THE 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, P.O. Box 17, 3300 AA Dordrecht, The Netherlands. Kluwer Academic Publishers incorporates the publishing programmes of D. Reidel, Martinus Nijhoff, Dr W. Junk and MTP Press. Sold and distributed in the U.S.A. and Canada by Kluwer Academic Publishers, 101 Philip Drive, Norwell, MA 02061, U.S.A. In all other countries, sold and distributed by Kluwer Academic Publishers Group, P.O. Box 322, 3300 AH Dordrecht, The Netherlands. All Rights Reserved © 1989 by Kluwer Academic Publishers Softcover reprint of the hardcover I st edition 1989 No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the copyright owner. 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.