Table Of ContentTHE VIENNA CIRCLE AND THE LVOV-WARSAW SCHOOL
Nijhoff International Philosophy Series
VOLUME 38
General Editor: JAN T.J. SRZEDNICKI
Editor jor volumes on Applying Philosophy: LYNNE M. BROUGHTON
Editor jar volumes on Logic and Applying Logic: ST AN ISLA W J. SURMA
Editor jor volumes on Contributions to Philosophy: JAN T.J. SRZEDNICKI
Assistant to the General Editor: DAVID WOOD
Editorial Advisory Board:
R.M. Chisholm, Brown University, Rhode Island. Mats Furberg, Goteborg
University. D.A.T. Gasking, University of Melbourne. H.L.A. Hart, University
College, Oxford. S. Korner, University of Bristol and Yale University.
H.J. McCloskey, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Melbourne. J. Passmore,
Australian National University, Canberra. A. Quinton, Trinity College, Oxford.
Nathan Rotenstreich, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Franco Spisani,
Centro Superiore di Logica e Scienze Comparate, Bologna. R. Ziedins, Waikato
University, New Zealand.
For a list of volumes in this series see final page of this volume.
Klemens Szaniawski
Institute of Philosophy,
Warsaw University, Poland
The Vienna Circle and
the Lvov-Warsaw School
KLUWER ACADEMIC PUBLISHERS
DORDRECHT / BOSTON / LONDON
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
The Vienna circle and the Lvov-Warsaw school/edited by Klemens
Szan 1 awsk I.
p. cm. -- (N1Jhoff Internatlonal phi losophy series)
Includes lndex.
1. Vienna clrcle--Congresses. 2. Lvov-Warsaw school of
phllosophy--Congresses. I. Szanlawskl. Klemens. II. Series.
6824.S.V54 1988
146' .42--dc19 88-28343
CIP
ISBN-13: 978-94-010-7773-6 e-ISBN-13: 978-94-009-2829-9
DOl: 10.1007/978-94-009-2829-9
Published by Kluwer Academic Publishers,
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All Rights Reserved
© 1989 by Kluwer Academic Publishers
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Table of Contents
Foreword by Klemens Szaniawski vii
Mogens Blegvad
VIENNA, WARSAW,COPENHAGEN
J6zej M. Bochenski
THE CRACOW CIRCLE 9
Barry Smith
AUSTRIAN ORIGINS OF LOGICAL POSITIVISM 19
Marian Przelecki
THE APPROACH TO METAPHYSICS IN THE LVOV-W ARSAW SCHOOL 55
Guido Kung
AJDUKIEWICZ'S CONTRIBUTION TO THE REALISM/IDEALISM
DEBATE 67
Witold Marciszewski
TOWARDS UNNERSAL GRAMMARS
CARNAP's AND AJDUKIEWICZ' CONTRIBUTIONS 87
Wojciech Buszkowski
PRINCIPLES OF CA1EGORIAL GRAMMAR
IN THE LIGHT OF CURRENT FORMALISMS 113
W.Haas
ON 'CAT EGORIAL GRAMMAR' 139
Gerhard Zecha
META-ETHICS: CONTRIBUTIONS FROM VIENNA AND WARSAW 165
vi
Jacek Ho16wka
THE PROJECT TO CREATE AN EMPIRICAL ETHICAL THEORY 191
Desmond Paul Henry
MEREOLOGY AND METAPHYSICS:
FROM BOETHIUS OF DACIA TO LESNIEWSKI 203
Paul Weingartner
DEFINITIONS IN RUSSELL, IN THE VIENNA CIRCLE
AND IN THE L VOV -WARSAW SCHOOL 225
Peter Simons
LUKASIEWICZ, MEINONG, AND MANY -VALUED LOGIC 249
Kazimierz Trzesicki
LUKASIEWICZIAN LOGIC OF TENSES
AND THE PROBLEM OF DETERMINISM 293
Barry Smith
KASIMIR TWARDOWSKI:
AN ESSAY ON THE BORDERLINES OF ONTOLOGY,
PSYCHOLOGY AND LOGIC 313
LeszekNowak
SOME REMARKS ON THE PLACE OF LOGICAL EMPIRICISM
IN 20TH CENTURY PHILOSOPHY 375
Jan Wolenski and Peter Simons
DE VERIT ATE:
AUSTRO-POLISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE THEORY OF TRUTH
FROM BRENTANO TO TARSKI 391
Jan Wolenski
THE LVOV-WARSAW SCHOOL AND THE VIENNA CIRCLE 443
Index 455
Foreword
This book grew out of an international symposium, organized
in September 1986 by the Austrian Cultural Institute in Warsaw in
cooperation with the Polish Philosophical Society. The topic was:
The Vienna Circle and the Lvov-Warsaw School. Since the two phil
osophical trends existed in roughly the same time and were close
ly related, it was one of the purposes of the symposium to
investigate both similarities and thp differences.
Some thirty people took part in the symposium, nearly twenty
contributions were presented and extensively discussed. The sym
posium owed much to the excellent organization and warm hospital
ity shown by Dr Georg Jankovic, the Director of the Austrian In
stitute. As the person in charge of the scientific programme of
the symposium, I take pleasure to acknowledge this debt.
It so happened that a month later another symposium of a
similar character was held. It took place in the University of
Manchester, on the occasion of the centenary of the births of
Stanislaw Lesniewski, Tadeusz Kotarbiflski and Wladyslaw Tatarkie
wicz. Some papers read at the Manchester symposium form a part of
the present volume.
It was not possible, for technical reasons (the time factor
was one of them), to include in this book all the material from
the two symposia. Certain contributions have appeared elsewhere
(for instance, K. Szaniawski's 'Ajdukiewicz on Non-Deductive
Inference' was published in Danish Yearbook of Philosophy, Vol.
23). On the other hand, certain papers have been written special
ly for this volume.
A terminological explanation seems to be in order. The Vien
na Circle was known under this name at the time of its existence.
The philosophers who formed the group were conscious of pursuing
a common goal. No such esprit de corps existed in the case of the
Polish philosophers. The name itself, the Lvov-Warsaw School,
vii
viii
come into use considerably later and is still not generally
known. H. Skolimowski, in his book published in 1967, speaks of
'Polish Analytical Philosophy' instead.
The lack of commonly accepted name is symptomatic of the
fact that philosophers like I:.ukasiewicz, Kotarbinski, Ajdukie
wicz, Lesniewski, worked individually, bound together no so much
by the identity of philosophical views as by their attitude
towards philosophical problems, by their 'intellectual style'.
This, in turn, may be attributed to their having a common
'ancestor', in the person of Kazimierz Twardowski whose seminar
at the University in Lvov they all attended in the years preced
ing the First World War.
I am mentioning these facts in order to explain and justify
the use of the expression 'the Lvov-Warsaw School'. The recent
monograph by Jan Wolenski (its English edition is about to appear
under this title) testifies to the fact that the expression is
coming into general use.
The reader of the present book will find in it enough ma
teria to form the idea what Twardowski's influence consisted in.
Here, I will limit the description to two features of the school
he initiated. Twardowski advocated 'semantic self-consciousness'
of philosophy, based on a thorough inquiry into the meaning of
philosophical terminology. He strongly opposed irresponsible
speculation, juggling with abstract terms that had dubious rela
tion to reality. This tendency found different forms of express
ion in the writings of Twardowski's disciples, but it certainly
constitutes one of the basic traits of the Lvov-Warsaw philos
ophy. I am stressing this fact, because here the essential simi-
1arity with the Vienna Circle style of philosophizing is to be
found.
The second special trait of the Lvov-Warsaw School was its
emphasis on the use of modern logical tools. The development of
philosophical thinking ran parallel with the development of
logic, with many connections between them that worked both ways:
modern logic made it possible to tackle old philosophical prob
lems in a new way, while philosophical questions, suitably refor
mulated, inspired important results in logic. In some cases
(I:.ukasiewicz, Tarski, Ajdukiewicz) we can speak of 'personal
union' between philosophy and logic; it is sometimes difficult to
determine which of the two diSCiplines dominates in the writings
of a member of the Lvov-Warsaw School. I am mentioning this in
order to explain the special role of logic as the subject of the
essays collected in the present volume.
ix
No comparable comment is needed in the case of the Vienna
Circle, since the programme of this group of philosophers is much
better known.
In the post-war period, the views of logical empiricists
came under heavy fire. Not a little of this criticism is due to
the philosophers of the Vienna Circle themselves who realized the
untenability of certain, too radical elements of their programme.
It seems that after half a century that separates us from the
'Sturm und Orang Periode' of logical empiricism the time has come
for a more sober reassessment of the achievements and shortcom
ings of this philosophy. The renewed interest in the positivistic
tendency in Austrian and Polish philosophy of the twenties and
thirties is a phenomenon easy enough to observe. It is to be
hoped that the present volume will meet this interest and provide
a basis for further research.
Klemens Szaniawski
MOGENS BLEGVAD
VIENNA, WARSAW, COPENHAGEN
As you all know, the Vienna Circle called the international
gatherings which it organized, as its influence extended beyond
its home city, "Congresses for the Unity of Science" ("Kongresse
fUr Einheitswissenschaft").. The second of these (so-called) took
place in Copenhagen in June 1936, a little more than 50 years
ago. I say 'so-called', because it really was the fifth, meetings
(called "Tagungen ftir Erkenntnislehre der exakten Wissenschaf
ten") having been held in Prague 1929 and in Konigsberg 1930, and
a "Vorkonferenz" held in Prague 1934. The l~tter was attended by
a number of Poles, as was the case two years later in Copenhagen.
There is no doubt that already in the middle thirties the
logical-positivist movement and the Lv ov-Warsaw school felt a
strong affinity to each other. I remember that on the excursion
to Elsinore arranged on June 23rd in connection with the
Copenhagen congress I found myself in a bus surrounded by people
talking to each other in a language completely incomprehensible
to me as, to my great regret, it still is today. Among the Poles
in the bus one attracted my attention by his impressive moustache
and another by her beauty the then 37 years old Janina
Hosiasson, who, I was sorry to be told later, did not survive the
war. By the way, it was at the dinner at Elsinore that Philipp
Frank announced the shocking news of the assassination of Moritz
Schlick on the same day. Naturally this diminished our enjoyment
of the beautiful midsummer eve with its bonfires and fireworks
along the Sound.
That I was allowed to participate in the Congress although
only a beginner in philosophy was due to the need for help in the
congress office. The office was led by Mrs. Krista J/lJrgensen
whose husband. .. professor J/lJrgen J/lJrgensen was secretary general of
the congress together with Otto Neurath. J/lJrgensen, whom I
succeeded in the chair at the University of Copenhagen in 1964,
had attended the preceding congresses in Prague and Paris and was
considered a member of the logical-positivist movement, although,
1
K. Szaniawski (ed.), The Vienna Circle and the Lvov-Warsaw School, 1-8.
e 1989 by Kluwer Academic Publishers.
