Main headings: Introduction: Philosophy and precision. - Part I. Being and essence. - Part II. Truth and nonsense. - Part III. Understanding and silence. - Conclusion: Science and creation.

The Lvov-Warsaw School was one of the most important currents in the 20th-century analytical movement. Kazimierz Twardowski, a student Franz Brentano and a professor of philosophy in Lvov, was the founder and at the same time an outstanding representative of the School. The papers included into the volume present comprehensively Twardowski’s views and indicate what his lasting contribution to philosophy consists of.

The book is comprised of three components. The first component analyses the creative contribution to the theory of imperatives and norms provided by 20th-century Polish researchers. The second component summarizes their reflections and considerations. The third component is an anthology of the classic writings of Polish authors of the time; it constitutes an illustration of the first part and indicates that their research covered practically the whole scope of this theory. Author Jacek Jadacki (born 1946) is professor at Warsaw University. (...) His scholarly production includes approximately hundred works spanning almost every domain in philosophy: from logic, through ontology, epistemology, aesthetics and ethics, to the history of these disciplines. Among his more than twenty books are Possible Ontologies (with Zdzislaw Augustynek; 1993), From the Viewpoint of the Lvov-Warsaw School (2003), and Polish Analytical Philosophy (2009). His pupils include such well-known figures of modern Polish thought as Anna Brozek, Mariusz Grygianiec, Joanna Odrowaz-Sypniewska, and Mieszko Talasiewicz. (shrink)

Punktem wyjścia rozważań są cztery hipotezy: dwie leksykalne, gramatyczna i historyczna: 1. Wyrażenie „rozumieć" jest polisemem i to podwójnie: a) wieloznacznością właściwą wielu predykatom mentalnym (tj. może mieć w szczególności sens aktualny, habitualny, sekwencyjny lub procesualny); b) wieloznacznością swoistą (tj. może w szczególności mieć sens intuicyjny, identyfikacyjny, indulgencyjny lub inskrypcyjny). 2. Wyrażenie „rozumieć” w sensie identyfikacyjnym występuje w kontekstach eliptycznych (może mieć wówczas sens esencjalny, strukturalny, funkcjonalny, kauzalny, kategorialny lub konceptualny). 3. Wszelkie (niemetaforyczne) konteksty i derywaty wyrażenia „rozumieć" dadzą się (...) sparafrazować za pomocą wprowadzonych rozróżnień. 4. Różnice zdań w sprawie rozumienia albo biorą się z pomieszania znaczeń, albo są empirycznie testowalne. Przedstawione hipotezy pozwalają usunąć nieporozumienia, dotyczące kolejno: argumentów relacji rozumienia, kategorii semantycznej „rozumienia", relacji między poszczególnymi pojęciami „rozumienia" oraz. między rozumieniem a innymi funkcjami mentalnymi, warunkami poprawności definicji „rozumienia konceptualnego", na koniec kryteriów kompetencji językowej. (shrink)

The kernel of this volume is an English translation of Jan Łukasiewicz’s classic work on the concept of cause. It is the starting point for analytical considerations on causality of two generations of philosophers belonging to the tradition of the Lvov-Warsaw School.

The paper depicts the philosophical views of F. Bochwic (1799-1856) which are as follows: ontology, anthropology, epistemology, ethics, and education. The world, according to Bochwic, was created by God (creationism) and is divided into two spheres: spiritual and carnal (ontological dualism). The factor that unites them is man. His purpose, as a free creature, is his tendency to perfection. The sources of human knowledge are the following: unreliable senses and reliable conscience (intuitionism). Conscience is the source of our presentiments with (...) regard to: the existence of God, immortality of the soul, God\'s justice, and moral orders obligatory for all people (axiological absolutism): the order to make good and avoid evil, the order to love oneself and the neighbour, and the order to obey one\'s parents and superiors. The philosophical views of Bochwic lay at the grounds of his educational doctrine. According to it, education should instil civil virtues in adolescents and be versatile, balanced, varied, imitative, kind, and permanent. (shrink)

After recalling the fact that many Polish philosophers participated in national insurgences of the 18th and 19th centuries, the paper presents the philosophical standpoint held by representatives of the lost generation of Professor Władysław Tatarkiewicz’s pupils, killed during the Warsaw Uprising of 1944. The main features of this standpoint were: optimism, realism, creativism, and, first of all, patriotism.

Academic ethos is a set of norms that are binding for a scholar as such. (1) A scholar should especially take up useful research, do it guardedly (so without infringing higher values), formulating well asked questions, using effective methods of searching for true and sufficiently justified answers to those questions — and expressing the research results in an exact, adjusted to the object of the research, simple, forcible, concise and beautiful language. (2) A scholar should undertake vital, i.e. new, fundamental, (...) creative and difficult research. (3) Conducting research should be accompanied by passion, concentration, reliability, imagination, and self-criticism. 4) A scholar should be a guide,minder and supervisor for his pupils and co-workers. (5) A Catholic scholar should also be expected to behave in a morally impeccable way, and if he does not meet this expectation, at least he should feel ashamed of it. (shrink)