Background
Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz was born on December 12, 1890, in Tarnopol in Galicia (now Ternopil, Ukraine). He was the son of Bronislaw Ajdukiewicz and Magdalene Gartner.
Universytetska St, 1, Lviv, L'vivs'ka oblast, Ukraine, 79000
The University of Lviv where Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz received a Doctor of Philosophy degree.
Wilhelmsplatz 1, 37073 Göttingen, Germany
The University of Göttingen where Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz studied.
The Silver Medal for Bravery that Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz received for rescuing soldiers behind a war gas shelter.
The Commander's Cross of Polonia Restituta that Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz received in 1954.
The Officer's Cross of Polonia Restituta that Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz received in 1951.
(Modern Polish philosophy has an impressive record as a po...)
Modern Polish philosophy has an impressive record as a powerful, innovating tradition, in many respects parallel to but independent of the development of analytical philosophy in Britain and America. Owing to an absence of adequate translations however, the work of its leading exponents has generally only been encountered second-hand. To remedy this, Quinton and Skolimowski have translated an introduction to philosophy written by Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz, probably the outstanding representative of the generation.
https://www.amazon.com/Problems-Theories-Philosophy-K-Ajdukiewicz/dp/0521099935
1949
Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz was born on December 12, 1890, in Tarnopol in Galicia (now Ternopil, Ukraine). He was the son of Bronislaw Ajdukiewicz and Magdalene Gartner.
Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz studied at elementary school in Krakow and a gymnasium in Lviv. In 1808 he entered the University of Lviv where he studied physics, philosophy and mathematics. In 1912, Ajdukiewicz received a Doctor of Philosophy degree. In 1913, he passed the state exam for a high school mathematics teacher. After that, he continued his studies at the University of Göttingen.
Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz joined the Austrian Army in 1915. He participated in the fighting at the Austrian-Italian front. In October 1918, he took command of the battery, and then an armored train in Krakow on behalf of the Polish army. In 1920, Ajdukiewicz volunteered to participate in the Polish-Bolshevik war from July to November and after that, he ended his service as captain of the artillery.
In 1922, Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz took up a post of a private lecturer at Jan Kazimierz University (now the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv). At the same time, he worked as a teacher in Lviv high schools and also taught at the Pedagogical Seminary. In 1925, Ajdukiewicz left the University of Lviv and became an associate professor at the University of Warsaw. At the beginning of 1928, he returned to Lviv, where he was appointed an associate professor at the University of Lviv. In 1934, he became a full professor and held this post until 1939.
During the Second World War, Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz stayed in Lviv. He served as a lecturer at the Lviv State Medical Institute (now Danylo Halytsky Lviv National Medical University) from 1940 to 1941. During the German occupation, he worked as an accountant in the Municipal Slaughterhouse. In 1944 he was appointed Head of the Department of Physics at the University of Lviv, holding the position until 1945.
After the war, Ajdukiewicz took the Chair of Theory and Methodology of Sciences at Adam Mickiewicz University and held this post until 1952. He also was Rector of Adam Mickiewicz University from 1948 to 1952. In 1954 Ajdukiewicz moved to Warsaw and in 1955 he became a Professor of Logic at the University of Warsaw. In 1957, he became Head of the Department of Logic at the University of Warsaw, leaving the University in 1961.
Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz published his first book Z metodologii nauk dedukcyjnych in 1921. Later he wrote such books as Zagadnienia i kierunki filozofii (Problems and Theories of Philosophy), Logika pragmatyczna (Pragmatic Logic) and The Scientific World-Perspective and Other essays. In 1953 he founded the journal Studia Logica. He was editor-in-chief of this journal until his death in 1963.
(Modern Polish philosophy has an impressive record as a po...)
1949Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz tried to be neutral when discussing different world-views – whether based on religion, on Marxist philosophy, or on spiritualist metaphysics – nonetheless, he did show sympathy with some views and pointed to the weaknesses of others. Ajdukiewicz himself subscribed to realism in regard to the limits of knowledge and to empiricism in regard to the source thereof. He was also quite explicit that ethics should not be based on metaphysical premises such as God, the freedom of the will, and the immortality of the soul.
In the 40-50s Ajdukiewicz, primarily under the influence of Alfred Tarski, rejected radical conventionalism, becoming a supporter of radical empiricism. At this time, Aydukevich put forward the thesis of the empirical interpretability of logic and its laws.
Quotations:
"By spreading logical culture, we prepare the foundation for a scientific world-view and by doing this we enable development."
"What then is the content of the concept of God common to all monotheistic religions? What remains, it seems, is only the emotional content: the highest enthusiasm and respect, humility and submissiveness."
Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz was a member of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences and the International Institute of Philosophy.
Quotes from others about the person
Adam Schaff: "Ajdukiewicz's view, published in the Erkenntnis, certainly did not fail to influence the opinions held by the neo-positivist supporters of semantic philosophy. But Ajdukiewicz was not alone in his opinions which fitted Carnap's principle of tolerance and, e.g., the theories of C. G. Hempel."
Vito Sinisi: "Ajdukiewicz was one of the most distinguished and important philosophers of contemporary Poland. He produced important ideas in logic, epistemology, philosophy of language, and ontology. He influenced Polish analytic philosophy very much."
Dariusz Łukasiewicz: "Ajdukiewicz’s philosophy was strongly inspired by the rationalism of Kazimierz Twardowski as well as by some ideas of the Vienna Circle. However, in contrast to the latter's logical empiricism, Ajdukiewicz could be interpreted as holding that beliefs constituting our world-view have both logical value and cognitive content – they cannot be construed as mere expression of some emotions."
Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz married Maria Ajdukiewicz in 1920. The marriage produced two children.