Bohdan Dziemidok was born on October 4, 1933, in Slonim, then in the Nowogródek Voivodeship of Poland and now in Belarus. His intellectual and professional life developed across Poland and the wider international academic community. He later maintained close connections with Lublin, Gdańsk, and Warsaw through his university appointments and teaching.
Dziemidok studied at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Leningrad, now Saint Petersburg State University, from 1951 to 1956. After beginning his academic career at Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin, he earned his doctorate in 1963 and received his habilitation in 1977. His later research was strengthened by international fellowships, including a Ford Foundation fellowship in the United States in 1967–1968 and an American Council of Learned Societies fellowship in 1978. He also undertook shorter research stays in Oxford, Tokyo, and Berlin and held visiting teaching appointments in Chicago and Moscow.
Dziemidok began his academic career in September 1956 as a researcher at Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin. He advanced there from assistant to assistant professor and then associate professor, holding these positions between 1956 and 1982. At the university he also served as associate dean of the Faculty of Humanities from 1970 to 1975. From 1979 to 1981 he directed the Institute of Philosophy, and from 1981 to 1982 he served as its vice-president. In 1983 he joined the University of Gdańsk, where he became professor and held major academic and administrative responsibilities. He directed the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology from 1983 to 1988, led the Department of Ethics and Aesthetics, and served as dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences from 1996 to 1999. He played a central role in establishing an independent philosophy degree program at the University of Gdańsk in 1996. He also taught at the University of Gdańsk, Maria Curie-Skłodowska University, and SWPS University in Warsaw, lectured in ethics at the Faculty of Law and in aesthetics at the Gdańsk Academy of Music, and worked as a visiting professor at universities in Oxford, Chicago, Tokyo, Berlin, and Moscow. His scholarship made him one of Poland's leading specialists in Anglo-American aesthetics and philosophy of art.
Helped establish philosophy as an independent field of study at the University of Gdańsk in 1996.
Published more than 140 scholarly dissertations, articles, and other academic works, including studies that were translated into English, Russian, and other languages.
Became one of Poland's leading specialists in Anglo-American aesthetics and philosophy of art.
Integracyjna i dezintegracyjna rola artystycznych środków przekazu w kształtowaniu tożsamości narodowej i jednoczeniu Europy
(International anthology edited by Dziemidok on the integr...)
2001(International anthology co-edited with Peter McCormick on...)
1989Estetyczne i filozoficzne pisma Stanisława Ossowskiego
(Scholarly selection of Stanisław Ossowski's writings, edi...)
2004Amerikanskaja filosofia iskustwa
(Russian-language anthology of writings by American aesthe...)
1997Ocalenie przez sztukę. Sztuka i społeczeństwo. Tom 1
(Volume associated with Dziemidok's scholarly work on art ...)
1973Problematyka wartościowania w amerykańskiej filozofii i estetyce XX wieku
(Edited jointly with A. Ceynowa and M. Janiak; a collectio...)
1995(A philosophical study of the comic, humor, comedy, laught...)
1967Filozofia i sztuka życia
(A philosophical reflection on the art of living, includin...)
2017Teoria przeżyć i wartości estetycznych w polskiej estetyce dwudziestolecia międzywojennego
(A study of aesthetic experiences and aesthetic values in ...)
1980Główne kontrowersje estetyki współczesnej
(A major study of controversies in contemporary aesthetics...)
2002Sztuka, wartości, emocje
(A philosophical examination of art, values, and emotions ...)
1992Teoretyczne i praktyczne kłopoty z wartościami i wartościowaniem
(A philosophical study of theoretical and practical proble...)
2013Amerykańska aksjologia i estetyka XX wieku
(A study of twentieth-century American axiology and aesthe...)
2014Dziemidok's philosophical work centered on aesthetics, ethics, axiology, artistic value, aesthetic experience, humor, popular art, and the role of art in individual and collective life. He argued for the continuing relevance of philosophy to ordinary human concerns and treated reflection on values and the art of living as connected dimensions of philosophical inquiry.
Dziemidok served on the Committee of Philosophical Sciences of the Polish Academy of Sciences. He belonged to the Polish Philosophical Society, the Polish Aesthetic Society, the Lublin Scientific Society, the American Society for Aesthetics, the Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy, the Slovenian Society for Aesthetics, and the International Association for Aesthetics. He was first vice-president of the International Association for Aesthetics from 1992 to 1993. He also served as editor in chief of Studia Estetyczne in 1998 and sat on the editorial boards of the Journal of Value Inquiry, Philosophical Inquiry, Acta Philosophica, Polish Philosophical Review, Estetyka i Krytyka, and Humor.
Member.
Committee of Philosophical Sciences of the Polish Academy of Sciences , Poland
Member.
Polish Philosophical Society , Poland
Member.
Polish Aesthetic Society , Poland
Member.
Lublin Scientific Society , Poland
Member.
American Society for Aesthetics , United States
Member.
Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy , United States
Member.
Slovenian Society for Aesthetics , Slovenia
First vice-president.
International Association for Aesthetics , International
1992 - 1993
He was remembered by students and colleagues as approachable, warm, intellectually encouraging, and marked by a strong sense of humor and self-irony. His teaching emphasized critical thinking and philosophical reflection, and contemporaries associated him with an optimistic disposition, inner calm, loyalty, justice, and kindness toward others.
Quotes from others about the person
Colleagues and former students remembered Dziemidok as a warmly humane teacher who presented others with generosity and humor and encouraged students to think critically and reflect philosophically.
Dziemidok was married to Hanna Zofia and was the father of Paweł, Piotr-Paweł, and Rafał-Andrzej. His academic work was closely connected with the University of Gdańsk, where he taught several generations of students and helped create the university's independent philosophy program. He collaborated internationally with scholars of aesthetics and philosophy of art, including Peter McCormick and Ken-ichi Sasaki.
