Polish philosopher (1866?1938)
Kazimierz Jerzy Skrzypna-Twardowski
(20 October 1866 ? 11 February 1938) was a Polish
philosopher
,
psychologist
,
logician
, and
rector
of the
Lwow University
. He was initially affiliated with
Alexius Meinong
's
Graz School
of
object theory
.
[1]
Academic career
[
edit
]
Twardowski's family belonged to the
Ogo?czyk coat of arms
.
Twardowski studied
philosophy
at the
University of Vienna
with
Franz Brentano
and
Robert von Zimmermann
. In 1891 he received his
doctorate
with his dissertation,
Idee und Perzeption
(
Idea and Perception
).
In 1894 Twardowski published a book, entitled
Zur Lehre vom Inhalt und Gegenstand der Vorstellungen, Eine psychologische Untersuchung
(
On the Doctrine of the Content and Object of Presentations
). The book was written between 1891 and 1893, although excerpts of the book were republished under the title
On the Content and Object of Representations
, which is an early text on
semiotics
.
[9]
Twardowski originated many novel ideas related to
metaphilosophy
.
[1]
He lectured at the University of Vienna in the years 1894 and 1895.
In 1895 was appointed professor at Lwow (
Lemberg
in
Austrian Galicia
, now
Lviv
in the
Ukraine
). An outstanding
lecturer
, he was also a rector of the Lwow University during World War I.
There Twardowski soon established the
Lwow?Warsaw school of logic
and became the "father of Polish logic".
[11]
Among his students were the logicians
Stanisław Le?niewski
,
Jan Łukasiewicz
and
Tadeusz Cze?owski
, the psychologist
Władysław Witwicki
, the historian of
philosophy
Władysław Tatarkiewicz
, the
phenomenologist
and
aesthetician
Roman Ingarden
, as well as philosophers close to the
Vienna Circle
such as
Tadeusz Kotarbi?ski
and
Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz
.
Twardowski also established the
Polish Philosophical Society
in 1904, the first laboratory of experimental psychology in Poland in 1907, and the journal
Ruch Filozoficzny
in 1911.
[1]
He officially retired in 1930.
[1]
Work
[
edit
]
In his 1894 book
On the Content and Object of Presentations
(also known as
On the Doctrine of the Content and Object of Presentations
), Twardowski argues for a distinction between
content
and
object
in the frame of the
theory of intentionality
of his teacher
Franz Brentano
. According to him the
mind
is divided in two main areas:
acts
or
mental phenomena
, and a
physical phenomenon
. For example, an act of
mental representation
is aimed at a presentation. This is what he called ‘intentionality’, aboutness. Every act is about something, but also every presentation goes together with an act of presentation.
This theory suffers from the problem that it is not clear what the presentation exactly is. Is the presentation something only in the mind, or is it also in the world as object? Twardowski says that sometimes presentation is used for the object in the world and sometimes for the immanent content of a mental phenomenon.
[12]
Twardowski offers a solution for this problem and proposes to make a distinction between the content of a presentation and the object of a presentation.
In his book Twardowski offers an analogy to clarify this distinction. He uses the example of a
painting
.
[13]
People say of a
landscape
that it is painted, but also of a painting that it is painted. In the first case the word ‘painting’ is used in a modifying way (a painted landscape is not a landscape at all), while in the latter case the word painting is used in a qualitative or attributive way. Twardowski argues that presentations are similar. The content is the painted painting and the object is the painted landscape. The content resembles the present ‘picture’ in one's mind, and the object the landscape.
Bibliography
[
edit
]
Works in German and Polish
[
edit
]
- Uber den Unterschied zwischen der klaren und deutlichen Perception und der klaren und deutlichen Idee bei Descartes
(
On the difference between clear and distinct perception and between clear and distinct ideas in Descartes
,
doctoral dissertation
, 1891)
- Idee und perzeption. Eine erkenntnis-theoretische Untersuchung aus Descartes
(1892)
- Zur Lehre vom Inhalt und Gegenstand der Vorstellungen
(
On the Doctrine of the Content and Object of Presentations
,
habilitation thesis
, 1894)
- Wyobra?enie i poj?cie
(1898)
- O tzw. prawdach wzgl?dnych
(1900)
- Uber sogenannte relative Wahrheiten
(1902)
- Uber begriffliche Vorstellungen
(1903)
- Das Wesen der Begriffe
allegato a
Jahresbericht der Wiener philosophischen Gesellschaft
(1903)
- O psychologii, jej przedmiocie, zadaniach, metodzie, stosunku do innych nauk i jej rozwoju
(1913)
- Rozprawy i artykuły filozoficzne
(1927)
- Wybrane pisma filozoficzne
(1965) (Collection of the philosophical essays)
- Wybor pism psychologicznych i pedagogicznych
(1992) (Collection of the psychological and pedagogical essays)
- Dzienniki
(1997)
Translations
[
edit
]
- On the Content and Object of Presentations
. A Psychological Investigation.
The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff 1977. Translated and with an introduction by Reinhardt Grossmann.
- On Actions, Products and Other Topics in Philosophy.
Edited by Johannes Brandl and Jan Wolenski. Amsterdam: Rodopi 1999. Translated and annotated by Arthur Szylewicz.
- On Prejudices, Judgments and Other Topics in Philosophy.
Edited by Anna Bro?ek e Jacek Jadacki. Amsterdam: Rodopi 2014.
- Sur les objets intentionnels (1893?1901).
Paris: Vrin 1993. French translation of
Zur Lehre vom Inhalt und Gegenstand der Vorstellungen
and other texts by
Edmund Husserl
.
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
k
l
m
Betti, Arianna.
"Kazimierz Twardowski"
. In
Zalta, Edward N.
(ed.).
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
.
- ^
a
b
Maria van der Schaar (2015), p. 53.
- ^
Maria van der Schaar,
Kazimierz Twardowski: A Grammar for Philosophy
, Brill, 2015, p. 53;
Peter M. Simons
,
Philosophy and Logic in Central Europe from Bolzano to Tarski: Selected Essays
, Springer, 2013, p. 15.
- ^
Wolfgang Huemer, "Husserl's critique of psychologism and his relation to the Brentano school", in: Arkadiusz Chrudzimski and Wolfgang Huemer (eds.),
Phenomenology and Analysis: Essays on Central European Philosophy
, Walter de Gruyter, 2004, p. 210.
- ^
Grossmann, Reinhardt (2005). "Meinong, Alexius". In Honderich, Ted (ed.).
The Oxford Companion to Philosophy, Second Edition
. Oxford:
Oxford University Press
.
ISBN
0-19-926479-1
.
- ^
Liliana Albertazzi,
Immanent Realism: An Introduction to Brentano
, Springer, 2006, p. 321.
- ^
Krzysztof Pelc, ed. (2012).
Semiotics in Poland 1894?1969
. Springer Netherlands. pp. xv.
ISBN
9789400997776
.
- ^
Cavallin, J. (2013).
Content and Object: Husserl, Twardowski and Psychologism
. Springer Science and Business Media. p. 32.
ISBN
9789401711609
.
- ^
Twardowski, Kazimierz,
Zur Lehre vom Inhalt und Gegenstand der Vorstellungen ? Eine psychologische Untersuchung
, Vienna: Philosophia Verlag, 1982 [1894], p. 4.
- ^
Twardowski (1894), p. 13
Sources
[
edit
]
- Simons, Peter M.
(2013).
Philosophy and Logic in Central Europe from Bolzano to Tarski: Selected Essays
. Springer.
- Rzepa, Teresa (1992). "Twardowski Kazimierz Jerzy Adolf ze Skrzypny Ogo?czyk". In Kosnarewicz, Elwira; Rzepa, Teresa; Stachowski, Ryszard; et al. (eds.).
Słownik psychologow polskich
[
Dictionary of Polish psychologists
] (in Polish). Pozna?: Instytut Psychologii UAM. pp. 198?202.
OCLC
834052536
.
|
---|
International
| |
---|
National
| |
---|
Academics
| |
---|
People
| |
---|
Other
| |
---|