The origin and development of the Lvov—Warsaw school

pp. 1-34

in: Jan Woleński, Logic and philosophy in the Lvov—Warsaw school, Berlin, Springer, 1989

Abstract

The intellectual movement known as the Lvov—Warsaw School was the product the following four factors: genetic — the activity of Kazimierz Twardowski and his disciples; geographic — the location of the School in Lvov and Warsaw; temporal — the School came into being in the late 19th century and was active until World War II; finally intellectual — the store of shared ideas. None of those factors, taken separately, defines the Lvov—Warsaw School satisfactorily. Some philosophers who were not Twardowski's disciples (in the sense of having studied philosophy or written a doctoral dissertation under his supervision) are treated here as representatives of the School. Such was the case of Władysław Tatarkiewicz, one of the most eminent representatives of the School, who had established contact with Twardowski only before his habilitation. Further, non-philosophers who attended general university courses in philosophy considered themselves to have been Twardowski's disciples; this is true, for instance, of the eminent mathematician Hugo Steinhaus. Thus the genetic criterion is either too narrow or too wide. The School had its centres in Lvov and Warsaw, but its prominent representatives were also active in other Polish cities, namely in Vilna, Cracow, and Poznań. The School as a coherent whole existed until World War II, but its representatives, including some of Twardowski's direct disciples, were intellectually active in later years as well.¹