OPER ACCESS. The correspondence between Meinong and Kazimierz Twardowski highlights the relationship between two philosophers who influenced the history of philosophy and psychology in Austria and Poland. The two correspondents discuss, among other things, their epistemological approach and the university politics of their times. In addition, there is an extensive introduction that places the correspondence in its proper historical and philosophical context.

Wollte man die Erkenntnistatigkeit der menschlichen Subjekte einer einfachen Analyse unterziehen, dann konnte man z.B. bei der Frage ansetzen: Wie gehen die Menschen mit Erkenntnis um? Im 21. Jahrhundert wird das Erkennen im Kontext einer (post-)modernen Gesellschaft betrachtet, die viele pluralistische Varianten zulasst: Globale, soziale, Kultur-, Frauen-, Manner-, Bildungs-, Wissenschaftler-, Religionen-, Sportgesellschaft usw. In jeder Form der Gesellschaft wird dem Erkenntnisphanomen eine prinzipielle, wenn auch jeweils spezifische Funktion zugeschrieben, deren objektive Problemstellung auch in ihrem geschichtlichen Horizont gedeutet werden muss, wenn (...) sie sich bewahren soll. Allerdings gilt uberall folgendes Prinzip: Entfaltung jeder Form der Gesellschaft erfordert unbedingt die fortschreitende Erkenntnis. Diese Notwendigkeit hat schon von Anfang an als zuverlassiger Motor fur jedes nur denkbare Modell der Erkenntnistheorie gegolten.". (shrink)

When asked in 1962 on what he was working Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz replied: Several years ago Polish Scientific Publishers suggested that I pre pare a new edition of The Logical Foundations of Teaching, which I wrote 1 before 1939 as a contribution to The Encyclopaedia of Education. It was a small booklet covering elementary information about logical semantics and scientific methodology, information which in my opinion was necessary as a foundation of teaching and as an element of the education of (...) any teacher. When I recently set to preparing the new edition, I rewrote practically everything, and a booklet of some 100 pages swelled into a bulky volume almost five times bigger. The issues have remained practically the same, but they are now analysed much more thoroughly and the threshold of difficulty is much higher now. The main stress has been laid on the methods used in the empirical sciences, and within that field, on the theory of measurement and the methods of statistical inference. I am now working on the last chapter of the book, concerned with explanation procedures and theory construction in the empirical sciences. When that book, which I intend to entitle Pragmatic Logic, is com pleted I intend to prepare for the press Vol. 2 of my minor writings, 2 Language and Cognition, which will cover some of my post-war pa pers. (shrink)

A simple, journalist scheme indicates that knowledge qualif‌ied to be scientif‌ic directly and fundamentally changes – thanks to its technological applications – the social world. The author presents arguments indicating that things are not that simple for several reasons.Firstly, historians of science argue that many fundamental technologies were created without a clear reference to scientif‌ic knowledge, and the knowledge accumulated by technologists often arises outside the areas of scientific theory. Secondly, we also know that what is technically possible is not (...) necessarily socially possible – not least because of costs, cultural constraints or social practices that we are not willing to give up. Thirdly, it is increasingly clear that the increase in scientif‌ic knowledge is primarily the result of the decision to allocate more and more resources to applied research. This means, however, that the pursuit of knowledge results not so much from the pressure to seek scientif‌ic truth, but from the values that we consider important. Fourthly, this leads to a reorientation in science, which allows contesting the thesis about the objectivity of scientif‌ic cognition in various ways: due to methodological disputes conducted by philosophers of science, the so‑called ‘scientif‌ic method’ does not guarantee the objectivity of scientif‌ic cognition. Consequently, the Enlightenment vision of science, which collapsed under the pressure of post-modernism, ceases to be the basic frame of reference on which we try to improve our collective life. We need this frame only when we cannot imagine this life without appealing to authorities that allow the resolution of essentially undecidable disputes. (shrink)

In his book, Kazimierz Gryżenia presents the changes which occurred in modern scholasticism's understanding of analogy, with particular reference to the views of the leading representative of the period, Francisco Suárez. As a representative of the newly established Jesuit order, Suárez was not bound to any previous philosophical tradition and sought to develop a universal system of philosophy. This book acquaints the reader with the complexity of modern scholasticism, and presents Suárez's philosophy as a significant link in the consolidation (...) of essentialist and ontological tendencies. It also poses the question of whether philosophy conceived and practiced in this way contributed to the later resentment towards philosophy as such, especially towards metaphysics. (shrink)

The position of Polish informatics, as well in research as in didactic, has its roots in achievements of Polish mathematicians of Warsaw School and logicians of Lvov-Warsaw School. Jan Lukasiewicz is considered in the world of computer science as the most famous Polish logician. The parenthesis-free notation, invented by him, is known as PN (Polish Notation) and RPN (Reverse Polish Notation). Lukasiewicz created many-valued logic as a separate subject. The idea of multi-valueness is applied to hardware design (many-valued or fuzzy (...) switching, analog computer). Many-valued approach to vague notions and commonsense reasoning is the method of expert systems, databases and knowledge-based systems. Stanis3aw Jaokowski's system of natural deduction is the base of systems of automatic deduction and theorem proving. He created a system of paraconsistent logic. Such logics are used in AI. Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz with his categorial grammar participated in the development of formal grammars, the field significant for programming languages. Andrzej Grzegorczyk had an important contribution to the development of the theory of recursiveness. (shrink)

In the paper some varieties E s n of BCK-algebras with condition defined by W. H. Cornish [1] are considered. A characterization of simple algebras in E s 2 is given and some properties of simple algebras in E s 3 are indicated.

The story of Abraham and Isaac belongs to the plots frequently recurring in the school drama of sixteenth century Europe. Two related texts are related in the article: Theodore de Bčze’s drama with the title Abraham sacrificanl (staged in Lausanne in 1550) and an anonymous Polish text dating from the end of the sixteenth century Ofiarowanie Izaaka [The Sacrifice of Isaac]. Both the dramas begin with the Prologue, heralding the main events of the story. The works share a three-part, biblical (...) structure (Ofiarowanie Izaaka is composed of three acts), the motif of a father’s love for his son, Abraham’s and Sarah’s care for their son, Abraham’s perplexity and finally the ending, where an angel, a pre-figuration of Christ, appears. The main differences lie in the way in which the protagonists have been grouped - the amusing characters of, among others, Achne, the servant, enrich the play with comical, realistic elements. The similarities between the two texts result not only from their chronology, the common repertoire of school theatres, and the cosmopolitan character of school education. The congruence (despite some apparent differences between the staging possibilities of Lausanne and Cracow) confirms a close relationship between Polish Renaissance drama and the culture of Western Europe and emphasizes its creative character in the presentation of Biblical plots, extending beyond the Bible. (shrink)

This paper is a part of a series of lectures on logic delivered by Kazimierz Twardowski in the John Casimir University in Lvov during the first semester of the academic year 1902-1903. This publication of the paper is a hommage to the founder of Lvov-Warsaw School in the centenary of his first lecture in Lvov University.

It is commonly known that the theory of intelligent design is anti-naturalistic. The anti- naturalism of this theory is usually interpreted as a methodological or metaphysical one. In other words, the theory of intelligent design is considered as a kind of creationism (“creationism in a cheap tuxedo”) and is also often named “neo-creationism.” In the paper I am arguing that this qualification is wrong and is implied by assuming an inappropriate sense of the ambiguous term “naturalism”.