Maria Ossowska

Maria Ossowska (''née'' Maria Niedźwiecka, 16 January 1896, Warsaw – 13 August 1974, Warsaw) was a Polish sociologist and social philosopher.

Life

A student of the philosopher Tadeusz Kotarbiński, she originally in 1925 received a doctorate in philosophy at the University of Warsaw with a thesis on Bertrand Russell. In her later work, she focused on the philosophy and sociology of ethics. Ossowska is often mentioned as a member of the Lwów–Warsaw school.

From 1941 to 1945, Ossowska taught in the Polish underground university system. In 1945-48 she was a professor at the University of Łódź, after that at the University of Warsaw. She was banned from teaching between 1952 and 1956, while sociology was removed from Polish universities as a "bourgeois" discipline. From 1952 to 1962, she directed the Institute for the History and Theory of Ethics within the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN). In 1964 she was one of the signatories of the so-called Letter of 34 to Prime Minister Józef Cyrankiewicz regarding freedom of culture. In 1972 the Communist authorities awarded Ossowska a first-degree Polish National Award ''(Polska Nagroda Państwowa I stopnia)'', the highest Polish state accolade.

Ossowska was married to sociologist Stanisław Ossowski, with whom she closely cooperated in research and teaching.

Maria Ossowska and Stanisław Ossowski are considered among the founders of the field of "science of science" due to their authorship of a seminal 1935 paper titled "The Science of Science."A synonym for "science of science" is the back-formed term " logology" (Christopher Kasparek, " Prus' ''Pharaoh'': the Creation of a Historical Novel", ''The Polish Review'', vol. XXXIX, no. 1, 1994, note 3, pp. 45–46; Stefan Zamecki, ''Komentarze do naukoznawczych poglądów Williama Whewella (1794–1866): studium historyczno-metodologiczne'' Logological_Views_of_William_Whewell.html" ;"title="Logology_(sociology).html" ;"title="ommentaries to the Logology (sociology)">Logological Views of William Whewell">Logology_(sociology).html" ;"title="ommentaries to the Logology (sociology)">Logological Views of William Whewell (1794–1866): A Historical-Methodological Study], Warsaw, Polish Academy of Sciences, 2012, nglish-languagesummary, pp. 741–43). The term " logology" provides convenient grammatical variants not available with the earlier terms, "science of science" and "sociology of science": i.e., "logologist", "to logologize", "logological", "logologically".

Works

*1925 (as Maria Niedźwiecka): ''Ontologia Bertranda Russella'' he ontology of Bertrand Russell Warszawa.
*1946: ''Wzór obywatela w ustroju demokratycznym'' he model of the citizen in the democratic system Warszawa: Zarząd Główny Towarzystwa Uniwersytetu Robotniczego.
*1947: ''Podstawy nauki o moralności'' oundations of the science of morality 2nd edition 1994, ed. by Paweł J. Smoczyński. Wrocław: Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich.
*1949: ''Motywy postępowania: Z zagadnień moralności'' he motivations of action: On the problems of ethics Warszawa: Książka i Wiedza. 3rd edition 2002.
*1956: ''Moralność mieszczańska'' ourgeois morality 2nd edition 1985. Wrocław: Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich.
(English translation 1986: ''Bourgeois morality''. London/New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
*1957: ''O pewnych przemianach etyki walki'' n certain changes in the ethics of struggle 2nd edition 1977. Warszawa: Niezależna Oficyna Wydawnicza (a Samisdat edition)
*1963: ''Socjologia moralności: zarys zagadnień'' he sociology of morality: An outline of its problems 4th edition 2005. Warszawa: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe.
English translation 1971: ''Social determinants of moral ideas''. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1971 edition London/New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
*1966: ''Myśl moralna Oświecenia angielskiego'' he moral thought of the English Enlightenment Warszawa: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe.
*1970: ''Normy moralne: próba systematyzacji'' oral norms: An attempt at systematization 4th edition 2000. Warszawa: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe. )
English translation 1980: ''Moral norms: a tentative systematization''. Warszawa: Polish Scientific Publ.
*1973: ''Ethos rycerski i jego odmiany'' he Chivalric Ethos and Its Varieties 3rd edition, 2000, Warsaw, Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, .
*1983: ''O człowieku, moralności i nauce: miscellanea'' [On Man, morality, and science: miscellanies, ed. by Maria Ofierska and Maria Smoła. Warszawa: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe.
*1992: ''Wzór demokraty: cnoty i wartości'' [The paragon of a democrat: Virtues and values] Lublin: Daimonion.
*2002: ''Intymny portret uczonych: korespondencja Marii i Stanisława Ossowskich'' [An intimate portrait of a scholarly couple: The correspondence of Maria Ossowska and Stanisław Ossowski], ed. by Elżbieta Neyman. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo "Sic!". .

See also

* List of Poles#Social sciences, List of Poles
*Logology (science of science)
*Robert K. Merton

Notes

References

*
*
*Olgierd Sochacki (ed.): ''Wątki polityczne w pracach Marii i Stanisława Ossowskich'' olitical threads in the works of Maria Ossowska and Stanisław Ossowski Gdańsk: Gdańskie Towarzystwo Naukowe. .
*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ossowska, Maria
Polish sociologists
University of Warsaw faculty
1896 births
1974 deaths
Polish women philosophers
Polish women sociologists
Social philosophers
20th-century Polish philosophers
Polish women academics
Recipients of the State Award Badge (Poland)
20th-century Polish women