This collection celebrates the centenary of the Lvov-Warsaw school, established by Kazimierz Twardowski in Lvov in 1895. This school belongs to analytic philosophy and successfully worked in all branches of philosophy. The Warsaw school of logic became perhaps the most important part of Twardowski's heritage. Lesniewski, Lukasiewicz and Tarski, leading Polish logicians, achieved results which essentially influenced the development of contemporary logic. A close connection of logic and philosophy was a typical feature of the Lvov-Warsaw school. The papers included in the collection deal with all directions of research undertaken by Polish analytic philosophers. Special attention is paid to logic and comparisons with other philosophical movements, particularly with Brentanism, which was one of the sources of the Lvov-Warsaw school.

Leading authors in their fields present an interdisciplinary panorama of vital themes of the philosophy of language and track their historical origins. This book gives new life to historical ideas and additional depth to current debates.

“The influence of [Kazimierz] Twardowski on modern philosophy in Poland is all-pervasive. Twardowski instilled in his students a passion for clarity [...] and seriousness. He taught them to regard philosophy as a collaborative effort, a matter of disciplined discussion and argument, and he encouraged them to train themselves thoroughly in at least one extra-philosophical discipline and to work together with scientists from other fields, both inside Poland and internationally. This led above all [...] to collaborations with mathematicians, so that the Lvov school of philosophy would gradually evolve into the Warsaw school of logic [...]. Twardowski taught his students, too, to respect and to pursue serious research in the history of philosophy, an aspect of the tradition of philosophy on Polish territory which is illustrated in such disparate works as [Jan] Łukasiewicz’s ground-breaking monograph on the law of non-contradiction in Aristotle and [Władysław] Tatarkiewicz’s highly influential multi-volume histories of philosophy and aesthetics [...] The term ‘Polish philosophy’ is a misnomer [...] for Polish philosophy is philosophy per se; it is part and parcel of the mainstream of world philosophy – simply because [...] it meets international standards of training, rigour, professionalism and specialization.” – Barry Smith (from: “Why Polish Philosophy does Not Exist”)

This is a collection of new investigations and discoveries on the history of a great tradition, the Lvov-Warsaw School of logic and mathematics, by the best specialists from all over the world. The papers range from historical considerations to new philosophical, logical and mathematical developments of this impressive School, including applications to Computer Science, Mathematics, Metalogic, Scientific and Analytic Philosophy, Theory of Models and Linguistics.

This book is a collection of articles authored by renowed Polish ontologists living and working in the early part of the 21st century. Harking back to the well-known Polish Lvov-Warsaw School, founded by Kazimierz Twardowski, we try to make our ontological considerations as systematically rigorous and clear as possible – i.e. to the greatest extent feasible, but also no more than the subject under consideration itself allows for. Hence, the papers presented here do not seek to steer clear of methods of inquiry typical of either the formal or the natural sciences: on the contrary, they use such methods wherever possible. At the same time, despite their adherence to rigorous methods, the Polish ontologists included here do not avoid traditional ontological issues, being inspired as they most certainly are by the great masters of Western philosophy – from Plato and Aristotle, through St. Thomas and Leibniz, to Husserl, to name arguably just the most important.

The volume aims to show the variety of research currents of the Lvov-Warsaw School and the ways in which these currents are developed today. The content of the book is divided into three parts. The first part provides an overview of the logico-semiotical achievements of the Lvov-Warsaw School. It also includes analyses of specific problems: categorial grammar, theory of truth, theory of reasoning and semiotic defects. The second part presents some metaphysical and ontological views of Twardowski, Kotarbiński, Ajdukiewicz, Bocheński and Lejewski. In the third part, specific features of psychological and sociological branches of the Lvov-Warsaw School are discussed. Contributors include: Anna Brożek, Wojciech Buszkowski, Alicja Chybińska, Mariusz Grygianiec, Aleksandra Horecka, Stepan Ivanyk, Jacek Jadacki, Ryszard Kleszcz, Natalia Miklaszewska, Wioletta Miśkiewicz, Teresa Rzepa, Piotr Surma, Jan Woleński, and Marta Zaręba.

Polish Logic 1920-1939