Tadeusz Kotarbinski   Tadeusz Kotarbinski Summary Presentation  Life Main works Selected bibliography Keywords Documentation on Kotarbinski External links Presentation  TadeuszKotarbinski (1886-1981) is one of the most representative figuresof the Lvov-WarsawSchool, not only on account of the doctrines he put forwardbut also because (like Ajdukiewicz )he continued his activity in Poland after World War II, greatlyinfluencing Polish philosophical culture, of which he became asort of guardian spirit.The philosophical doctrine to which he owes his fame iscalled "reism" (or "concretism"). It is basedon the so-called system of "calculation of names" (orontology) formulated by the great logician Stanislaw Lesniewski (1886-1939), a great friend of his and a colleague at the Universityof Warsaw, a distinctive feature of whose thought was radicalnominalism. Taking up Lesniewski’s classification of names,Kotarbinski viewed a name as meaning "all and only thoseterms and phrases that can constitute the subject or predicateof propositions concerning things or persons", of the typeA is B, where "is" is taken in the fundamental, primarysense Lesniewski gave it in his Ontology.As Lesniewski saw it, the meaning of "is" is differentfrom the meaning it has in English and Italian, being better renderedby the Latin "est" or the Polish "jest"; thisis due to the fact that in Polish, as in Latin, there are no articles,whereas in both English and Italian the use of a definite or indefinitearticle before a name specifies the meaning attributed to theverb "is".Kotarbinski thus distinguishes between:(a) singular names, which are used as grammaticalsubjects and refer to individuals or things ("Plato","Rome");(b) general names of people or things ("man","city") that can only be subjects in universal propositionsof the type "every A is B" or predicates (in universaland singular propositions); and finally(c) empty names ("chimera", "centaur")that denote nothing and cannot be the subject of any true proposition,singular or general, but which by definition can be appropriatelyreduced to a combination of singular and/or universal terms thatare the names of people or things, so as to obtain an expressionthat is synonymous with the empty name.All these are genuine names, as opposed to apparentor fictitious names which comprise all names referring to properties,relations, or even states and which Kotarbinski calls pseudo-namesor "onomatoids". From this point of view it is obviousthat in the expression "the departure of the train was delayed",the term "departure" is an apparent name as it has nodesignatum: the "departure" does not exist, butonly a train that is departing. The sentence should thereforebe formulated more correctly as "the train departed laterthan scheduled". All genuine names (singular, general orempty) are concrete nouns, whereas abstract nouns are apparentnames. The existence of these abstract names leads to the erroneousopinion that they correspond to something that really exists,i.e. that there exists an entity referred to by terms like "roundness","equality", etc. The same applies to names indicatingrelationships. When we state, for instance, that "there isa relationship of friendship between Jan and Piotr", we reallymean that Jan and Piotr are friends. Just as "roundness"does not exist, neither does the relationship of friendship (seethe diagram which shows his theoryof names).Kotarbinski presented two versions of reism - an ontological and a semantic one. The ontological thesis consists of maintainingthat only people and things exist, i.e. that every object is eithera person or a thing. Following criticism by Ajdukiewicz, who accusedhim of tautology, Kotarbinski made a further statement of thisontological thesis, saying that "every object is either bodyor spirit" and that "every spiritual being is a body".The fundamental thesis of reism thus became "every objectis a body": this phase was termed "somatism".The semantic version of reism refers to the language weuse to describe the world and briefly consists of maintainingthat it is possible to translate every proposition containingfictitious names into one containing only genuine names. Eachfictitious name we encounter in everyday language is thereforean onomatoid. This is in practice a drastic reduction of the categoriesof Aristotle to a single category of things, which correspondsto Aristotle’s primary substance (thus excluding secondary,or universal, substances). The semantic analysis of reism is undoubtedlyvery similar in certain respects to what was later to be the eliminativisticstand taken, on a nominalistic basis, by Ramsey and Craig andsubsequently by Quine. In its more philosophical aspects, it isalso similar to the radical "physicalism" supportedby Carnap and Neurath.Kotarbinski is also important for opening up another fieldof research to which he was deeply committed: praxiology, whichhe cultivated mostly after the Second World War. Already anticipatedby other scholars (such as B.C. Dunoyer, W. Jastrzbowski, MelitonMartin, Louis Bourdeau, Alfred Espinas, Eugeniusz Spucki, L. vonMises and A. Bogdanov), praxiology has its roots in what Kotarbinskicalled "practical realism" and represents a common-senseattitude towards the world, respecting things that really exist,the limits and conditions affecting action, and full awarenessof the importance of the factors contributing to the situationin which one is working. It was, in short, a resumption of thejust means and practical rationality of Aristotle which, in thenew reality that emerged after World War II, Kotarbinski musthave seen as having an important social function in the constructionof a new Socialist order, an effort he viewed in a constructive,co-operative spirit. Praxiology presents itself as the most generalof practical sciences, one that can provide a methodology forthe efficient performance of any action aiming at a specific goal.Praxiology provides and explains practical directives, i.e.the commands, prohibitions and restrictions that are applied toactions in order to enhance their efficiency; it formulates aseries of types and builds up its own conceptual and terminologicalapparatus to analyse the basic concepts of the new science andthe modes of efficient action: agent, impulse, action, aim, product,result, as well as efficiency, economy, usefulness, effectiveness,exactness, appropriacy, etc. are the cornerstones of his thought.Praxiology thus contains both descriptive theses, whose aim isto explain and clarify its fundamental concepts and their reciprocalrelationships (among which he distinguishes between simple andcompound, external and internal actions, various modes of co-operationsuch as positive and negative, etc.), and theses of a normativenature, indicating the necessary and/or sufficient directivesfor a certain action to be efficient with respect to the goalto be achieved in given situations, and thus the prescriptionsand prohibitions to be respected. Kotarbinski also delineatedthe characteristics of an even more general science than praxiology:the theory of complex systems, which in more recent times wasindependently proposed by L. von Bertalanffy as a general theoryof systems and which Kotarbisnki saw as being outlined in thework of Bogdanov. Examples of the practical directives formulatedby praxiology are those expressed by the concepts of activation,automation, instrumentalisation, anticipation, integration, potentialisation,temporisation, mechanisation and so on, with a whole series offurther subdivisions (e.g. integration is subdivided into co-ordination,concentration, preparation, planning, etc.).Praxiology developed in Poland from 1958 onwards, the yearin which the Polish Academy of Sciences set up an autonomous Laboratoryof Praxiology, which was transformed into a Department in 1967and in 1974 became part of the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology.In 1980 it took on the name of Department of Praxiology and theScience of Science. It currently edits the four-monthly "Prakseologia"and the English-language annual review "Praxiology",which publishes articles by both Polish and foreign authors. Praxiologyhas now assumed full autonomy as a scientific discipline, countingresearch institutes in Poland and abroad. Its main Polish representativesare M. Nowakowska, T. Pszczolowski and L. Lewandowski. The attempthas been made to apply the principles of praxiology to the fieldof economics by the famous economist Oskar Lange, who sees itas a science of rational action and thus interprets it from amethodological viewpoint. A new generation of scholars such asW. Gasparski, T. Wojcik and J. Zieliniewski have expressed theneed for further formal refinement of the discipline and greaterintegration with similar disciplines that have in the meanwhilearisen in other fields and other countries.Mention should finally be made of Kotarbinski’s ethicalinterests, which led him to support an "independent ethic",i.e. one that refuses to search for a foundation in sources otherthan emotional judgements formulated in the course of human relationships,and especially an ethic that is independent of both religion andany specific world view. Vita Kotarbisnki was born into a family whose cultural commitmentwas considerable (his father, Milosz, was a composer and painter,his mother a talented pianist and his father’s brother oneof the most significant figures in Polish theatre at the turnof the century). After a certain amount of hesitation about hisfuture profession (he was initially attracted to mathematics andphysics, then to architecture) he finally opted for philosophyand studied for a doctorate in Lvov, writing his doctoral dissertationon Mill and Spencer under the guidance of Twardowski .In Lvov he also attended Lukasiewicz’slectures in logic and Witwicki’s in psychology; previously,while still at high school in Warsaw, he had also attended clandestinelessons in philosophy held by Brzozowski ,Krzywickiand Mahrburg ,whom he greatly esteemed. After his university studies he returnedto Warsaw, where he took up a career as a high school teacherof classics, and at the same time took an active part in the culturallife of the city, holding lectures, publishing articles and collaboratingwith Weryho in the organisation of the Philosophical Institute (1915). In1919 he was appointed Temporary Professor and then, in 1929, becamea Full Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Human Sciences. Inthe 30s he participated actively in the cultural and politicallife of the city, in particular struggling against nationalism,clericalism and the anti-Semitic tendencies which were widespreadat the time in Poland. This stand brought him closer to the leftwing of the Socialist Party. Under the German occupation duringWorld War II he took part in clandestine teaching activity andalso narrowly escaped being sentenced to death by a right-wingclandestine faction who declared him to be an enemy of the Polishnation. After the War, Kotarbinski taught at the University ofLodz, helping to organise it in his capacity as Rector (1945-49).He then returned to Warsaw ,where he taught philosophy and logic at the University until hisretirement (1951-61). He was also President of the Polish Academyof Sciences (1957-1962), where he founded and directed the Laboratoryof Praxiology. Main Works Elementy teorii poznania, logiki formalnej i metodologii nauk, Ossolineum, Lwów, 1929. Le réalisme radical, Proceed. of th 7th INternational Congress of Philosophy, London, 1930, pp. 488-500. Kurs logiki dla prawników, Gebethner i Wolff, Warszawa, 1955. Traktat o dobrej robocie, PWN, Warszawa, 1955. Wibór pism, vol. I, PWN, Warszawa, 1957 Wykady z dziejów logiki, Ossolineum, Lódz, 1957. Wibór pism, vol. II, PWN, Warszawa, 1958. I principi di un'etica indipendente, Rivista di Filosofia, L, 1, 1959, pp. 3-14 Essai de réduire la connaissance psychologique à l'extraspection, AA.VV., Atti del XII congresso di Filosofia (Venezia, 12-16 settembre 1958), vol. IV: Logica, gnoseologia, filosofia della scienza, filosofia del linguaggio, Sansoni, Firenze, 1960, pp. 295-99. The concept of action, J. of Philosophy, 57, 1960, pp. 201-209 The Basic Postulate of Concretism, Schriften zur Phonetik, Sprachwissenschaft und Kummunikationforschung, 3, 1961, pp. 79-87 Meditazione sulle posizioni di Bacone, Convivium, 39, 1962, pp. 36-7 Leçons sur l'histoire de la logique, PUF, Paris, 1964. Les origines de la praxéologie, PWN, Warszawa, 1965. Praxiology. An Introduction to the Science of Efficient Action, PWN-Pergamon Press,Warszawa-Oxford,1965 (Engli transl. of n. 4). Franz Brentano comme réiste, Revue Int. de Philosophie, 4, 1966, pp. 459-476. Gnosiology. The Scientific Approach to the Theory of Knowledge, PWN-Pergamon Press, Warszawa-Oxford, 1966 (Engl. transl. of n. 1). L'évolution de la praxéologie en Pologne, in AA.VV., Contemporary Philosophy, a cura di R. Klibanski, vol. II: Philosophy of Science, Firenze, La Nuova Italia, 1968, pp. 438-50 La justification active, "Logique et Analyse", 41-42, 1968, pp. 273-9 Reism: Issues and Prospects, "Logique and Analyse", 11,"1968, pp. 441-58 The Task and Problems of Praxiology, "Prakseologia", 31,1968-69, pp. 7-25 Les formes positives et negatives de la cooperation, "Revue de Metaphysique et de Morale", 3, 1970, pp. 316-25 Determinism and fatalism in face of activity, "Dialectics and Humanism", 2, 1974, pp. 3-11. Sources of general problems concerning the efficiency of actions, "Dialec. and Human.", 1, 1975, pp. 5-15 Concepts and problems in general methodology and methodology of the practical sciences, Przeeci-Wøjcicki, Twenty-five years cit., 1977, pp. 279-89 Elementy teorii poznania, logiki formalnej i metodologii nauk, PWN,Warszawa, 1986 (3th ed.). Dziela wszystkie. Ontologia, teoria poznania i metodologia nauk, Ossolineum,Wroclaw et al., 1993. Selected Bibliography Rand, R., Kotarbinski's Philosophie, "Erkenntnis", VII,1937, pp. 92-120. Jaworski, Marek,Tadeusz Kotarbinski,Wydawnictwo Interpress,Warszawa,1971. Kuczynski, Janus (ed.), Mastery and humanism (An interview with prof. Tadeusz Kotarbinski, "Dialetics and Humanism", 1, 1977, pp. 11-19. Grzegorczyk, Andrzej, On Certain Formal Consequences of Reism, "Dialectics and Humanism", 1,1977, pp.73-80 Lazari-Pawowska, Ija,The ethical teaching of Tadeusz Kotarbinski, "Dialectics and Humanism", 1,1977, pp.53-65 Czeowski, Tadeusz,The indipendent ethics of Tadeusz Kotarbinski, "Dialectics and Humanism", 1,1977, pp.47-52 Sinisi, V.F.,The development of Ontology, "Topoi", v. 2, n. 1, 1983, pp. 53-61 Przelecki, Marian, Racjonalizm Tadeusza Kotarbinskiego, Studia Filozoficzna, 12,1986, pp. 167-78 Smolucha, Zofia, Tadeusz Kotarbinski, 1886-1981: bibliografia,Woj. Biblioteka Publ., Olsztyn, 1988. Wolenski, Jan, Kotarbinski,WP, Warszawa, 1990. Wolenski, Jan (ed.), Kotarbinski: Logic, Semantics, Ontology, Nijhoff, Dordrecht/ Boston/ Lancaster,1990. Airaksinen, Timo, Goals and ethics: Comments on Kotarbinski, in AA.VV., Logika, praktyka, etyka: Przeslania filozofii Tadeusza Kotarbinskiego, Towarz. Nauk. Prakseologii, Warszawa 1991. Moles, Abraham, Theories des actes: Implication et intrication (En hommage à T. Kotarbinski), in AA.VV., Logika, praktyka, etyka: Przeslania filozofii Tadeusza Kotarbinskiego, Towarz. Nauk. Prakseologii, Warszawa 1991. Gasparski, W., A philosophy of practicality. A treatise on the philosophy of Tadeusz Kotarbinski, Societas Philos. Fennica, Helsinki, 1993. Poli, Roberto,The Dispute over Reism: Kotarbinski - Ajdukiewicz - Brentano, in Coniglione-Poli-Wolenski (ed.), Polish Scientific Philosophy, Rodopi, Amsterdam/Atlanta 1993, pp. 339-54 Dudek, Joanna, Etyka niezalena Tedeusza Kotarbinskiego,WSP, Zielona Góra, 1997. Documentation on Kotarbinski  Kotarbinski's letters toKazimierz Twardowski An opinion of Kotarbinski on Witkiewicz Diagram illustrating the theory of names Altri Link Short presentation of the ontological reism Reconstruction of Kotarbinski's position about universals  Back to the Main PolishPhilosophers Page© Polish Philosophy Page, ed. by F. Coniglione- http://www.fmag.unict.it/polhome.html |
|
