This article interprets Józef Maria Hoëné Wronski’s (1776–1853) use of actual infinities in his mathematical work. The interpretation places this usage, which undermined Wronski’s acceptance as a mathematician, in his contemporary mathematical and philosophical context and in the context of his own sociopolitical-philosophical project.

The Polish philosophy of mathematics in the 19th century is not a well-researched topic. For this period, only five philosophers are usually mentioned, namely Jan Śniadecki, Józef Maria Hoene-Wroński, Henryk Struve, Samuel Dickstein, and Edward Stamm. This limited and incomplete perspective does not allow us to develop a well-balanced picture of the Polish philosophy of mathematics and gauge its influence on 19th- and 20th-century Polish philosophy in general. To somewhat complete our picture of the history of (...) the Polish philosophy of mathematics in those times, we here present the profiles of some lesser-known Polish Romantic philosophers of the 19th century, namely Karol Libelt, Bronisław Trentowski, and Józef Kremer. We discuss their contributions to the philosophy of mathematics and their metaphysical perspectives, and we also show how their metaphysical ideas have found some continuity in the studies of some Catholic philosophers. (shrink)

Comité Hoene-Wronski.--Avertissement.--Discours de J. Lukasiewicz, ambassadeur de Pologne.--Discours de Ed. Bloud, maire de la ville de Neuilly.--Discours de P. Hazard, professeur au Collège de France.--Warrain, F. Hoene-Wronski : l'homme, le philosophe.--Zaleski, Z. L. Une vue sur la vie et l'oeuvre de Wronski.

Jerzy Braun (1901–1975) began as a scout activist, in subsequent years he became known as a politician, poet, prose writer, playwright, screenwriter, literary critic, philosopher, and theologian. In the inter-war years he founded and edited the periodicals Gazeta Literacka [Literary Gazette] and Zet, he also headed the Hoene-Wroński Society which propagated the thought of Józef Maria Hoene-Wroński. Under the Nazi occupation he founded and headed the underground organization Unia grouping Poland’s leading intellectuals. Unia propounded (...) a universalistic program of integrating nations and states whose outlines Braun had laid down before the war. Braun’s unionism theory, in which he strove for a harmonious combination of national and universal ideas, was based on 19th-century concepts developed by, among others, Bronisław Trentowski, August Cieszkowski and, of course, Józef Maria Hoene-Wroński. Imprisoned by the communists after the war, in the 1960s Braun attended the Vaticanum II sessions as an unofficial ecumenism expert. (shrink)

Jerzy Braun (1901–1975) began as a scout activist, in subsequent years he became known as a politician, poet, prose writer, playwright, screenwriter, literary critic, philosopher, and theologian. In the inter-war years he founded and edited the periodicals Gazeta Literacka [Literary Gazette] and Zet, he also headed the Hoene-Wroński Society which propagated the thought of Józef Maria Hoene-Wroński. Under the Nazi occupation he founded and headed the underground organization Unia grouping Poland’s leading intellectuals. Unia propounded (...) a universalistic program of integrating nations and states whose outlines Braun had laid down before the war. Braun’s unionism theory, in which he strove for a harmonious combination of national and universal ideas, was based on 19th-century concepts developed by, among others, Bronisław Trentowski, August Cieszkowski and, of course, Józef Maria Hoene-Wroński. Imprisoned by the communists after the war, in the 1960s Braun attended the Vaticanum II sessions as an unofficial ecumenism expert. (shrink)

Joseph Maria Hoene Wroński, mathematician and philosopher of Slavonic descent, is author of numerous work written in French, which, as he supposed, could have incited a renewal of human knowledge, and could also point the way to better living of humanity.

The work of which this is an English translation appeared originally in French as Precis de logique mathematique. In 1954 Dr. Albert Menne brought out a revised and somewhat enlarged edition in German. In making my translation I have used both editions. For the most part I have followed the original French edition, since I thought there was some advantage in keeping the work as short as possible. However, I have included the more extensive historical notes of Dr. Menne, his (...) bibliography, and the two sections on modal logic and the syntactical categories, which were not in the original. I have endeavored to correct the typo graphical errors that appeared in the original editions and have made a few additions to the bibliography. In making the translation I have profited more than words can tell from the ever-generous help of Fr. Bochenski while he was teaching at the University of Notre Dame during 1955-56. OTTO BIRD Notre Dame, 1959 I GENERAL PRINCIPLES § O. INTRODUCTION 0. 1. Notion and history. Mathematical logic, also called 'logistic', ·symbolic logic', the 'algebra of logic', and, more recently, simply 'formal logic', is the set of logical theories elaborated in the course of the last century with the aid of an artificial notation and a rigorously deductive method. (shrink)

Excerpt from A History of Formal Logic In this edition of the most considerable history Of formal logic yet published, the Opportunity has Of course been taken to make some adjustments seen to be necessary in the original, with the author's full concurrence. Only in 36, however, has the numeration of cited passages been altered owing to the introduction of new matter. Those changes are as follows. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. (...) Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works. (shrink)

The primary goal of this article is to get to the specifics of Zbigniew Herbert’s work. The poet had formal philosophical education and cannot be treated merely as a writer raising existential issues. The consequence of his studies in philosophy with the most eminent Polish philosophers of the time was that he took up important philosophical questions rather than used the answers that philosophers of the past had given. This is an important feature of his poetry and distinguishes Herbert from (...) those writers who subscribed to the worldview of their era. Failure to distinguish between these two stances has led to one-sided readings of his poem To Marcus Aurelius. The interpretations of the last sixty years quoted in the article lead to the conclusion that we are dealing with a kind of “contemporary”, or modified, “stoicism”. Later scholars interpreted the work as existential. A comparison of the poem with the work of Marcus Aurelius, and above all, an analysis of the differences between the ancient and modern understanding of such concepts as “nature”, “fate”, “self”, or “suffering”, allowed us to show the internal intellectualemotional tension in Herbert’s poem, and above all, the general idea of philosophizing poetry. The poet himself believed that it resembles primary reflection, such as that of the early Ionian thinkers. This is not about philosophizing on the basis of an elaborate conceptual apparatus, but about philosophical intuition and “philosophical experience”, an intellectual and emotional tension, in which – thanks to poetic talent – beauty is born. The dialog in To Marcus Aurelius is precisely a record of such poetic agitation. (shrink)

W 2021 roku przypada 700. rocznica śmierci Dantego, jednego z największych twórców literatury światowej. Polska tradycja klasyczna, romantyczna i katolicka przez wieki czerpała pełnymi garściami z jego dzieł, a szczególnie z _Boskiej Komedii. _Dante był bliski wielu pokoleniom naszych przodków, towarzysząc im na kolejnych szczeblach edukacji: gimnazjalnej, licealnej i uniwersyteckiej. Dla uczącej się młodzieży był mentorem i nauczycielem ukazującym naturę ludzką w pełnym jej wymiarze – od bestialstwa po heroizm i świętość. W czasach zamętu, którego obecnie doświadczamy, kiedy nie tylko (...) jednostki i wspólnoty, ale wręcz cała zachodnia cywilizacja znalazły się w „ciemnym lesie” i zostały wydane na łup trzech bestii : pychy, chciwości i pożądliwości, Dante Alighieri pozostaje drogowskazem i natchnieniem dla ludzi podzielających przekonanie, że istnieje prawda obiektywna oraz wartości uniwersalne, które wiążą wszystkich ludzi bez względu na rasę, narodowość i status społeczny. (shrink)

Professor Bochenski, as he himself points out in the prologue, is a logician; he is best known in England and the United States for his work in the history of logic, and more recently in Soviet and East European philosophy. But he has taught philosophy for many years - in Rome, in Switzerland, and on a number of visits to the United States - and in this book provides an elementary introduction to contemporary work in the field. As a means (...) to this end he has chosen to deal with four alternative methods employed by philosophers in the twentieth century. Philosophical methodology has not attracted much attention, in English speaking circles, as a distinct branch of the discipline of philosophy; the term "methodologist", if used at all, would ordinarily be taken to refer to somebody concerned with scientific rather than philosophical method. When, therefore, Professor Bochenski refers, as he frequently does, to "contemporary methodologists", meaning people who debate the re spective merits of phenomenology and mathematical logic as ways of approaching the world, the phrase has an odd ring. But philosophical methodology really makes a great deal more sense than scientific method ology. In science methodology is almost superfluous; given all the avail able information and a reasonably clear idea of what is wanted, there is usually not much ambiguity as to the means of getting it, or not much that could be resolved by mere argument. (shrink)

Jerzy Braun formulated the principles of unionism in forty five points constituting a concise, twenty-four-page manifesto entitled “Unionism. Basic Principles”. The text was published anonymously by a conspiratorial publishing in 1943. After over fifty years, on the initiative of All-Poland Club of Lithuania’s Lovers, it was reprinted—this time with the author’s name and lengthy explanations.My main objective is the analysis and interpretation of Braun’s text.Unionism, according to Braun, does not mean separatism, it is a principle and attitude based on integrating (...) values that deserves definite ethics according to which activity directly derives from “voluntary accepted commitments”. Braun neither questions nor overestimates fight. Unionism means dialogue, agreement, but also this type of rivalry that remains in contradiction to a well-known saying “homo homini lupus est”. Unionism perceived as universalism, allows, according to the words of a romantic poet, “to differ beautifully”.The first part of the unionist principles comprises philosophical considerations inspired with the thought of Józef M. Hoene-Wroński. They constitute an introduction to more specific problems concerning the social and political life in the future Poland. Braun paid a lot of attention to “ideocratic” system in which emphasis moves from “persons, dynasties, reason of state to ideas”. He stressed the importance of economic and cultural dynamism, though economic achievement, in his opinion, should only serve the development of culture. The final parts of the unionist program present the necessity to unify the world in which Poland will find her proper position. (shrink)

In this article I present the concept of human evolution by Hoene- Wroński. I believe that his ideas are still an unexplored resource which can lead us to the better understanding of the evolution of humanity and of our destiny. I follow closely his discussion of human evolution and describe its seven stages. Further, I argue that the case of human evolution is strongly supported by new scientific theories, especially by quantum theory and the novel perspectives that it (...) opens for humankind. I end my article with the conclusion that the insights on human evolution derived from the Hoene-Wroński’s writings and from new scientific theories can guide us to the new politics based on the awareness of human identity that can overcome old divisions among humankind and conflicts derived from them. Ultimately, they can initiate evolutionity – the new evolutionary epoch, which will replace modernity and postmodernity. On. (shrink)

The contributions to this volume explore perceptual and conceptual boundaries between the human and the natural, or between an 'out there' and 'in here.

Rapports fondamentaux.--Développements transcendantaux de la pensée (la loi de création d'après Wronski)--Développements métaphysiques de la réalité (l'armature métaphysique).

The vast majority of studies focusing on alcohol consumption among university students are based on US and Canadian samples and employ a quantitative approach. Universities from the US and Canada also have a longer tradition in implementing alcohol policies. The alcohol policies at universities in Slovakia are mostly non-systematic and often not implemented in practice. The objective of this study was to explore Slovak university students’ experiences towards alcohol policy on their campuses using a qualitative approach. Eight focus group discussions (...) were conducted among university students (n=64; 38 female; 2011; Slovakia). The key questions were (1) “Is there a policy concerning alcohol on your campus and what are the consequences of not complying with it?”, and (2) “How should an on-campus alcohol policy be developed and what should it include?” The students knew of few, if any, rules concerning alcohol. Student participation was considered important in policy development and implementation. Slovak universities should be more active in forming alcohol policies. A preventative policy which actively involves students was emphasized as optimal. (shrink)

Bocheński claims that it would be very useful to apply logical tools to philosophical and theological investigations. His viewpoint can be ascribed to the fact that during Bocheński’s youth logic and reflections on the foundations of mathematics flourished. His seminal work on these issues is the book Gottes Dasein und Wesen. Logische Studien zur Summa Theologiae I, qq. 2–11 (2003). Due to the fact that it was necessary to introduce numerous corrections to it, the book was published over a decade (...) after submitting the manuscript to the publishing house in 1989 (according to certain sources, in 1991). There exist two manuscripts: one German (1989b) and one Polish (1993b). The latter contains also Bocheński’s unpublished works, including the analyses of Question 1 from St. Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae. In this Question, Aquinas focuses on the ways of understanding the term sacra doctrina. Bocheński’s text, which is a logical analysis of that Question, seems to be almost completed. With reference to the topic and the method of analysis, the text constitutes a whole together with the analyses of Questions 2–11, published in Bocheński (2003). (shrink)

J.M. Bocheński together with J. Salamucha, B. Sobociński, and J.F. Drewnowski formed the so-called Cracow Circle in the 30s of the previous century. Its main aim was to utilize contemporary logic in theology and philosophy of God. The first work in this area was Salamucha’s formal analysis of the prima via, published in 1934. The article was reviewed by Bocheński, who provided a number of remarks concerning Salamucha’s analysis. At that time he did not decide to conduct a holistic research (...) into the prima via. That was done by him only at the end of his life as part of the logical analysis of the quinque viae. This paper aims at presenting Bocheński’s unpublished formal analysis of the prima via from 1953 and proving that it constitutes a valuable completion of his published formal analyses, which come from the 1980s and 1990s. Above all, they provide a more insightful analysis of the notion of movement in the prima via, as well as the form of axiom expressing the lack of regress into infinity. In the formalizations of 1953 there are also interesting analyses concerning the ancestral closure of three-argument relations. (shrink)

After 1989, Bocheński published three texts devoted to the direction in which Poland should move. In the first he criticized Miłosz's article "Denominational state?". He claimed that Polish tradition is closer to the medieval rather than the ancient settlement of the relationship between the state and the Church. And so it is the "religious state". In the second article he specified his views on nationality and the denominational state, admitting to the federalist tradition, but also appreciating Dmowski's tradition. In turn, (...) the last publication is "Sketches collected" from 1932-38, which is an attempt to synthesize nationalism and Catholicism. The case of Bocheński is an early example of the dilemma faced by the Polish rightist political and philosophical thought after 1989. (shrink)

Józef Maria Bocheński introduced an important distinction between deontic and epistemic authority. A typical example of epistemic authority is the relation of a teacher to his students; a typical example of deontic authority is the relation between an employer and his employee. The difference between the two lies in domains of authority: declarative sentences make up the domain in the case of epistemic authority, orders—in the domain of deontic authority. In the article, I analyze in detail the concepts (...) of the two kinds of authority and propose some new explications. The concept of epistemic authority is distinguished from the concept of infallibility and expertise; and the concept of deontic authority is distinguished from the concept of sovereign. I interpret various kinds of deontic authority in the light of the theory of imperative sentences. The concepts of gradation and de-gradation of authority are introduced and explicated. (shrink)

The article is devoted to present Polish research on the literary work and philosophical thought of Hryhorii Skovoroda. The scientific reflection on Skovoroda’s legacy was initially carried out on the historical and literary level. It was initiated by Adam Honory Kirkor in 1874. In the context of the history of Ukrainian literature, Józef Tretiak, Ivan Franko and Bohdan Lepkyi presented the general characteristics of Skovoroda’s work, seeing in it only the original style and compilation character of thoughts. Ivan Mirtchuk started (...) his research on Skovoroda’s thoughts from the history of national philosophy, seeing in Skovoroda’s philosophy the features charac- teristic of Ukrainian philosophy, differing it fundamentally from Russian philosophy. As part of the research, it was possible to find an extensive article by Jarosław Ulwański, Philosophy of G.S. Skovoroda, published in 1930, in which the author presented arguments for a pantheistic interpretation of the Ukrainian philosopher’s thoughts. A breakthrough event was the publication of a monograph by Dmytro Tschižewskij, who formulated a view on the mystical philosophy of Skovoroda similar to the Western European mysticism of the 17th and 18th centuries. The interwar period ends with the work of Czesław Jastrzębiec-Kozłowski, in which the work of Skovoroda was analyzed against the background of Józef Hoene-Wronski’s messianic philosophy. After World War II and the 1990s, research on Skovoroda’s legacy was conducted primarily by philologists. Ryszard Łużny and Włodzimierz Mokry treated Skovoroda’s work as a Christian philosopher. In the 21st century, Polish research increasingly refers to philosophical interpretation. Denys Pilipowicz researched the ancient and patristic sources of Skovoroda’s mystical thought and compared it with the teachings of Paisij Velyczkovskyi. Iryna Betko analyzed his poetry from the perspective of Jung’s theory of archetypes. Michał Handzel conducted an in-depth historical and philosophical analysis of Skovoroda’s philosophy, seeing Skovoroda as a representative of the panentheistic trend, and Pavlo Snopkov examined the concept of Skovoroda’s self-knowledge from the perspective of Jung’s and Maslow’s psychological theories. (shrink)

Myśliciele polskiego romantyzmu, tworzący tzw. Filozofię czynu (A. Cieszkowski, B. Trentowski i J. M. Hoene-Wroński), powrócili de facto do koncepcji polityki wypracowanej już przez Arystotelesa, który sądził, że polityka jako część filozofii spełnia dwojakie funkcje: 1) poznawczą, gdy formułuje model doskonałego społeczeństwa, i 2) instrumentalną, gdy podaje wskazówki na temat działalności sprzyjającej utrzymaniu doskonałego ustroju. Myśliciele polscy uświadamiali sobie dobrze zarówno funkcję poznawczą i instrumentalną polityki. B. Trentowski sprecyzował te funkcje dobitnie. Funkcje poznawcze pełni filozofia polityki, która ustala (...) cele polityki. Natomiast funkcje instrumentalne polityki Trentowski rozszerzył i wzbogacił. Wyróżnił bowiem wiedzę o strategii politycznej, która ma określać metody, dzięki którym narody mogą się zbliżać do doskonałego ustroju, oraz cybernetykę jako sztukę politycznego sterowania masami i osiągania skutecznych zmian politycznych. Koncepcja cybernetyki jako umiejętności sterowania sprawami państwowymi stanowi ważny i oryginalny wkład polskiego romantyzmu do filozofii politycznej. (shrink)

A partir du XIXe siècle, les découvreurs des Slaves se sont déclarés pour l'autodétermination des sociétés appartenant à cette région de l'Europe qui était pratiquement condamnée à l'oubli, pour la stimulation de leurs contracts culturels et pour le soutien de leurs efforts de libération nationale. Les Polonais se sont trouvés ainsi en difficulté : ils devaient décider comment concilier la foi en bonté et fraternité slaves avec la haine pour les envahisseurs du même sang, étant donné que cette haine était (...) déjà reconnue comme la condition nécessaire de lutte pour la délivrance du pays. C'est pourqoui ils défendaient la thèse disant que la nation russe est devenue oppresive, parce qu'elle agissait elle-même sous la contrainte des forces ennemies, et qu’elle devrait être libérée a son tour afin de pouvoir faire partie de la communauté slave. Tout en ayant conscience que l'unité slave était menacé (il est à noter que les slavophiles russes formulaient la même crainte, bien qu'ils l'aient justifiée différemment), les Polonais développaient l'idee que la réconciliation historique des peuples polonais et russe était impossible et que c'est l'absolutisme tsariste qui a divisé ces peuples d'un gouffre béant. Et leur vision de la communauté slave devenait moins cohérente au fut et à mesure qu'ils confrontaient la forme d'administration communautaire avec l'autocrate du tsarisme. Dès lors, les slavophiles romantique se déclaraient plutôt pour l'idee de s'allier avec les Français (l'alliance franco-polonaise), telle qu'elle a été proclamée par Mickiewicz et ils prêtaient moins d'attention à des mots sporadiquement lancés par Staszic et Hoene-Wroński en faveur de l'alliance slavo-russe. Ces préférences se sont affermies surtout en présence d'une menace de "déluge panslaviste". Comme la chute de la Révolution de 1848 a rayé les espérances de ceux qui attendaient un soutien matériel de la part de l'Occident, on a reconsidéré une possibilité de concilier les Polonais avec le peuple russe, cette fois-ci par la voie de conquête spirituelle de ce dernier. Mais en définitive, on a reconnu l'irréel de cette solution, tout en ayant égard à un partage culturelle existant a l'intérieur de la communauté slave et à différence des traditions polotique et religieuse. Ce qui a résisté cependant aux oustrages du temps, c'est la volonté d'instraurer le peuple polonais en tant que "avant-poste européen de la communauté slave" au nom de la lutte contre la scission propre a l'idéologie de slavophiles. (shrink)

Late in life, Józef Maria Bocheński set out to examine the age-old preoccupation with the question “how to live as well and as long as possible?” A traditional answer has been, “live wisely.” In his Handbook of Worldly Wisdom (2020), Bocheński analyzes this answer arguing that, conceptually, living wisely is distinct from obeying moral commandments, prescribing ethical rules, and recognizing authority (e.g., piety, free submission to divine authority). He claims that ethics consists solely in what moral philosophers label (...) as “metaethics” — a theoretical discipline interested in the conceptual status of moral discourse qua discourse. However, Bocheński remains silent about a substantive ethics — that is, how a life led one way or another subscribes to some guiding value-set. As regards wisdom, therefore, the consequence of this position is that Bocheński’s account is ethically neutral. I argue that such a position entails a tension and dichotomy between, on the one hand, prudential rationality concerned with getting on in the moment — that is, wisdom — and, on the other hand, unconditional moral commandments. For his part, Bocheński does not recommend living according to wisdom’s precepts as he analyses them; his own path through life, he tells us, has been a commitment to Christian values, piety abetted by observance of moral commandments, a perspective that, I submit, is not ethically neutral: on the contrary, it entails thick, substantive value-choice. Bocheński’s avowal suggests a second dichotomy and tension, that between the worldly conduct of life, with moderate acknowledgment of moral principles, and an extra-worldly perspective (the “folly of the Cross”). Bocheński does not attempt to resolve either dichotomy, to seek a possible point of their convergence and integration, for instance by inquiring into moral psychology (i.e., the construction of self, the nature of the will, etc.). I believe that this set of views stems from conclusions Bocheński reached in advance of producing the Handbook that bear on, first, how philosophy should be conducted — as logical analysis hostile to grandiloquent speculation and synthesis (“worldviews”); and second, his utter dismissal as nefarious of anthropocentric views. Indeed, Bocheński asserts, without a blush, that almost everything “we” have come to believe about ourselves is superstition writ large. I trace what I consider to be difficulties with Bocheński’s account of wisdom — in relation to his take on morality, (meta-)ethics, and piety — to these idiosyncratic views. (shrink)

The aim of this book is to present and analyze philosophical conceptions concerning mathematics and logic as formulated by Polish logicians, mathematicians and philosophers in the 1920s and 1930s. It was a remarkable period in the history of Polish science, in particular in the history of Polish logic and mathematics. Therefore, it is justified to ask whether and to what extent the development of logic and mathematics was accompanied by a philosophical reflection. We try to answer those questions by analyzing (...) both works of Polish logicians and mathematicians who have a philosophical temperament as well as their research practice. Works and philosophical views of the following Polish scientists will be analyzed: Wacław Sierpiński, Zygmunt Janiszewski, Stefan Mazurkiewicz, Stefan Banach Hugo Steinhaus, Eustachy Żylińsk and Leon Chwistek, Jan Łukasiewicz, Zygmunt Zawirski, Stanisław Leśniewski, Tadeusz Kotarbiński, Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz, Alfred Tarski, Andrzej Mostowski and Henryk Mehlberg, Jan Sleszyński, Stanisław Zaremba and Witold Wilkosz. To indicate the background of scientists being active in the 1920s and 1930s we consider in Chapter 1 some predecessors, in particular: Jan Śniadecki, Józef Maria Hoene-Wroński, Samuel Dickstein and Edward Stamm. (shrink)

Unless you live in the world of theatre or film or politics or sport, you rarely get to meet people whom you can truly describe as “larger than life”. Academia has more than its fair share of boring people: being clever does not mean being interesting. But one academic I met on several occasions before he died was definitely larger than life, and he was Polish. He was Father Józef Maria Bocheński.

The paper is devoted to the presentation and analysis of the philosophical views concerning logic and mathematics of the leading members of Cracow Circle, i.e., of Jan Salamucha, Jan Franciszek Drewnowski and Józef Maria Bocheński. Their views on the problem of possible applicability of logical tools in metaphysical and theological researches is also discussed.

The author attempts to answer, by describing the phenomena involved, the question as to whether nationalist ideals constitute a real threat to liberal democracy and whether, despite the popularity of nationalism, it is possible to create a post national, multicultural and cosmopolitically liberal world? Disputes around the concept of nationalism are set out, as exemplified by the views of Jacek Woroniecki and Jozef Maria Bocheński.

The article is devoted to the political philosophy of Father Jozef Maria Bochenski. One of Poland’s best-known Polish philosophers and logicians of the twentieth century, he represented the Thomistic, and later, the analytic tradition. His concept of totalitarianism is first presented on the ontological level and then in the context of the theory of ideology and Weltanschauung, worldview, which he rigorously distinguished from scientific philosophy. Finally, his thinking on the topic is set out as a subject of Sovietological studies, (...) an interdisciplinary branch of scholarship examining communism as an ideology and as an organisation. (shrink)

Edward Nieznański developed two logical systems to deal with the problem of evil and to refute religious determinism. However, when formalized in first-order modal logic, two axioms of each system contradict one another, revealing that there is an underlying minimal set of axioms enough to settle the questions. In this article, we develop this minimal system, called N3, which is based on Nieznański’s contribution. The purpose of N3 is to solve the logical problem of evil through the defeat of a (...) version of religious determinism. On the one hand, these questions are also addressed by Nieznański’s systems, but, on the other hand, they are obtained in N3 with fewer assumptions. Our approach can be considered a case of logic of religion, that is, of logic applied to religious discourse, as proposed by Józef Maria Bocheński; in this particular case, it is a discourse in theodicy, which is situated in the context of the philosophy of religion. (shrink)

Artykuł poświęcony jest charakterystyce kulturowego tła manifestu koła krakowskiego i jego zespołu, który stanowili: Józef Maria Bocheński OP, Jan Franciszek Drewnowski, ks. Jan Salamucha oraz Bolesław Sobociński, i który był wspierany przez Jana Łukasiewicza i ks. Konstantego Michalskiego. Manifestem koła była aplikacja programu szkoły lwowsko-warszawskiej do katolickiej teologii i filozofii. W tym przedsięwzięciu szczególną rolę odegrała Łukasiewicza wersja programu. Do zastosowanych środków należały: odnowienie języka tak, aby spełniał on wszystkie warunki właściwego dyskursu naukowego, recepcja logiki matematycznej, uwspółcześnienie semiotyki (...) i metodologii oraz wykorzystanie metod formalnych. Analizowane są cztery grupy okoliczności będące środowiskiem koła krakowskiego: esprit de l’époque, sytuacja w filozofii, sytuacja w logice i sytuacja w teologii – na początku XX wieku – w bezpośrednim związku z decydującymi działaniami czterech założycieli koła. (shrink)

Celem artykułu jest pokazanie możliwości zastosowania J.M. Bocheńskiego koncepcji zabobonu filozoficznego (pogląd fałszywy stwarzający pozory prawdziwości) w analizie etycznych ocen i argumentacji. Dla osiągnięcia tego celu koncepcja Bocheńskiego jest najpierw omówiona, następnie wskazane są cechy myślenia etycznego sprzyjające jego podatności na zabobony filozoficzne oraz podjęty jest problem możliwości rozpoznawania i ograniczania zabobonów w refleksji nad moralnością.

The first part of the article contains a logical reconstruction and a methodological analysis of some aspects of the famous Władysław Witiwcki’s work “Faith of Enlightened”. In particular, the classifications of believers and the principles of these classifications are analyzed; methodological errors committed by Witwicki are indicated. In the second part of the text, Witwicki's distinctions are illustrated by attitudes towards God and faith represented by four representatives of the Lvov-Warsaw School: Kazimierz Twardowski, Jan Łukasiewicz, Tadeusz Kotarbiński, and Józef (...) Maria Bocheński. (shrink)

In recent years, the issue of the determinants of human gender identity has been lively discussed. In such discussions, there are numerous supporters of the belief that a person’s gender identity does not depend directly on a given individual’s biological endowment with sex, but is the result of various socio-cultural circumstances in which a given person lives. This view began to gain popularity in the scientific community in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It is now considered paradigmatic in the (...) rapidly evolving interdisciplinary study of cultural gender development, which is commonly referred to as gender studies. Representatives of gender studies often present the findings obtained in the course of their research as brilliant and modern. However, when viewed through the concept of philosophical superstition, authored by the Polish logician Józef Maria Bocheński, it can be concluded that the proponents of gender studies significantly exaggerate the intellectual momentum of their conclusions and postulates. Furthermore, one can even say that according to Bocheński’s concept of philosophical superstition, gender studies is a discipline which only creates a semblance of rationality. This is because gender studies fail all six criteria which, as Bocheński maintains, distinguish beliefs, views, and theories which are manifestly irrational from those which are not philosophical superstitions. The article consists of three parts. In the first part, Bocheński’s concept of philosophical superstition is discussed and, in particular, the criteria are outlined which, in Bocheński’s opinion, allow one to identify philosophically superstitious thinking. This section also provides examples of philosophically superstitious beliefs, views and theories that fall under each of the criteria. In the second part, gender studies are characterized in terms of the basic assumptions adopted within this trend, as well as its theses and postulates. The third part of the article is devoted to the assessment of gender studies with the use of criteria which, according to Bocheński, make it possible to distinguish theories, beliefs and views without the hallmarks of rationality from those that are not philosophically superstitious. (shrink)