next generation of logicians and philosophers, particularly by Alfred Tarski. Although all these people considered logic, philosophy, and science as completely neutral with respect to politics and ideology, they treated logical skills as indispensable in political activities. In philosophical specialized terminology, Polish logicians regarded logic as a weapon against irrationalism. This position was also represented by Polish logicians who did not belong to the group of Twardowski’s students.