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. (shrink)

Rules of inference can be interpreted as rules of (purposive) behavior; in such a case the behaptor consists in accepting a certain statement, called conclusion. The justification of a rule of inference with respect to a given end consists in showing that it is the most efficient method of realizing that end; the meaning of the word “efficient”, and the character of the end, should, of course, be made clear.The article is an attempt at reconstructing a part of the theory (...) of mathematical statistics (the so-called parametric inference) along those lines. It is assumed that the end to be realized by following rules of statistical inference is, broadly speaking, a cognitive one. (shrink)

Decision theory elucidates, in more ways than one, the, concept of rational behavior under imperfect knowledge of the consequences. On the other hand, the generally accepted concept of rationality refers to the end-means relation. This relation is not translatable into the language of decision theory. Consequently, the latter's claim to have defined in a general way rationality of behavior appears not to be valid.

This breakthrough volume integrates European, British, and American scholarship in advanced areas of philosophy and decision theory. Contributions cover a broad area of economics--from criticism of institutional economics to examination of the role of induction in economic forecasting.

The author is one of the pupils of Klemens Szaniawski. Szaniawski has lead a very active life as a scientist and a public activist. His public activity is quite well-known. His early period of life and scientific interests are not so well-known, however. And it is these latter matters that the author focuses on in her paper.

Grzegorczyk, A. O pewnych formalnych konsekwencjach reizmu.--Hiż, H. O rzeczach.--Kołakowski, L. Determinizm i odpowiedzialność.--Kotarbińska, J. Tak zwana definicja dejktyczna.--Ossowska, M. Norma prawna i norma moralna u Petrażyckiego.--Ossowski, S. Od "Kodeksu natury" do "Sprzysiężenia równych."--Lazari-Pawłowska, I. Tworzenie pojęć nauk humanistycznych według koncepcji Leona Petrażyckiego.--Pawłowski, T. Klasyfikacja sztuczna a klasyfikacja naturalna w biologii.--Pelc, J. Szkic analizy znaczeniowej terminu "ideologia dzieła literackiego."--Poznański, E. Operacjonalizm po trzydziestu latach.--Przełęcki, M. Postulat empiryczności terminów przyrodniczych.--Pszczołowski, T. Prakseologiczne pojęcie pracy.--Stonert, H. Analiza logiczna teorii atomistycznej w klasycznej chemii.-- (...) class='Hi'>Szaniawski, K. O indukcji eliminacyjnej.--Wallis, M. Koncepcje biologiczne w humanistyce. (shrink)

Klemens Szaniawski has proposed two probabilistic principles of a just division of goods, based on postulates of egalitarism and optimum conditions: the principle of equal chances of satisfaction and the principle of equal chances of choice. The differences between these principles follow from a different understanding of the issue of equality, which leads to the differences in procedures and final results. When egalitarism is understood as the equality of chances of satisfaction, in many cases it cannot be reconciled with (...) the postulate of optimum conditions. In the paper one can find some selected conclusions of the analyses of that issue and a comparison of the consequences of both principles: i.a. regarding the fulfilment of other criteria: proportionality and rightness. (shrink)

Klemens Szaniawski, mimo że kojarzony z filozofią nauki i logiką, w swoich rozważaniach zajmuje się również teorią decyzji i wskazuje na jej związek z zagadnieniami etycznymi. Wychodząc od pojęciowego i językowego powiązania między teorią decyzji a etyką, poszukuje dalszych ich relacji, które poddaje analizie. W artykule pokazano przydatność twierdzeń teorii decyzji nie tylko do analizy zagadnień etycznych, ale także wyborów działania, które ściśle są związane z podmiotem etycznym. Po pierwsze, wskazano, że pojęcie racjonalności jest istotnym elementem wiążącym proces decyzyjny (...) z etyką. Po drugie, pojęcie decyzji zawiera dwa elementy: wybór działania i postanowienie jego realizacji. Decyzja jest zrelatywizowana do celu, cel zaś determinuje działanie podmiotu, a sam wybór uwzględnia przekonania i wartościowanie decydenta. Po trzecie, rozumienie pojęcia decyzji wiąże się z podmiotem, który posiada pewien charakter i formuje go podczas podejmowania decyzji. Co więcej, w konkretnych decyzjach podmiotu, uwidoczniają się jego cele, środki i motywy. Dlatego włączenie teorii decyzji do analizy osobowości podmiotu i definiowania tożsamości pozwala na uzyskanie wielostronnej wiedzy na temat człowieka. W nowym spojrzeniu na zagadnienie całego procesu decyzyjnego wskazano na możliwość pragmatycznego zastosowania pojęć teorii decyzji w etyce. By określić przydatność aparatury pojęciowej teorii decyzji w praktyce, posłużono się przykładami zaczerpniętymi z nauk prawnych i medycyny. (shrink)

Klemens Szaniawski has been dealing with many philosophical problems, but the philosophical foundations of statistics and theory of decision were his main interest. Unfortunately, he did not present his results and considerations in a synthetic monograph. One can suppose, however, that it would be an attempt to look at science from the point of view of someone who makes epistemic decisions and to regard statistical inferences as paradigmatic scientific procedures. The material concerning that subject contained in Szaniawski's published (...) papers justifies the claim that it would be an extremely interesting synthesis. The author presents consequences for naturalism and antinaturalism that the discussions surrounding the foundations of statistics and decision theory has brought about. He often employs the results obtained by Szaniawski. (shrink)

The volume is a collection of essays about prominent Polish 20th century philosophers of science and scientists who were concerned with problems in the philosophy of science. The contribution made by Polish logicians, especially those from the Lvov-Warsaw School, like Lukasiewicz, Kotarbiński, Czeżowski or Ajdukiewicz, is already well known. One of the aims of the volume is to offer a broader perspective. The papers collected here are devoted to the work of such philosophers as Zawirski, Metallmann, Dąmbska, Mehlberg, Szaniawski (...) and Giedymin as well as to the work of such scientists as Smoluchowski, Fleck, Infeld and Chyliński. The introduction to the volume, written by the editor and Jacek Jadacki, presents an overview of the history of the Polish philosophy of science from the foundation of the Cracow Academy (in 1364) to the present. (shrink)

Polish philosophy of science has been the beneficiary of three powerful creative streams of scientific and philosophical thought. First and fore­ most was the Lwow-Warsaw school of Polish analytical philosophy founded by Twardowski and continued in their several ways by Les­ niewski, Lukasiewicz, and Tarski, the great mathematical and logical philosophers, by Kotarbinski, probably the most distinguished teacher, public figure, and culturally influential philosopher of the inter-war and post-war period, and by Ajdukiewicz, the linguistic philosopher who was intellectually sympathetic with (...) the anti-irrationalist (as he would say), logistic and meta-theoretical inquiries of the Vienna Circle. Second was independent and lively Polish Marxism, with its fine development of social research under Krzywicki, a social anthropologist and younger contemporary of Engels, and then after the war the economist Lange, the philosophers Schaff, Kolakowski, Baczko, and many others. Finally there has been a wide range of philosophical, scientific and humanistic scholar­ ship which lends its various qualities to the understanding of both the logic of science and the historical situation of the sciences: we mention only that great and humane physicist Infeld, the phenomenologist with deep epistemological interest Ingarden, the historian of scientific ideas Zawirski, the historian of philosophy and aesthetics Tatarkiewicz, and the mathematical logicians such as Mostowski and Szaniawski. (shrink)

Abstract The opening section outlines probabilism in the 20th century philosophy and shortly discusses the major accomplishments of Polish probabilist thinkers. A concise characterization of Bayesianism as the major recent form of probabilism follows. It builds upon the core personalist version of Bayesianism towards more objectively oriented versions thereof. The problem of a priori probability is shortly discussed. A tentative characterization of Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz’s standpoint regarding the inductive inference is cast in Bayesian terms. His objections against it presented in Pragmatic (...) Logic are presented. His 1958 paper on justification of non-deductive inference, as amply demonstrated by K. Szaniawski and I. Niiniluoto, extends his earlier Baysian position from 1928 monograph. In the closing section Ajdukiewicz’s standpoint is presented as a characteristically pragmatist and empiricist version of Bayesianism, which remains an unexplored and stimulating position. (shrink)

Contents: INTRODUCTION. Kazimierz TWARDOWSKI: The Majesty of the University. I. Zygmunt ZIEMBI??N??SKI: What Can Be Saved of the Idea of the University? Leszek KO??l??AKOWSKI: What Are Universities for? Leon GUMA??N??SKI: The Ideal University and Reality. Zygmunt BAUMAN: The Present Crisis of the Universities. II. Kazimierz AJDUKIEWICZ: On Freedom of Science. Henryk SAMSONOWICZ: Universities and Democracy. Jerzy TOPOLSKI: The Commonwealth of Scholars and New Conceptions of Truth. Klemens SZANIAWSKI: Plus ratio quam vis. III. Leon KOJ: Science, Teaching and Values. Klemens (...) SZANIAWSKI: The Ethics of Scientific Criticism. Jerzy BRZEZI??N??SKI: Ethical Problems of Research Work of Psychologists. IV. Janusz GO??L??KOWSKI: Tradition in Science. Jerzy KMITA: Is a "Creative Man of Knowledge" Needed in University Teaching? Leszek NOWAK: The Personality of Researchers and the Necessity of Schools in Science. RECAPITULATION. Jerzy BRZEZI??N??SKI: Reflections on the University. (shrink)

Proceedings of the Conference for Formal Methods in the Methodology of Emperical Sciences, Warsaw, June 17-21, 1974, Poland.