SCIENCE IN POLAND | NAUKA W POLSCE

The Lvov-Warsaw School in Philosophy – as the very name suggests – was connected mainly with two academic centers: universities in Lvov and Warsaw. However, it had a broader impact. The members of this school were active also at other universities, in particular in Cracow, Vilnius and Poznań. The aim of the paper is to present and analyze the connections of Lvov-Warsaw School with the university in Poznań.


Introduction
By Lvov-Warsaw School one means the school in philosophy founded by Kazimierz Twardowski at the turn of the 19 th century in Lvov. 1 A broader and a narrower meaning of this term should be distinguished.In the narrower meaning it denotes a group of logicians active mainly in Warsaw (and called Warsaw School in Logic) as well as philosophers who postulated the usage a logical analysis in philosophy.In the broader sense under the term Lvov -Warsaw School students of Twardowski as well as students of his students are meant in dependently of their worldviews or scientific specialities.Despite differences in their views, they all shared some common general convictions concerning philosophy and the way in which it should be developed.Among them were the following ones: philosophy should be a scientific, analytic and clear discipline, separated from the worldview and it should avoid any speculative issues.The beginning of the school is associated with the arrival of Twardowski to Lvov and the appointment of him at the chair of philosophy at the Jan Kazimierz University.It took place on 15 th November 1895.
Among students of Twardowski there were more than 30 professorsnot only philosophers but also logicians, psychologists, pedagogues, linguists and literary scholar.Members of Lvov-Warsaw School dominated in the philosophy in Poland in the first half of the 20 th century.They were appointed to many chairs of philosophy at Polish universities reactivated or newly established after the First World War.They propagated there scientific and didactic standards and patterns of Twardowski.In this way the school stopped being only local school but it became nationwide.In particular in Warsaw there was established an important school in logic that was a common accomplishment of philosophers (Stanisław Leśniewski and Jan Łukasiewicz) and mathematicians (Zygmunt Janiszewski, Wacław Sierpiński, Stefan Mazurkiewicz). 2   University in Poznań 3 was established after the First World War in 1919 (the first inauguration took place on 7 th May 1919).However, the academic tradition was present there already in the 16th century.In 1519 a Roman-Catholic Bishop Jan Lubrański founded the Academy which back then boasted the status of a higher learning institution.Shortly after, another institution of higher learning was established in Poznań, namely -the Jesuit College (1573) and it continued the academic traditions of its predecessor.The first rector of the Jesuit Collegerev.Jakub Wujekwas the first scholar to translate the Bible into Polish.On October 28 th , 1611, King Sigismund III Vasa granted the Jesuit College the status of the first universitytype school in Poznań.The privilege was confirmed by king John III Sobieski.Only in 1919, i.e. 308 years after the formal decision of the king, the university began its real activity.

Zygmunt Zawirski
As the first contact of the University in Poznań with the Lvov-Warsaw School one can treat the appointment of Zygmunt Zawirski (1882Zawirski ( -1948) )  Zawirski studied mathematics, physics and philosophy at the universities in Lvov (1901Lvov ( -1906)), Berlin (1909) and Paris (1910).He completed his doctorate under Kazimierz Twardowski's supervision in 1910.Then he taught mathematics and the propedeu tics to philosophy in various Lvov gymnasiums.He was habilitated in 1924 at the Jagiellonian University in Cracow on the basis of the thesis on the axiomatic method in natural sciences.Between 1924Between -1928 he lectured on philosophy at the Faculty of General Studies of the Lvov Polytechnic.
Zawirski dealt mainly with the methodology of sciences as well as the theory of cognit ion and ontology, especially with problems related to the development of physicsrelativity theory and quantum theory.He was then the most outstanding Polish specialist in problems concerning the borderline of physics and philosophy.However, he was also interested in mathematical logic, especially in its applications.Poznań period belongs to the most creative in his scientific career.
In the philosophy of science he was engaged in polemics with neo-Kantanism and Empirio-criticismthe philosophical trends prevailing at that time.He also referred to the ideas of Vienna Circle as most scholars of the Lvov-Warsaw School did.An important place in his researches was occupied by the question of timesee his monograph L'Evolution de la notion du temps (1936) regarded as his opus magnum.Zawirski opted for moderate realism.He appreciated the role and significance of both induction and deduction in natural sciences.He was also interested in the problem of axiomatization of fragments of physics.
What concerns logic one should consider at least two problems in which Zawirski was interested: the problem of relations between logic and mathematics and the meaning of nonclassical logic, especially of many-valued logics and intuitionistic logic.
The problem of relations between logic and mathematics was considered by Zawirski first of all in his paper "Stosunek logiki do matematyki w świetle badań współczesnych" [The relation between logic and mathematics from the point of view of contemporary investigations] (1927a).He describes there the development of logic stressing the importance of the Stoics' logic and he concentrates on Whitehaed and Russell's work Principia Mathematica.He comes to the conclusion that it is of no greater importance whether the judgements of logic and mathematics are regarded as analytic or syntheticimportant is the problem of the consistency and independence of axioms.
Mathematics and logic do influence our cognition of the world.Since mathematical theories can be interpreted, mathematical constructions become elements of physical theories.This stresses the role and significance of mathematics and its methods for natural sciences.Therefore he dedicated much attention to the problem of axiomatizabili ty of such theories (cf. his works 1923-1924, 1927b, 1938b, 1948).
Logic was understood by Zawirski in a broad sensenot only as a formal system or collection of such systems but he included here also, for example, the theory of reasoning.This was in fact a reflection of contemporary tendencies in Poland (and not only there).He wrote in Logika teoretyczna (1938a) that "logic is a general science and it indicates a structure common to all disciplines, ways in which in particular domains their statements are justified" 5 (p.2).And on p. 1 he wrote that logic is not "a science about reason but rather about forms of reasoning used by us in any deduction as well as reasoning" 6 .
Zawirski was interestedas we wrote abovein non-classical logic.He treated manyvalued logics as a way to describe and to understand the phenomena of the micro-world.
Combining ideas of Jan Łukasiewicz and Emil Post he attempted to construct a system of logic which would enable us to interpret problems of contemporary physics as well as the probability calculus.Zawirski can be treated as a precursor of the so -called quantum logic.
In 1936 Zawirski left the University in Poznań and moved to Cracow to Jagiellonian University.Investigations on the borderline between philosophy and physics were continued in Poznań by his student Franciszek Zeidler .

Poznań students of Zawirski
Zawirski had also another student in Poznań who should be mentioned here, namely Zbigniew Jordan (1911Jordan ( -1977) ) he is treated as belonging to the second generation of Lvov-Warsaw School.Jordan 7 studied 1930-1934 philosophy at University in Poznań -his master thesis was devoted to the critical analysis of psychological propositions in the philosophy of Tadeusz Kotarbiński.Under the influence of Zawirski he got interested in axiomatic method in philosophy.In 1936 he was rewarded PhD under the supervision of Zawirski.In his doctoral thesis O matematycznych podstawach systemu Platona [Mathematical foundations of Plato's system] (1937) Jordan claimed that Plato was the discoverer of the axiomatic method in mathematics.After doctorate he continued his studies at universities in Bonn and Paris preparing the Habilitationsschrift devoted to the problem of the infinity.Unfortunately, the outbreak of the Second World War prevented the habilitation (the manuscript went missing).After the war he worked in England and Canadahis works were devoted to the history of logic and philosophy.

Alfred Tarski and the University in Poznań
After Zawirski left Poznań there appeared a vacancy at his Chair of Theory and Methodology of Sciences.And here again "enters" in a certain sense the Lvov-Warsaw School.Unfortunately, the history is not quite clear since no documents that could explain the issue have been found.So, we must rely on opinions coming from second hand.
The Ministry of Education asked all the relevant professors in Poland to suggest a candidate to fill the vacancy, and Tarski was unanimously recommended.However, Poznan, always a stronghold of right-wing conservatism and dominated by the Catholic church, had, since Piłsudki's death in 1935, mov ed even father to the right and become outright fascistic and anty-Semitic.Unanimous recommendations notwithstanding, Poznan University did not appoint Tarski, and since there would have been no way to appoint anyone else without making the reasons for de nying him the professorship patently clear, the position was eliminated (Burdman-Feferman, Feferman 2004, pp.102-103).
In fact, the position left by Zawirski was not filled in 1937-1939. Woleński (1995, p. 400, p. 400) explains this in the following way: According to Hiż8 , the people in Poznań were afraid that Tarski would apply and win the competition.Poznań was perhaps the most anti-Semitic region in Poland.This would explain the situation.
The position at Chair of Theory and Methodology of Sciencesdue to the outbreak of the Second World Warremained in fact unfilled until 1945.One can only imagine what would be the history of logic in Poland if Tarski were appointed at the University in Poznań!

Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz
The spirit of Lvov-Warsaw School came again to the Univerity in Poznań after the war when Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz (1890Ajdukiewicz ( -1963) )  To main achievements of Ajdukiewicz belongs the conception of meaningit formed the logical base of his radical conventionalism proclaimed by him in his early works.Later he moved towards empiricism stressing the role of experience and measurement in science.In formal logictreated by him as a tool of philosophy making possible a precise and strict considerationshe proposed the definition of a consequence which in a certain sense prepared the way to Tarski's definition, formulated the deduction theorem as well as considered the rule of infinite induction.To his important achievements belong also the calculus of syntactic types.In methodology he was interested in problems connected with practical logic such as classification of reasoning or the p roblem of rationality of inferences.He proposed a new definition and classification of reasoning and considered non-deductive reasoning.Ajdukiewicz represented always anti-irrationalism and in works published in his Poznań period he criticized severely and explicitly various idealistic tendencies in philosophy.This critique was always based on logical analysis of discussed conceptions and aimed at indication of logical mistakes and errors.He also took discussions with Marxist philosophy (prevailing at that time in Poland) and Marxist philosophers.What is interested, he not only defended his own philosophical views against attacks of opponents but also sometimes seemed to advance the latter some solutions in favour of their ideas. 9jdukiewiczfollowing the ideas of his master Twardowskipaid great attention to the problem of teaching logic.He wrote some excellent textbooks of logic and philosophy, 10  took part in discussions concerning the didactics of logic , 11 organized meetings devoted to teaching of logic and philosophy.
In logico-methodological seminars 13 directed by him took part many scholars from various Polish universities.Numerous papers in logic, methodology and philosophy were written herepapers representing the highest scientific level.Ajdukiewicz really instilled in Poznań the spirit of Lvov-Warsaw School.
It should be added that at that time Poznań was active also in publishing scientific journals.Here in 1953 was founded the journal Studia Logica.Its Editor-in Chief was Ajdukiewicz and Roman Suszko was the first secretary of the Editorial Board.The journal appears till today and belongs to leading logical journals in the world.Also in Poznań was published the journal Studia Philosophica co-edited in the period 1935-1951 by Ajdukiewicz together with Roman Ingarden and Kazimierz Twardowski.

Poznań students of Ajdukiewicz
Among collaborators and students of Ajdukiewicz during his Poznań period were Seweryna Łuszczewska-Romahnowa, Roman Suszko, Zbigniew Czerwiński and Andrzej Malewskithey continued his work when he left Poznań and went to Warsaw.
Roman Suszko (1919Suszko ( -1979) ) Zbigniew Czerwiński (1927-2010) in his logical works was concerned with the theory of induction and its connections with statistics and game theory.He moved later to problems of econometrics.Andrzej Malewski (1929Malewski ( -1963) ) was an assistant in Ajdukiewicz's chair. 1956 he moved to the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw.Later he collaborated with Jerzy Topolski in the domain of the methodology of history (one says about Poznań school of the methodology of historical sciences).He wrote also an interesting and affordable textbook in logic ABC porządnego myślenia (1957).

Seweryna Łuszczewska-Romahnowa -the successor of Ajdukiewicz
After Ajdukiewicz left Poznań and moved to Warsaw, the head of the Chair of Logic became Seweryna Łuszczewska-Romahnowa 14 .She studied philosophy and mathematics at the Jan Kazimierz University in Lvov.In 1932 she obtained there her doctor's degree -the real supervisor was Ajdukiewicz, however for formal reasons the official supervisor was Kazimierz Twardowski.Next she started the work at Chair of Philosophy I of the Unuversity in Lvov whose head was Ajdukiewicz. 1943  Łuszczewska-Romahnowa worked in mathematical logic, methodology and history of logic.Due to her dramatic experiences during the war she published relatively few papers.However, one can recognize in her works the influence of her studies in Lvov under Twardowski, Ajdukiewicz and Roman Ingarden (philosophy) as well as Hugo Steinhaus and Stefan Banach (mathematics).This can be seen in particular in the synthesis of analytical philosophy and logic so characteristic for her style of writing.
Among her works one should mention ,,Wieloznaczność a język nauki" [Polysemy and the language of science] (1948) devoted to the ambiguity of concepts us ed in the language of science, "Analiza i uogólnienie metody sprawdzania formuł logicznych przy pomocy diagramów Venna" [An Analysis and Generalization of Venn's Diagrammatic Decision Procedure] (1953) where she proposed a method of checking the decidability of the first-order monadic predicate calculus, papers dealing with argumentation theory (1962,1964) or with the problem of induction (1957).She wrote also papers on multi-level classifications and on the distance functions connected with such classifications (1961, 1965a, 1965b).

Honorary doctorate awarded to Twardowski
Considering connections of the University in Poznań with Lvov-Warsaw School one should mention still one issuehowever it has another character as those mentoned above .We mean here the fact that the University in Poznań awarded in 1930 honorary doctorate to Kazimierz Twardowski 15 .This was formally done by Senate of the university on 21 st May 1930 on the request of the Councel of the Faculty of Humanities.Unfortunately , due to his pure health Twardowski was unable to take part in the ceremony in Poznań .Therefore, the ceremonyin which participated a delegation of the University in Poznań -took part on 21 st November 1932 in the Hall of Jan Kazimierz University in Lvov.The delegation consisted of professors Jan Sajdak (vice-rector), Ludwik Jaxa-Bykowski (dean of the Faculty of Humanities) and Stefan Błachowski (supervisor).In the ceremony took part the rector of Lvov University Adam Gerstmann, Senate, representatives of secular and spiritual authorities as well as numerous students.Twardowski gave a famous speech O dostojeństwie uniwersytetu [The majesty of the university] (1933).He wrote his text in 1931 and complemented it in September 1932.He himself called it in his Dzienniki [Diares] (1997) "my testament on the essence of university''. 16The text was published by the University in Poznań in 1933 with a circulation of 500 copies (100 copies of them on a handmade paper). 17Twardowski's photograph, characterisation of introductory speeches and a copy of the diploma given to him were added.
It is worth quoting here some sentences from Twardowski's speech.They show how he did define the tasks of a university (cf.Twardowski 2011, Section 3): Hence the core and the nucleus of University work consists in scientific production in both the semantic and methodological sense.It is the duty of the University to discover ever new scientific truths and probabilities and to improve and spread the ways whereby they can be discovered.
[…] The nature of objective scientific research manifests itself in that.It does not receive any orders from any e xternal factors and refuses to serve any accidental considerations.It re cognizes experience and reasoning as its sole masters and has only one task: to arrive at properly substantiated true opinions, or at least those which are the most probable.Promocji UAM] prepared a bibliophile edition of Twardowski's speech (Polish and English text) in 200 copies.They were not for sale and were used for promotion of the university only.

Conclusion
The above considerations show that there were real and significant connections between Lvov-Warsaw School and the University in Poznań.They can be seen both in the presence of scholars who were students of Twardowski) and in this way members of this school) as well as in the directions and tendencies of investigations they were undertaken here and in methods they promoted.Recall that in the Lvov-Warsaw School no philosophical manifesto concerning metaphilosophical views have been formulated.However, such views can be reconstructed on the base of remarks concerning the nature and methods of philosophy made on the margin of works devoted to particular problems.According to them : (1) philosophy should be separated from the world-view, (2) philosophy should be seen through concret problems and not through general philosophical systems, the so-called "small'' philosophy should be developed, (3) philosophy developed so far was criticized for its speculative character, (4) in philosophy strict correct methods based on logic must be used, (5) one should take care of the precision and exactness of concepts and methods.Therefore , the crucial role of logichowever philosophy was never reduced to it.It can be easily seen that in investigations of scholars being active at the University in Poznań described above the indicated postulates were realized.They devoted much attention to methods used in considerations of particular philosophical problems, used in them precise methods, took care of the precization of concepts, applied logical analyses in discussions of classical problems in philosophy.Instead of formulating general systems they concentrated on particular problems.They stressed the role and significance of logic for methodology and philosophy.They attempted to construct reliable foundations of various disciplines, e.g.physics, by using axiomatic method.They contributed also to the development of logic itself, both general and mathematical one.
One remark should be added here.Twardowski who wanted to build modern philosophy in Poland postulated that Polish scholars should write modern academic textbooks in Polish.
And his students active in Poznań followed this postulate -one can mention here for example Ajdukiewicz and his excellent textbooks or textbooks by Zawirski and Malewski.
Though Tarski was not given the position at the University in Poznań (for rather political reasons having nothing to do with science) what would certainly change the situation of logic and philosophy in Poland generally, and in Poznań in particular, nevertheless the spirit of Lvov-Warsaw School was present here and influenced the development of scientific investigations carried out.And the influence of this spirit sh ould not be limited to scholars mentioned in our paper (they can be seen as the first and second generation of the Lvov -Warsaw School) but can be seen also in the research work of their successors.Ajdukiewicz K. 1947: Logika i doświadczenie. Przegląd Filozoficzny 43, z. 1-4, pp. 3-21. Ajdukiewicz, K., 1948a: Zmiana i sprzeczność. Myśli Współczesna nr 8/9, pp. 35-52. Ajdukiewicz, K., 1948b: Epistemiologia i semiotyka . Przegląd Filozoficzny 44, pp. 336-347. Ajdukiewicz, K., 1948c: Metodologia i metanauka . Życie Nauki 6, pp. 4-15.nowych prawd i prawdopodobieństw naukowych oraz doskonalenie i szerzenie sposobów, które je odkrywać pozwalają.

Bibliography
[…] W tem właśnie uwydatnia się charakter obiektywny badania naukowego, że nie przyjmuje ono rozkazów od żadnych czynników zewnętrznych i że nie chce służyć żadnym względom ubocznym, lecz że za panów swoich uznaje jedynie doświadczenie i rozumowanie i że jedno tylko ma zadanie: dochodzenie należycie uzasadnionych sądów prawdziwych albo przynajmniej j ak najbardziej prawdopodobnych." to the Chair of Theory and Methodology 1 See Woleński 1985; 1989. 2 See Murawski 2010. 3 The name of the University in Poznań was changing.At the very beginning its name was Piast University [Wszechnica Piastowska], 1920 it was renamed to University of Poznań [Uniwersytet Poznański].During the Second Worls War staff and students of the university (expelled by the Nazis) founded an underground Polish University of the Western Lands [Uniwersytet Ziem Zachodnich].It operated primarily in Warsaw from 1940 to 1944 and had branches in Kielce, Jędrzejów, Częstochowa and Milanówek.In 1945 the University was reopend of Sciences at the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences.This chair was established after the retirement in 1928 of Władysław Mieczysław Kozłowski. 4Kozłowski was since 1920 the head of the Chair of Theory and Methodology of Sciences at the Philosophical Faculty -this was the first chair of logic at the University in Poznań.After the division of the Philosophical Faculty into the Faculty of Humanities and the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences in 1921 the chair was transformed into Chair of Theory and Methodology of Natural Sciences and Humanities and incorporated into the first one.After Kozłowski's retirement his chair was canceled.In the academic year 1929/1930 Chair of Theory and Methodology of Sciences was established at Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences and Zawirski became head of it.He came to Poznań from Lvov where he lectured at polytechnic.
rejected the offers from universities in Warsaw and Cracow and decided to take the position just in Poznań.He became the head of the Chair of Theory and Methodology of Sciences at Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences.Ajdukiewicz studied philosophy, physics and mathematics at the Jan Kazimierz University in Lvov.In 1912, he obtained his doctor's degree under the supervision of Kazimierz Twardowski.In the years 1913-1914, he continued his studies at the University of Göttingen where he listened to the lectures given by Edmund Husserl, Leonard Nelson and David Hilbert.The views of the latter exerted a considerable influence on Ajdukiewicz, which was revealed in his Habilationsschrift.In the years 1919-1922, he worked as a teacher in a gymnasium in Lvov and at the same time he conducted research.In 1921, he completed his habilitation at the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Warsaw.In the years 1922-1925, he lectured as a private docent at the University of Lvov and taught in secondary schools in Lvov.In 1925, he became professor of the University of Warsaw, and from 1928 he was professor of the University of Lvov.In 1940-1941, he lectured on psychology at the Lvov State Medical Institute.During the Nazi occupation he worked as an accountant and at the same time, he was involved in the underground education.In 1944-1945, he held the Chair of Physics at the Ivan Franko University in Lvov.In 1945, he was given the Chair of Theory and Methodology of Sciences at the University of Poznań, where he was also elected rector for the term 1948-1952.In the year 1955, he moved to the University of Warsaw.Ajdukiewicz belongs to the outstanding representatives of Lvov-Warsaw School.He had a significant influence on the development of logic and philosophy not only in Poland.When he came to Poznań he was already wildly known in the world -the fame brought him his works from the interwar period.He dealt mainly with semiotics, epistemology, logic and general methodology of sciences.In what follows we shall indicate some main achievements of him .
arrested by Gestapo she was sent to concentration camps in Majdanek, Ravensbrück and Buchenwald.In December 1946 she came to Poznań and 1947 she started the work at the Chair of Theory and Methodology of Sciences of the University in Poznań directed by Ajdukiewicz.1955 she became his successor as the head of the chair -1970 the chair was incorporated into the newly founded Institute of Mathematics and renamed to Department of Mathematical Logic.She directed it till her retirement in 1974 -her successor was Tadeusz Batóg.
18 15 See Sierpowski, Malinowski 2014, pp.105-111. 16"[Jest] rodzajem testamentu mego uniwersyteckiego" 17 It was reprinted by the University in Poznań (with an English translation by Olgierd A. Wojtasiewicz) in 2011 in the framework of the celebrations of the 400 years of university tradition in Poznań and the jubilee decade of the university (2009-2019).Add that in 2007 Department of Promotion of the University in Poznań [Zespół ds.
studied physics, mathematics and chemistry at the University in Poznań and during the war at underground schools in Cracow.1945 he obtained master degree in philosophy at Jagiellonian University under the supervision of Zawirski and 1946 started the work in the Chair of Theory and Methodology of Sciences at the University in Poznań.Here he obtained 1948 the doctor's degree under the supervisio n of Ajdukiewicz and 1951 the habilitation.He was alsoas mentioned abovethe secretary of the Editorial Board of Studia Logica.1953Suszko left Poznań and moved to Warsaw (to the Chair of Logic at the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Warsaw).His papers written during the Poznań period were devoted to logical rules of reasoning and their relations with laws of logic, theory of mathematical definitions as well as some problems connected with the theory of axiomatic systems.In particular he considered systems of logic without axioms but with appropriate finitistic inference rules.His Habilitationsschrift "Canonic axiomatic systems" (1951) was devoted to the explication of Skolem paradox and contained general metatheoretical considerations concerning models of axiomatic theories.During his work in Poznań Suszko published also a few othet minor papers, in particular a critical discussion of logical positivism (see 1952) and began his work on diachronic logic.