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Kazimierz Twardowski |
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This article appears courtesy of Axiomathes (RTF file (33 Kb), click on the icon  ) |
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This article appears courtesy of Axiomathes (RTF file (128 Kb), click on the icon ) |
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This article appears courtesy of Axiomathes |
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The role of Twardowski
in Polish philosophy can be compared to that of G.E. Moore in
20th-century English philosophy by virtue of his having been the
founder of a national tradition of thought endowed with originality
and accorded international recognition - the so-called Lvov-Warsaw
School.
His thought was inspired by the teaching of Franciszek
Brentano 
,
under whose guidance he wrote his dissertations. Due to the research
he carried out during his stay in Vienna, he is in particular
considered by many to be a sort of trait d'union between
the so-called Austrian School and the different factions of Brentanists
and, to a certain extent, the phenomenology of Husserl 
.
Inspired by Aristotle, the Scholastics and in particular Brentano,
Twardowski clarified the distinction the latter made between the
act and the content of a psychological phenomenon, stating that
the term representation was at times taken to mean the act of
representation, i.e. the activity of representing, and at others
what is represented in such an act, i.e. the contents of representation.
He went on to assert that the "contents" of representation
can be two quite different things: (a) an object as the immanent
content of a representation; and (b) "an object towards which
our representing, so to speak, addresses itself". In this
way he makes a triple distinction between the act, content
and object of representation, which is usually seen as
his most significant contribution to the Brentanist tradition
and a sort of "intermediate stage" between Brentano
and Husserl.
After settling in Lvov 
,
Twardowski progressively abandoned the psychologism he had previously
shared with Brentano. The results of this process are clear in
his 1898 essay "Wyobrazenia i Pojecia" (Presentation
and Concept) in which he criticised Hume's doctrine which tended
to reduce ideas to a simple re-elaboration of impressions (inner
or outer), preferring to conceive of them as an entity in themselves,
the fruit of an original act of synthesis.
Two other themes Twardowski always insisted on were the demand
for a clear, unambiguous philosophical style and criticism of
the way in which the problem of metaphysics was treated. The former,
which was to remain a feature common to all the philosophers of
the Lvov-Warsaw School, led Twardowski to focus on the syntactic,
semantic and pragmatic perfection of language. He therefore viewed
the method of semiotic analysis as the "fundamental method
of philosophy", but did not lose sight of the instrumental
nature of language as a means with which to objectivise and communicate
our judgements on the world.
As far as metaphysics is concerned, although Twardowski was more
diffident than Brentano towards systems that claimed to have the
last word concerning reality, he did not take a completely dismissive
standpoint. This was not only because he thought there was a possibility
of solving metaphysical problems scientifically, but also because
he was convinced that metaphysical concepts were not simply non-scientific
but often of a pre-scientific nature, in the sense that they at
times contained truths that could be scientifically proved only
by being incorporated in a particular scientific discipline. From
this point of view there is a continuous exchange between metaphysical
concepts and specific sciences.
Finally, the sensitivity he had inherited from Brentano towards
certain themes of Aristotelian philosophy and medieval Scholasticism
is reflected in Twardowski's realistic, objective attitude which
favoured the theory of truth as correspondence. Although he did
not express any particularly original concepts on the topic, they
were important in the development of the concept of truth of the
Lvov-Warsaw School. The school he founded was, in fact, generally
characterised by acceptance of ontological realism, objectivism
and the theory of absolute correspondence. It also shared Twardowski's
positive evaluation of philosophy as "the science of science"
and thus the attempt not so much to "dissolve" metaphysical
problems by the logical analysis of language ( which was to be
typical of the syntactic trend represented in the Vienna School
by Carnap) but to "solve" them by recourse to scientific
criteria, applying the instruments of logic to the purpose. Here
again Twardowski was no extremist: whereas on the one hand he
rejected Neo-Positivist minimalism and ideological maximalism
in favour of a moderate Aristotelianism, on the other he also
rejected the formalistic excesses to be found in the works of
his pupil Lukasiewicz
.
This moderation can therefore be said to be the origin of a school
that was pluralistic and at the same time unified in its basic
features.
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Born in Vienna, Twardowski's main teacher at
the University of the Austro-Hungarian capital was Franciszek
Brentano (whose pupils also included A. Meinong and E. Husserl ). In Vienna Twardowski
took a doctorate in philosophy in 1891 with a dissertation on
Descartes (under the supervision of R. Zimmerman) and also pursued
studies in classical philology, mathematics and physics, in a
richly stimulating intellectual environment that was later to
give birth to the Vienna Circle. After his habilitation
in 1894 with a dissertation that is remembered as his main contribution
to philosophy, he was appointed Professor of Philosophy at the
University of Lvov 
in 1895, where
he remained in various capacities for 35 years. In Lvov, taking
a critical stand towards both philosophy as cultivated at the
University and the general level of culture in Galicia 
as a whole,
Twardowski started a fruitful activity as a teacher and organiser
of culture, launching a programme of philosophical training for
the younger generations in the right way to practise philosophy.
A source of inspiration to a whole new generation of scholars
and philosophers, his organising activity above all bore fruit
in the re-organisation of the University of Lvov and its library
and also in the creation of various cultural institutions, many
of which survived him and are still operating today. He was the
main promoter of the foundation, in 1897, of the first Polish
Philosophical Seminary (which he originally directed together
with Aleksander Skorski); in 1901 of the Polish Society of Experimental
Psychology, and in 1904 of the Polish Philosophical Society, which
is still active. In addition he encouraged and supported Wladislaw Veryho in founding the first Polish philosophical journal,
Przeglad Filozoficzny, and shortly afterwards, in 1911,
he himself promoted the publication of Ruch Filkozoficzny,
a journal of a bibliographical nature that provided Polish scholars
with information about developments in world philosophy.
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,
n. 50), Rodopi, 1997, pp. 9-17.
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, "Kazimierz Twardowski
as a teacher", Studia Philosophica 1939-1946, vol. III,
1948, pp.11-17
, "The scientific activity
of Kazimierz Twardowski", Studia Philosophica 1939-1946,
vol. III, 1948, pp.17-30.
, "Francois Brentano
et la pensée philosophique en Pologne: Casimir Twardowski
et son école", Grazer Philos. Studien, 5, 1978, pp.117-29
,
n. 28), pp.11-40.
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Correspondence, Unpublished
Papers from Kazimierz Twardowski Archives in Warsaw and Other
Links
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Philosophers Page