The Lwów–Warsaw School () was an interdisciplinary

school A school is the educational institution (and, in the case of in-person learning, the Educational architecture, building) designed to provide learning environments for the teaching of students, usually under the direction of teachers. Most co ...

(mainly philosophy, logic and psychology) founded by Kazimierz Twardowski in 1895 in

Lwów Lviv ( or ; ; ; see #Names and symbols, below for other names) is the largest city in western Ukraine, as well as the List of cities in Ukraine, fifth-largest city in Ukraine, with a population of It serves as the administrative centre of ...

Austro-Hungary Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe#Before World War I, Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military ...

(now

Lviv Lviv ( or ; ; ; see #Names and symbols, below for other names) is the largest city in western Ukraine, as well as the List of cities in Ukraine, fifth-largest city in Ukraine, with a population of It serves as the administrative centre of ...

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

). Though its members represented a variety of disciplines, from

mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

through

logic Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the study of deductively valid inferences or logical truths. It examines how conclusions follow from premises based on the structure o ...

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...

, the Lwów–Warsaw School is widely considered to have been a philosophical movement. It has produced some of the leading

ians of the twentieth century such as

Jan Łukasiewicz Jan Łukasiewicz (; 21 December 1878 – 13 February 1956) was a Polish logician and philosopher who is best known for Polish notation and Łukasiewicz logic. His work centred on philosophical logic, mathematical logic and history of logi ...

, Stanisław Leśniewski, and

Alfred Tarski Alfred Tarski (; ; born Alfred Teitelbaum;School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of St Andrews ''School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of St Andrews''. January 14, 1901 – October 26, 1983) was a Polish-American logician ...

, among others. Its members did not only contribute to the techniques of logic but also to various domains that belong to the

philosophy of language Philosophy of language refers to the philosophical study of the nature of language. It investigates the relationship between language, language users, and the world. Investigations may include inquiry into the nature of Meaning (philosophy), me ...

History

Polish philosophy and the Lwów–Warsaw school were considerably influenced by

Franz Brentano Franz Clemens Honoratus Hermann Josef Brentano (; ; 16 January 1838 – 17 March 1917) was a German philosopher and psychologist. His 1874 '' Psychology from an Empirical Standpoint'', considered his magnum opus, is credited with having reintrod ...

and his pupils Kazimierz Twardowski, Anton Marty,

Alexius Meinong Alexius Meinong von Handschuchsheim (; 17 July 1853 – 27 November 1920) was an Austrian philosopher, a realist known for his unique ontology and theory of objects. He also made contributions to philosophy of mind and theory of value. Lif ...

, and

Edmund Husserl Edmund Gustav Albrecht Husserl (; 8 April 1859 – 27 April 1938) was an Austrian-German philosopher and mathematician who established the school of Phenomenology (philosophy), phenomenology. In his early work, he elaborated critiques of histori ...

. Twardowski founded the philosophical school when he became the chair of the Lviv University. Principal topics of interest to the Lwów–Warsaw school included formal

ontology Ontology is the philosophical study of existence, being. It is traditionally understood as the subdiscipline of metaphysics focused on the most general features of reality. As one of the most fundamental concepts, being encompasses all of realit ...

mereology Mereology (; from Greek μέρος 'part' (root: μερε-, ''mere-'') and the suffix ''-logy'', 'study, discussion, science') is the philosophical study of part-whole relationships, also called ''parthood relationships''. As a branch of metaphys ...

, and universal or categorial grammar. The Lwów-Warsaw School began as a general philosophical school but steadily moved toward logic. The Lwów–Warsaw school of logic lay at the origin of '' Polish logic'' and was closely associated with or was part of the

Warsaw School of Mathematics Warsaw School of Mathematics is the name given to a group of mathematicians who worked at Warsaw, Poland, in the two decades between the World Wars, especially in the fields of logic, set theory, point-set topology and real analysis. They publish ...

. According to Jan Woleński, a decisive factor in the school's development was the view that the future of the Polish school of mathematics depended on the research connected with the new branches of the field such as

set theory Set theory is the branch of mathematical logic that studies Set (mathematics), sets, which can be informally described as collections of objects. Although objects of any kind can be collected into a set, set theory – as a branch of mathema ...

and

topology Topology (from the Greek language, Greek words , and ) is the branch of mathematics concerned with the properties of a Mathematical object, geometric object that are preserved under Continuous function, continuous Deformation theory, deformat ...

, which are closely related to mathematical logic. The "philosophical branch" followed Twardowski's tradition and produced notable thinkers such as Bronisław Bandrowski, who addressed the problem of induction and Tadeusz Kotarbiński, who is known for developing Reism. In the 1930s Alfred Tarski initiated contacts with the

Vienna Circle The Vienna Circle () of logical empiricism was a group of elite philosophers and scientists drawn from the natural and social sciences, logic and mathematics who met regularly from 1924 to 1936 at the University of Vienna, chaired by Moritz Sc ...

. Tarski, the most prominent member of the Lwów–Warsaw School, has been ranked as one of the four greatest logicians of all time, along with

Aristotle Aristotle (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, a ...

Gottlob Frege Friedrich Ludwig Gottlob Frege (; ; 8 November 1848 – 26 July 1925) was a German philosopher, logician, and mathematician. He was a mathematics professor at the University of Jena, and is understood by many to be the father of analytic philos ...

, and

Kurt Gödel Kurt Friedrich Gödel ( ; ; April 28, 1906 – January 14, 1978) was a logician, mathematician, and philosopher. Considered along with Aristotle and Gottlob Frege to be one of the most significant logicians in history, Gödel profoundly ...

. Feferman & Feferman, p. 1 The school's work was interrupted by the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Despite this, its members went on to fundamentally influence modern science, notably

and

, in the post-war period. Tarski's description of semantic truth, for instance, has revolutionized logic and philosophy. In contemporary Polish learning, the philosopher Jan Woleński considers himself close to the School's heritage. In 2013 Woleński was awarded by the Foundation for Polish Science for his comprehensive analysis of the work of the Lwów–Warsaw school and for placing its achievements within the international discourse of contemporary

analytic philosophy Analytic philosophy is a broad movement within Western philosophy, especially English-speaking world, anglophone philosophy, focused on analysis as a philosophical method; clarity of prose; rigor in arguments; and making use of formal logic, mat ...

Members

Many of the School's members worked in more than one field. * Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz * Bronisław Bandrowski * Leopold Blaustein *

Józef Maria Bocheński Józef Maria Bocheński or Innocentius Bochenski (30 August 1902 – 8 February 1995) was a Polish Dominican, logician and philosopher. Biography Bocheński was born on 30 August 1902 in Czuszów, then part of the Russian Empire, to a fami ...

* Leon Chwistek * Tadeusz Czeżowski * Eugénie Ginsberg * Janina Hosiasson-Lindenbaum * Stanisław Jaśkowski * Maria Kokoszyńska-Lutmanowa * Tadeusz Kotarbiński * Czesław Lejewski * Stanisław Leśniewski *

* Maria Ossowska *

* Kazimierz Twardowski * Władysław Witwicki * Zygmunt Zawirski

References

Bibliography

* Brożek, A., A. Chybińska, J. Jadacki, and Jan Woleński, eds., ''Tradition of the Lvov-Warsaw School. Ideas and Continuations'', Leiden, Boston, 2015. * Brożek, A., F. Stadler, and Jan Woleński, eds., ''The Significance of the Lvov-Warsaw School in the European Culture'', Wien, 2017. *Coniglione, F., ''Polish Scientific Philosophy: The Lvov–Warsaw School'', Amsterdam, Atlanta, 1993. *Drabarek, A., Jan Woleński, and M.M. Radzki, eds., ''Interdisciplinary investigations into the Lvov-Warsaw School'', Cham, 2019. * *Garrido, Á., and U. Wybraniec-Skardowska, eds., ''The Lvov-Warsaw School. Past and Present'', Basel, 2018. *Jadacki, J.J., ''Polish Analytical Philosophy'', Warsaw, 2009. * Jadacki, J., and J. Paśniczek, eds.
''The Lvov-Warsaw School – The new generation''
Poznań Studies in the Philosophy of Science and Humanities, vol. 89, Polish Analytical Philosophy, vol. VI, Amsterdam, Atlanta, 2006 . * Jordan, Z., ''The Development of Mathematical Logic and of Logical Positivism in Poland between Two Wars'', Oxford, 1945. *Kijania-Place, K., and Jan Woleński, eds., ''The Lvov-Warsaw School and Contemporary Philosophy'', Dordrecht, 1998. * Marion M., W. Miśkiewicz, S. Lapointe, and Jan Woleński, eds., ''The Golden Age of Polish Philosophy: Kazimierz Twardowski's Philosophical Legacy'', Dordrecht, 2009 . *McFarland, A., J. McFarland, and J.T. Smith, eds., ''Alfred Tarski: Early Work in Poland – Geometry and Teaching'', Basel, 2010. *Skolimowski, H., ''Polish Analytical Philosophy.'' London, 1967. *Smith, B., ''Austrian Philosophy'', Chicago, 1994. *Szaniawski, Klemens, ed., ''The Vienna Circle and the Lvov–Warsaw School'', Dordrecht, Boston, London, 1989. * Woleński, Jan, ''Logic and Philosophy in the Lvov–Warsaw School'', Dordrecht, Boston, Lancaster, Reidel, 1989.

External links

The Lvóv-Warsaw School
by Francesco Coniglione, in the Polish Philosophy Page. *
Archives of the Lvov-Warsaw School
multi-institutional initiative to digitize and research the manuscripts of Twardowski and the school members. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lwow-Warsaw School Of Logic History of logic Culture of the Second Polish Republic Cultural history of Warsaw History of Lviv Philosophical schools and traditions

History

Members

See also

References

Bibliography

External links