Creating nationality in Central Europe, 1880–1950. Modernity, violence and (be)longing in Upper Silesia

Abstract

Attention is also paid to Twardowski’s successors such as Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz, Tadeusz Czeżowski, and Kotarbiński, who were guided by the idea that ‘the subjects of humanities are expressions of mental products’ (p. 281). Darius Łukasiewicz, speaking of Czeżowski’s ‘Brentanian turn’ (p. 122), admits a definite influence of Jan Łukasiewicz even in the adoption of Brentano, and explains how Czeżowski nevertheless kept his footing in both moral aspects of philosophy and accurate methods, as many LWS scholars did. The moral connotation that Czeżowski found in Twardowski’s theory of action and products also resonates with Kotarbiński’s formal analysis, as Marta Zaręba discusses. Her paper builds a firm bridge between the LWS and the Anglo-Saxon modus operandi. Stepan Ivanyk’s chapter, entitled ‘The Lvov-Warsaw School as a Multicultural Phenomenon, Ukrainian Aspect’, deserves special mention, for it deals with the Ukrainian city that nurtured the ideas of the School. It is indeed important to understand that the Galicia’s capital Lvov on the side of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the reborn capital Warsaw that belonged to Imperial Russia for centuries faced varying socio-political circumstances. Hence the philosophy of the LWS, which in principle reflected contemporary problems and maintained the sense of reality, might have resulted in different investigations. As he points out, Twardowski was as much remarkable to Ukrainian students as for Poles. Neither nationality nor ethnicity mattered to Twardowski in his teachings. The luminary opened his lectures to Jewish students, too (p. 57). Marcin Tkaczyk’s contribution also emphasizes the influence that the LWS exerted on the theologians of the Cracow Circle, including Józef M. Bocheński and Jan Salamucha, who held the applicability of formal argumentations in high regard. Both authors took regional dynamics within modern Polish cities into account. Overall, the editors of this book have succeeded in providing new research perspectives on the LWS. They have not, however, discussed the concept of European culture enough. In order to understand the LWS’s role more precisely, it is necessary to rethink the history of the School in the wider social and intellectual contexts of the twentieth century.