Kazimierz Twardowski: a Grammar for Philosophy
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Kazimierz Twardowski: A Grammar for Philosophy Schaar_Prelims.indd 1 9/23/2015 5:21:06 PM Poznań Studies in the Philosophy of the Sciences and the Humanities Founding Editor Leszek Nowak (1943–2009) Editor-in-Chief Katarzyna Paprzycka (University of Warsaw) Editors Tomasz Bigaj (University of Warsaw) – Krzysztof Brzechczyn (Adam Mickiewicz University) – Jerzy Brzeziński (Adam Mickiewicz University) – Krzysztof Łastowski (Adam Mickiewicz University) – Joanna Odrowąż-Sypniewska (University of Warsaw) – Piotr Przybysz (Adam Mickiewicz University) – Mieszko Tałasiewicz (University of Warsaw) – Krzysztof Wójtowicz (University of Warsaw) Advisory Committee Joseph Agassi (Tel-Aviv) – Wolfgang Balzer (München) – Mario Bunge (Montreal) – Robert S. Cohen (Boston) – Francesco Coniglione (Catania) – Dagfinn Føllesdal (Oslo, Stanford) – Jaakko Hintikka✝ (Boston) – Jacek J. Jadacki (Warszawa) – Andrzej Klawiter (Poznań) – Theo A.F. Kuipers (Groningen) – Witold Marciszewski (Warszawa) – Thomas Müller (Konstanz) – Ilkka Niiniluoto (Helsinki) – Jacek Paśniczek (Lublin) – David Pearce (Madrid) – Jan Such (Poznań) – Max Urchs (Wiesbaden) – Jan Woleński (Kraków) – Ryszard Wójcicki (Warszawa) VOLUME 103 Polish Analytical Philosophy Editor-in-Chief Jacek Juliusz Jadacki (University of Warsaw) Editors Jacek Paśniczek (Maria Curie-Skłodowska University, Lublin) – Jan Woleński (Professor Emeritus, Jagiellonian University, Kraków) – Ryszard Wójcicki (Professor Emeritus, Polish Academy of Sciences) The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/paph Schaar_Prelims.indd 2 9/23/2015 5:21:06 PM Kazimierz Twardowski: A Grammar for Philosophy By Maria van der Schaar leiden | boston Schaar_Prelims.indd 3 9/23/2015 5:21:06 PM The book was prepared within the project 11H 11 004280, Polish Philosophy of 19th and 20th Centuries (research module 11.1. of National Program for the Development of Humanities of the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education). Poznań Studies is sponsored by the University of Warsaw. Cover illustration: Kazimierz Twardowski among his pupils (Lwów, ca. 1910). Sitting from the left: Maria Fränklówna (2), Seweryn Stark (4), Kazimierz Twardowski (5), Karol Frenkel (6), Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz (7), and Zofia Pasławska-Drexlerowa (8); standing from the left: Edmund Gromski (2), Mieczysław Tretter (5), Irena Jawicówka-Pannenkowa (9), Stanisław Leśniewski (11), Daniela Tennerówna-Gromska (14), and Tadeusz Kotarbiński (15). ISSN 1389-6768 isbn 978-90-04-30402-4 (hardback) isbn 978-90-04-30403-1 (e-book) Copyright 2016 by Koninklijke Brill nv, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill nv incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Rodopi and Hotei Publishing. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill nv provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, ma 01923, usa. Fees are subject to change. This book is printed on acid-free paper. Schaar_Prelims.indd 4 9/23/2015 5:21:06 PM POLISH ANALYTICAL PHILOSOPHY Editors: Jacek Juliusz Jadacki, editor-in-chief (University of Warsaw) Jacek Paśniczek (Maria Curie-Skłodowska University, Lublin) Jan Woleński (Jagiellonian University, Cracow) Ryszard Wójcicki (Professor Emeritus, Polish Academy of Sciences) The volumes in the subseries present the heritage of the analytical movement in Polish philosophy in general, and the achievements, traditions and continuations of the Lvov-Warsaw School in particular. Other volumes in the subseries: I: K. Twardowski, On Action, Products and Other Topics in Philosophy, ed. J.L. Brandl and J. Woleński (1999, vol. 67) II: T. Czeżowski, Knowledge, Science and Values: A Program for Scientific Philosophy, ed. L. Gumański (2000, vol. 68) III: Polish Philosophers of Science and Nature in the 20th Century, ed. W. Krajewski (2000, vol. 74) IV: J. Salamucha, Knowledge and Faith, ed. J. Jadacki and K. Święto- rzecka (2003, vol. 77) V: A. Wiegner, Observation, Hypothesis, Introspection, ed. I. Nowakowa (2005, vol. 87) VI: The Lvov-Warsaw School – the New Generation, ed. J. Jadacki and J. Paśniczek (2006, vol. 89) VII: A. Brożek, Theory of Questions. Erotetics through the Prism of Its Philosophical Background and Practical Applications (2011, vol. 99) VIII: K. Twardowski, On Prejudices, Judgments and Other Topics in Philosophy, ed. A. Brożek and J. Jadacki (2014, vol. 102) Contents 1. Introduction. Twardowski as A Pupil and A Teacher ............ 9 2. Questions of Method. From Descriptive Psychology to Philosophical Grammar . 16 1 . Descriptive Psychology . 16 2 . A Philosophical Grammar . 24 3 . The Grammatical Distinction Between Internal and External Object . 32 4 . Modifying Terms . 35 3. Content and Object. From Psychology to Metaphysics . 50 1 . The Distinction between Content and Object . 50 2 . The Content of the Act . 55 3 . The Object of the Act . 59 From Psychology to Metaphysics . 59 Husserl’s Reaction to Twardowski’s Account of Intentionality . 61 Metaphysics and Mereology . 68 General Objects . 74 4 . Images and Concepts . 80 4. Judgement and Meaning. On Actions and Products . ............ 84 1 . The Historical Background of Twardowski’s Theory of Judgement . 84 2 . Some Conceptual Distinctions . 91 3 . A Development in Twardowski’s Early Account of Judgement . 97 4 . Actions and Products . 103 5 . Twardowski’s Critique of Russell’s Multiple Relation Theory of Judgement . 113 5. Knowing and Prejudice. An Educational Mission ............... 117 1 . Some Conceptual Distinctions . 117 2 . Brentano and Bolzano on Knowledge . 119 3 . Knowledge, Science and the Cognitive Act . 122 4 . Prejudice and the Critical Mind . 126 6. Truth and Time. Twardowski’s Impact on his Students ............................................. 129 1. The Correspondence Definition of Truth . 129 2 . The Absoluteness of Truth and the Logical Principles . 135 3 . Determinism and the Relativity of Truth to Time . 150 Truth and Time . 150 Jan Łukasiewicz . 152 Tadeusz Kotarbiński . 154 Leśniewski’s and Twardowski’s Reaction to Kotarbiński . 157 Conclusion . 160 Bibliography ............................................... 163 Name Index ................................................ 171 1. INTRODUCTION. TWARDOWSKI AS A PUPIL AND A TEACHER Kazimierz Twardowski (Vienna, 1866 – Lwów, 1938) is the founder of the Lvov‑Warsaw School with its strong tradition in logic and its scientific ap‑ proach to philosophy . Twardowski’s unique way of doing philosophy, his method, is of central importance for understanding his impact as a teacher . This method may be called “linguistic phenomenology,” to borrow a phrase from J L. Austin, taking its starting point in Franz Brentano’s descriptive psychology and using a linguistic approach to philosophical problems . Because the term “phenomenology” is already in use for another tradition, I prefer to call Twardowski’s method a philosophical grammar, a term used by Leibniz for his universal language of thought 1. This focus on method is also the reason why Twardowski is still of im‑ portance for philosophy today . Analytic philosophy in the twentieth century can be characterised by its opposition to psychologism, on the one hand, and its opposition to metaphysics, on the other hand . This is changing now, as questions within the philosophy of mind and metaphysics are raised by philosophers standing in the analytic tradition . Do we need a new method in answering these questions? Analytic philosophers interested in these ques‑ tions may broaden their view by looking at a philosophical tradition that is “analytic” in a wider sense of the term . We can learn something from Polish logic and philosophy, as Twardowski and his pupils do not have a negative attitude towards analytic metaphysics, and certainly Twardowski himself was not opposed to a psychological approach to questions concerning judge‑ ment and intentionality . As I hope to show in the following chapters, we can improve our analytic methods by having some knowledge of Twardowski’s philosophical grammar . * 1 The term is also used by Anton Marty in his work on the philosophy of language (Marty 1908, pp . 67, 83) . Cf . (Mulligan 1990) . 10 Maria van der Schaar Twardowski’s parents belonged to the Polish community in Vienna . Vienna at the time was the political and cultural centre of the Austrian‑Habsburg Empire . There was a tolerant politics, and people from all corners of the empire came to Vienna . Although the main language was German, a lot of people had Czech, Polish or Hungarian as their mother tongue . The Polish aristocracy played both a political and a cultural role in Vienna, and many of them went to the university . The Twardowski family, Ritter von Ogończyk, and the family of Kazimierz’ mother had played a role in the public life in Poland . Twardowski’s father came to Vienna in 1851 to continue his study in law, and he later became a high official there . The family possessed no property from which it could have some extra income, and when Kazimierz decided to study philosophy rather than law, he did not want to burden the income of his parents . Twardowski went to the famous Theresianum gymnasium, which he fin‑ ished in 1885 . Obligatory for all gymnasia