Bernard Bolzano Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

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- Philosophy, History of Logic, Bernard Bolzano

How did the traditional doctrine of parts and wholes evolve into contemporary formal mereology? This paper argues that a crucial missing link may lie in the early modern and especially Wolffian transformation of mereology into a systematic sub-discipline of ontology devoted to quantity. After some remarks on the traditional scholastic approach to parts and wholes (Sect. 1), Wolff's mature mereology is reconstructed as an attempt to provide an ontological foundation for mathematics (Sects. 2-3). On the basis of Wolff's earlier mereologies (Sect. 4), the origin of this foundational project is traced back to one of Wolff's private conversations with Leibniz (Sect. 5) and especially to the former's appropriation of the latter's notion of similarity as a means to define quantity (Sect. 6). Despite some hesitancy concerning the ultimate characterization of quantity (Sect. 7), Wolff's contribution was historically significant and influential. By developing a quantitative, extensional account of mereological relations, Wolff departed from the received doctrine and paved the way for the later revival of mereology at the intersection of ontology and mathematics.

- by Peter Andras Varga
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- Phenomenology, Franz Brentano, Edmund Husserl, School of Brentano
- by Peter Simons
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- Logic, History of Logic, Bernard Bolzano

The subject of doctoral thesis "The idea of a social justice in selected utopia concepts." reflects on the issue of justice applied to comparative analysis of selected projects of ideal commonwealths/utopias (Thomas More, Tomasso Campanella, Charles Fourier, Saint-Simon, Robert Owen, Étienne Cabet, Wilhelm Weitling, Bernard Bolzano) from the perspective of contemporary social-philosophy concepts. The work from the subject of the history of philosophy oscillates between social and political philosophy and the history of philosophy. The basic thesis is which elements of historical, utopian theories of justice can be applied to contemporary socio-philosophical discourse (social liberalism of John Rawls and communitarism of Michael Sandel). The fundamental scientific problems of the submitted work are questions linked to justice, equality and freedom in the context of ideal communities. The thesis uses methods, procedures and techniques of explanation, analysis, historical-comparative methods and at the end of synthesis of knowledge.

- by PhDr. Lukáš Perný, PhD.
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- Social Justice, Justice, Bernard Bolzano, Equality

The book Utopians, Visionaries of the World of the Future (The History of Utopias and Utopianism) consists of three parts: in the first one the reader reads about the definitions of utopia and utopianism and its division. The following, the most extensive chapter analyzes the history of utopianism, compares the various concepts and ideas. In the introduction, the reader has the opportunity to gain knowledge of the prehistory of utopianism and the oldest evidence of utopian egalitarianism in human history. This is followed by the ancient and Christian tradition of utopianism, which leads the emergence ofutopia as a literary genre in modern times. Following are descriptions of the most important modern utopias and their authors (More, Campanella, Bacon),but also less known utopias at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries. This is followed by the period of the Enlightenment Utopia and the natural law theory of Mably, Rousseau, Morelly and Babuef. This chapter ends with Babeuf’s influence in the revolutionary theories of the 19th century. The largest part of Utopian history is devoted to the three greats of Utopian socialism: Saint-Simon, Fourier and Owenand also authors such as Etienne Cabet and Robert de Lamennais. Marginally, the book also deals with German utopia and utopian elements in the works of Kant, Hegel, Bolzano, Weitling, with a continuation of Marxism. A novelty in the present research is utopianism in the Slovak context, which focuses primarily on Messianism as a specific form of philosophy of history and practical social activities of national revivalists and social revolts. The epilogue to history is followed by the last, third chapter, which deals with utopia and utopianism in the context of philosophical reasoning for the problems of the21st century.

- by PhDr. Lukáš Perný, PhD.
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- Francis Bacon, Bernard Bolzano, Tommaso Campanella, Utopianism

Un primo sguardo sulla relazione tra i problemi di filosofia del linguaggio e i problemi ontologici (in particolare quello sull'esistenza). Si analizzano in questo scritto tre autori della Mitteleuropa e cioè Bolzano, Twardowski e Meinong e si abbozza una teoria dei livelli ontologici con la quale si cerca di classificare più articolatamente oggetti ed eventi e si possa rispondere in maniera più consapevole alla domanda su cosa esista

- by Italo Nobile
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- Metaphysics, Ontology, Semantics, Edmund Husserl
- by Carole Maigné
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- Hanslick, Bernard Bolzano, J.F. Herbart, Esthétique

The book State of Affairs reconstructs the controversy over Sachverhalt in the German and Austria tradition. The author offers an overview of the different proposals made regarding the meaning of “Sachverhalt”. The aim is to present various approaches and show different perspectives and methods in studying its meaning. Each of these proposals provides a new definition of the concept. The main theme of these pages it to reproduce the debate about a concept that, finally, has come to be used efficiently in the legal field. The discussion reveals numerous aspects by which philosophy has contributed to this development.

- by Jesús Padilla Gálvez
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- Jurgen Habermas, Franz Brentano, Martin Heidegger, Hans-Georg Gadamer
- by Michael Wögerbauer and +9
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- Cultural History, Cultural Studies, Media and Cultural Studies, Censorship

https://meet.jit.si/colloquephenomenologiedelaquestion2022
« La question chez Bolzano, Husserl, Heidegger : jugement, intentionnalité, praxis, appel »
Résumé : "Dans cette communication, je montre comment la question est réduite par la phénoménologie, à cause notamment de l'influence de Bolzano, à une fonction propositionnelle. Chez Bolzano, parce que la question est une forme de jugement qui affirme le désir du questionnant d'obtenir une réponse ; chez Husserl, parce que la question est une tension intentionnelle qui appelle une réponse elle-même inscrite dans le même horizon de possibilités que la question ; chez Heidegger, parce que la question est une praxis qui s'inscrit dans un système d'outils et qui exprime la signification de façon aussi précise qu'une affirmation. Cependant, chez chacun de ces auteurs, quelque chose échappe à la réduction judicative : chez Bolzano, le désir foncièrement subjectif du questionnant ; chez Husserl, le "rebond" qui touche les réponses qui deviennent à leur tour horizons de questionnement ; chez Heidegger, l'appel qui questionne la subjectivité en la sortant de tout contexte social ou épistémique, pour la placer devant l'Abgrund. C'était déjà la forme de la question qui, dans la Dialectique transcendantale de Kant interprétée par Schelling, plaçait la subjectivité devant l'Abgrund, au prix d'une destruction provisoire mais radicale de la rationalité - et donc, du jugement."

- by Paul Slama
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- Philosophy, Metaphysics, Philosophy Of Language, Pragmatism

Quantificational accounts of logical consequence account for it in terms of truth-preservation in all cases – be it admissible substitutional variants or interpretations with respect to non-logical terms. In this second of my three connected studies devoted to the quantificational tradition, I set out to reconstruct the seminal contributions of Russell, Carnap, Tarski and Quine and evaluate them vis-à-vis some of the most pressing objections. This study also prepares the ground for my discussion of the standard model-theoretic account of consequence to be found in the concluding study.

- by Ladislav Koren
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- Logic And Foundations Of Mathematics, Logic, Semantics, Bernard Bolzano

L’article analyse les deux premières parties de la Wissenschaftslehre (1837), l’échange épistolaire avec Exner daté de 1834 et les Beyträge zu einer begründeteren Darstellung der Mathematik de 1810. On esquisse d’abord quatre traits fondamentaux de la logique bolzanienne : la définition et la fonction des propositions en soi et des représentations en soi, le propositionalisme, qui dans la théorie de la signification attribue le rôle le plus important aux propositions, la nature des relations entre représentations subjectives, objectives et objets, la conception sémantique de la vérité. En exposant les différences entre propositions en soi et états des choses, on explique les raisons et les conséquences de cette opposition, en mentionnant aussi quatre conceptions que Bolzano critique vigoureusement le psychologisme, l’interprétation intentionnelle des représentations en soi, la notion traditionnelle de adequatio entendue comme ressemblance entre concepts et objets, l’idée que tous les concepts doués de sens ont un objet, soit réel soit irréel. À partir de l’analyse des fondements de la théorie logique de Bolzano, on conclut que la théorie de la vérité n’est pas une théorie de la correspondance en tant que adequatio entre idées et objets, que les propositions en soi sont ce qui porte la valeur de vérité (truth-bearers) et donc ne jouent pas le rôle d’état de choses, de quelque façon qu’on l’entende, que la logique bolzanienne peut être définie comme un platonisme logique seulement dans la mesure où elle refuse une conception épistémique de la vérité, et qu’il est de toute façon préférable de la voir comme un objectivisme sémantique, car elle ne distingue pas deux niveaux différents de l’être.

- by Paola Cantù
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- Bernard Bolzano
- by Fausto Fraisopi
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- Edmund Husserl, Bernard Bolzano, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Mathesis

Im Dezember 2012 wurde durch den Wissenschaftsbeirat der Masaryk-Universität (auf Vorschlag des Wissenschaftsbeirats der Philosophischen Fakultät der Masaryk-Universität hin) beschlossen, dem em. Prof. der Yale University Peter Demetz im Zusammenhang mit seiner Lehrtätigkeit an der Masaryk-Universität (insb. in den Jahren 2010-2014 am Wissenschaftskolleg Österreich-Bibliothek /wiko.phil.muni.,cz/) und anläßlich seines 90. Geburtstages (21. Oktober 1922), den Ehrentitel des Doktors der Philologie zu verleihen.
Die Ehrenpromotion fand am 26. November 2014 in der Aula der Juristischen Fakultät der Masaryk-Universität statt. Vorangegangen war der Festvortrag Gymnasiast namens Bolzano bittet Libussa um Schutz und Hilfe (1796) von Prof. Demetz in der Aula der Philosophischen Fakultät der Masaryk-Universität am 25. November, dem nicht gebotenen Gedenktag von Katharina von Alexandrien, Schutzpatronin vieler philosophischer Fakultäten und Studenten. (Der deutsche Text des Vortrags "Libussa auf Latein - Ein Gymnasiast namens Bolzano bittet die sagenhafte Herrscherin um Schutz und Hilfe (1796) und das lat. Libussa-Gedicht Bolzanos samt der deutschen Übersetzung in: Peter Demetz. Auf den Spuren Bernard Bolzanos. Essays. Wuppertal. Arco Verlag, 2013, S. 17-35 u. 36-41.

- by Roman Kopriva
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- Marxism, Literary Criticism, Buster Keaton, Theodor Fontane

Despite their virtual absence in the subsequent phenomenological tradition, Husserl himself held in high esteem the analyzes – often referred to as ‘Husserl’s mereology’ – he undertook in the Third Logical Investigation (Husserl 1913, p. XV). This appreciation was not only due to their quasi-rigorous, quasi-formal aspect. Actually, it relied primarily on their fruitfulness, that is, the multiplicity of their applications. In later works, they will extend from time-consciousness (Huang 2019) to genetic phenomenology (Van Eynde 1999), but they are in fact remarkably diverse as early as the Logical Investigations. The Third LI indeed directly enables Husserl to deal, in the framework of one, unified theory, with a range of problems, whose vastness has not been sufficiently emphasized in the literature. The aim of this paper is thus to identify and synthetize all the problems and debates here at stake, the richness of which testifies to the tremendous power of Husserl's mereology. Five such issues are exhibited: abstraction, moments of unity, formal ontology, pure grammar, and unity of consciousness. Particular emphasis is placed on the last of these issues, which has been rather overlooked in the literature, even though it unveils the essential dependence of phenomenology on mereology. In so doing, the paper also demonstrates that the whole Brentano’s school is involved, in one way or another, in the debates surrounding the Third Investigation. As a conclusion, a comparison between the function of mereology in Brentano and Husserl is offered.

- by Alexis Delamare
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- Franz Brentano, Formal Ontology, School of Brentano, Bernard Bolzano
- by Bohumil Vykypěl
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- History, Czech History, Czech & Slovak Studies, Bernard Bolzano
- by Mario González Porta
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- Bernard Bolzano

Un aggiornamento dove si introducono la tematica del Nulla e quella della rappresentazione

- by Italo Nobile
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- Philosophy, Ontology, Philosophy Of Language, Continental Philosophy

The young Edmund Husserl stressed that the success of his philosophy hinged upon his ability to determine the subject and the predicate of impersonal propositions and their expressions, such as 'It is raining'. This essay accordingly investigates the tenability of Husserl's early thought, by executing a first study of his analysis of impersonal propositions from the late 1890s. This examination reshapes our understanding of the inception of phenomenology in two ways. First, Husserl pinpoints the subject by outlining why impersonal expressions are employed during communication. This contravenes interpretations of the early Husserl as uninterested in intersubjectivity. Second, by studying how Husserl determines the predicate by investigating existential propositions, I show that Husserl had, in the late 1890s, come to his final view on the concept of being.

- by Thomas Byrne
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- Logic, Languages and Linguistics, Phenomenological Psychology, Phenomenology

- by Jesús Padilla Gálvez
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- Jurgen Habermas, Franz Brentano, Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger

Brentanians defend the view that there are distinct types of object, but that this does not entail the admission of different modes of being. The most general distinction among objects is the one between realia, which are causally efficacious, and irrealia, which are causally inert. As for being, which is equated with existence, it is understood in terms of “correct acknowledgeability.” This view was defended for some time by Brentano himself and then by his student Anton Marty. Their position is opposed to Bolzanian, Husserlian, and Meinongian ontologies, in which a distinction in the (higher) types of object implies a distinction in their mode of being. These Austro-German discussions anticipate much of the contemporary debate between Quineans, who accept only differences in objects, and neo-Meinongians or other ontological pluralists, who accept different modes of being. My paper first presents the Brentanian view in detail and then evaluates its philosophical significance.

- by Hamid Taieb
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- Franz Brentano, Edmund Husserl, Bernard Bolzano, Alexius Meinong
- by Clinton Tolley
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- Analytic Philosophy, Kant, History of Analytic Philosophy, German Idealism

The question of categories is crucial in Kant’s philosophy and the later thought, in which it is exploited to recover, correct or oppose transcendental philosophy. Even though Bolzano is a fierce opponent of this philosophy, he does not devote much space to the thematic critique of the concept of «category». He deals with it in Aristotle and in Kant in §§ 118 and 119 of his Wissenschaftslehre, in the appendix to the Doctrine of the Elements, in which he offered his theory of «representations in themselves» or «ideas». The aim of this paper is to present such punctual criticisms and clarify their meaning and assumptions, thus delineating some peculiar concepts of Bolzano, based on which the notion of «summum genus» is originally rethought and any «deduction» is radically rejected.

- by Lorenzo Fossati
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- Aristotle, Bernard Bolzano, Immanuel Kant

The present contribution elucidates Husserl’s relationship to Lotze in the light of Winthrop Bell’s notes on Husserl’s 1912 seminar on Lotze’s theory of knowledge. Once again, these notes make it clear that Husserl highly appreciated the chapter on Plato’s theory of ideas from Lotze’s 1874 'Logic' and his anti-psychologistic view of logic, as far as it goes. However, it also becomes clear that Husserl rejected both Lotze’s account of the origins of objectivity in terms of the doctrine of “achievements of thinking (Denkleistungen)” and the discussion of skepticism in the 1874 'Logic' against the background of his own (Bolzano-inspired) conception of intentionality and his treatment of the epistemological “problem of transcendence” in the framework of the “phenomenological reduction”.

- by Christian Beyer
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- Philosophy, Epistemology, Edmund Husserl, Bernard Bolzano

Prof. Paisley Nathan Livingston is the former Head and Chair Professor of the Philosophy Department at Lingnan University. He has spent over a decade at the University and made significant contributions to both the University and the local community during his stay in Hong Kong. He has always been energetic in class and passionate about what he is teaching. Furthermore, if you knew how much administrative works he was also burdened with, you would truly be awed by his excellent teaching performance and impressive amount of research output. One of his most notable works over the years in Hong Kong is Cinema, Philosophy, Bergman: On Film as Philosophy in which he rebuts some of the exaggerated claims of "film as philosophy" and provides an alternative moderate account to the thesis. The work has made important contribution to aesthetics, philosophy of film, film studies and the studies of the Swedish film director, Ingmar Bergman. To acknowledge his retirement from Lingnan, I decided to interview him before his departure to rejoin his family in Scandinavia. The interview questions range from his background to academic interests, issues in aesthetics and problems regarding the current tertiary education.

- by Josh Law
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- Philosophy of Film, Philosophy of Literature, Bernard Bolzano, Cinema

Scopo del saggio è, da un lato, valutare la portata e i tratti della crisi del fondazionismo nella filosofia contemporanea e, dall’altro, proporre la posizione di Bernard Bolzano come possibile alternativa, innanzitutto analizzandola in... more

Il libro prende in esame il tema del precategoriale in Husserl dagli anni della formazione alla prima grande opera, le "Ricerche logiche" (1900-01). La questione del precategoriale – ovvero del fondamento sensibile delle formazioni logiche (concetti e giudizi) – viene individuata come tema centrale della riflessione husserliana sin dai suoi esordi, antecedenti alla primissima impostazione dei rapporti tra sensibilità e intelletto nella seconda sezione della "Sesta ricerca logica". Quest’ultima costituisce il nucleo dell’indagine qui condotta, nella quale il riferimento alla dimensione prelogica si configura come primo veicolo della progressiva maturazione della proposta husserliana, che dalla sfera logica accenna già all’approccio più propriamente fenomenologico. L’autrice pone in risalto il carattere intrinsecamente ambiguo del tentativo operato da Husserl e ne propone in modo originale la riconduzione all’antropologia sottesa.

- by Federica Buongiorno
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- Philosophy, Logic, Philosophy of Psychology, Phenomenology
- by Takeshi Morisato and +1
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- Aristotle, Phenomenology, Deductive reasoning, Inductive Reasoning

Lo studio offre un esempio di storia comparata dei concetti, esaminando l’origine e l’uso del termine tedesco «Weltweisheit», posto in alternativa al successivo «Philosophie», partendo dalle prime occorrenze in Lutero e, poi, in Wolff, per giungere a Kant, agli idealisti speculativi e, infine, a Bolzano e a Husserl. Una volta che si è affermato il prestito dal greco, quando si incontra «Weltweisheit» è perché è stata compiuta una precisa scelta lessicale: perché ci si vuole riferire (più o meno polemicamente) all’uso linguistico precedente o in particolare alla filosofia wolffiana; oppure perché si vuole porre l’accento sulla filosofia come indagine del mondo, e quindi usa «Weltweisheit» come sinonimo di filosofia (idealista) della natura, per il riferimento alla «Welt» che si perde in «Philosophie»; o ancora perché si intende evidenziare l’aspetto pratico o sapienziale, e a tal fine «Weisheit» risponde allo scopo tanto nella sua valenza prevalente di saggezza, quanto in quella comunque presente di sapienza.

- by Lorenzo Fossati
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- German Idealism, Bernard Bolzano, Christian Wolff, 19th-century German philosophy
- by Jasper Doomen
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- Programming Languages, Philosophy, Metaphysics, Philosophy of Mind

Heidegger et le logos apophantikos. Herméneutique du langage ordinaire RÉSUMÉ. — On présente ici l'herméneutique de Martin Heidegger. On montre qu'elle n'est pas seulement un plan qui sous-tend le langage propositionnel et qui en fonde la structure, mais qu'on peut aussi la déceler sur le plan des propositions ordinaires. Car une proposition ordinaire n'a pas une signification théorique qui reposerait sur un plan pratique où l'on comprendrait les outils autour de nous avant de les dire ; elle possède elle aussi un rapport pratique aux outils, et immédiatement. Dire « les fleurs sont belles », ce n'est pas leur attribuer théoriquement la qualité « beauté », mais c'est pratiquer d'une certaine façon un contexte (une balade dans un jardin, la visite d'un jardin botanique…) et inscrire la phrase dans ce contexte. Dès lors se pose à une telle approche phénoméno-logique de la proposition la question de savoir ce qui vient normer nos pratiques linguis-tiques. On pense du même coup, au moyen de quelques indications de Heidegger, les normes sociales, propres à notre culture, qui déterminent et contraignent la signification de nos phrases. Ainsi, la phénoménologie pensée comme herméneutique s'associe à la philosophie des normes pour décrire le langage ordinaire. ABSTRACT. — We present here the hermeneutics of Martin Heidegger. We show that this hermeneutics is not only a plan that underlies the propositional language and that is the foundation of its structure, but that it can also be detected at the level of ordinary propositions. For an ordinary proposition does not have a theoretical meaning which is based on a practical plan in which we understand tools around us before saying them ; she also has a practical report to the tools, and immediately. To say " the flowers are beautiful " is not theoretically attributing the quality of " beauty " to the flowers, but it is practicing a certain context (a walk in a garden, visiting a botanical garden…) and writing the sentence in this context. Therefore, the phenomenological approach of the proposition raises the question of what norms our linguistic practices. At the same time, by means of some indications from Heidegger, we think the social norms peculiar to our culture which determine and constrain the meaning of our sentences. Thus, phenomen-ology thought as hermeneutics associates itself with the philosophy of norms to describe ordinary language.

- by Paul Slama
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- Metaphysics, Logic, Max Scheler, Aristotle
- by Lorenzo Fossati
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- Bernard Bolzano

a cura di Vittorio Morfino e Luca Maria Scarantino

- by Vittorio Morfino
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- Epistemology, Plato, Philosophy Of Mathematics, Hegel

A preliminary inquiry into the relation of Bolzano's thought to that of Alain Badiou

- by Nick Nesbitt
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- Logic, Continental Philosophy, Marxist theory, Bernard Bolzano

Volumul de față – prilejuit de comemorarea filozofului Jan Patočka la Ambasada Republicii Cehe din București pe data de 26 aprilie 2017 – reuneşte contribuții semnate de cercetători români (Laura T. Ilea, Mihai Maci) şi internaționali (Lubica Ucnik, Václav Bělohradský) în vederea clarificãrii posibilitãților deschise de interogarea patockiana a lumii şi a “proiectului european” al căutării adevărului. De asemenea, lucrarea oferã cititorului român traducerea ineditã a Conferințelor de la Louvain. Despre contribuţia Boemiei la idealul ştiinţei moderne (traducere după ediţia franceză, confruntată cu varianta cehă de Anca Irina Ionescu, cu o prefață de Ion Copoeru).

Voglio presentare la traduzione italiana della Fundamentallehre di Bolzano (§§ 1-45 della Wissen-schaftslehre), spiegando i criteri dell’edizione. Parlerò così della ricezione di Bolzano in Italia e, più in generale, dell’interesse che questa pubblicazione può avere nel dibattito filosofico italiano. Si tratta di un capitolo interessante della storia degli effetti di Bolzano, perché vi si trovano esemplificati molti dei problemi che la diffusione del suo pensiero ha incontrato fin dall’inizio, per esempio la prevalenza dell’idealismo prima e dello stile filosofico continentale poi, la connessione della filosofia alla letteratura piuttosto che alla matematica e alle scienze dure.

- by Paolo Bucci
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- History of Logic, Bernard Bolzano, History of Philosophy
- by Lorenzo Fossati
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- Bernard Bolzano

El artículo tiene por objetivo analizar ciertos pasajes fundamentales de la Wissenschaftslehre y de las Paradoxien des Unendlichen de Bernard Bolzano en cuanto al análisis conjuntista se refiere. En dichos pasajes, Bolzano desarrolla conceptos fundamentales tales como multitud, colección e infinito que anticipan el carácter conjuntista y del análisis matemático moderno. Asimismo, se presentará un breve estudio de las Contribuciones a una más fundada exposición de la matemática y el apéndice, Sobre la teoría kantiana de la construcción de conceptos a través de intuiciones, textos donde Bolzano muestra su rechazo por Kant.

- by Luis Alberto Canela Morales
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- Philosophy Of Mathematics, Phenomenology, Bernard Bolzano, Lógica
- by Matthew W Parker
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- Set Theory, Metaphilosophy, Methodology, Galileo Galilei
- by Alfred Schramm
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- Probability Theory, Bernard Bolzano

For a long time Franz Brentano has been widely perceived almost exclusively as the re-discoverer of intentionality and the founder of the continental phenomenology. It was only during the last 30 years that his immense importance for the development of analytic philosophy (and also the arbitrariness of the very division between analytic and continental philosophy) became clear. This volume is devoted to Brentano’s influence on the Polish Analytic Philosophy better known under the name of: “Lvov-Warsaw School”.
The founder of this school – Casimir Twardowski was himself a student of Brentano. He took over Brentano’s intentionality thesis as well as many other elements of his philosophy (e.g. his non-propositional theory of judgement or the conviction that psychology is the only acceptable basis of any scientific philosophy), but at the same time, as early as in his doctoral dissertation On the Content and Object of Presentations, he severely criticised Brentano’s central idea of an ‘immanent object’.
The first three papers in this volume centre on this important Brentano-Twardowski connection. Dale Jacquette addresses the afore mentioned critique by Twardowski and elucidates his important distinction between content and object. Maria van der Schaar analyses Twardowski’s later development of the notion of content, which remained influenced by Husserl, and Arianna Betti argues that many aspects of Polish analytical philosophy could be better understood, if we focus rather on the traces of Bolzano’s thought in Twardowski’s philosophy.
The next two essays concern the philosophy of Stanisław Leśniewski, who is (beside Alfred Tarski and Jan Łukasiewicz) probably the most important Polish philosopher. Peter Simons traces important parallels between Brentano and Leśniewski, focusing mainly on reistic or particularist ideas which are relevant for the late Leśniewski, but beginning with his early critique of Brentano’s non-propositional theory of judgement in “A Contribution to the Analysis of Existential Propositions”. While Simons writes that “[t]he paper on existential propositions is […], apart from some of its incidental features, a complete mess” (p. ??? in this volume), Arkadiusz Chrudzimski tries to concentrate on these incidental features and make some sense of them.
Various facets of the reistic approach are also investigated by Barry Smith. He focuses mainly on Tadeusz Kotarbiński but also outlines some systematic relations between several kinds of reism.
In the next paper Dariusz Łukasiewicz describes the evolution of Tadeusz Czeżowski’s views concerning the concept of existence, which are closely connected with the Brentanian non-propositional theory of judgement.
If we were to choose the single most important and influential achievement of Polish philosophy, then the choice would most probably be the semantic definition of truth formulated by Alfred Tarski. In the last article of this volume Jan Woleński argues that Tarski’s discovery of semantics may have been influenced also by his remotely Brentanian background.

- by Arkadiusz Chrudzimski
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- Metaphysics, Ontology, Franz Brentano, Philosophical Logic