The main part of Lectures on Polish Value Theory introduces the reader to value-theoretic topics that were the subject of animated discussion in Poland in the 20th century. The fruit of that dialogue forms an important chapter of modern Polish philosophy, a chapter written by authors who were very different from each other in many respects.
These philosophers differed in their conceptions of philosophy, in their methodological approaches and final conclusions – and in their Weltanschauung. Some of them, especially among the direct disciples of Kazimierz Twardowski, followed analytical approaches and, like Tadeusz Czeżowski, used the tools of logic in their work on problems of values. Roman Ingarden’s studies in aesthetics stand as exemplary achievements of a phenomenological approach. Maria Ossowska opted for a strictly descriptive approach to the study of morals. Henryk Elzenberg took an intuitionistic approach all his own, woven with subtle insights that he owed to such diverse sources as Marcus Aurelius’s meditations, French poetry, Goethe, and Gandhi and the larger religious heritage of India.
They differed also in how they assessed the outcome of their own studies. Tadeusz Czeżowski, Tadeusz Kotarbiński and Władysław Tatarkiewicz shared the view of Kazimierz Twardowski, the founder of the Lvov-Warsaw School, that the realm of values lies within the scope of the knowable, but Henryk Elzenberg abandoned his initial idea of constructing an axiological system that would be free of some of the flaws of G.E. Moore’s work. Despite the impressive number and breadth of Roman Ingarden’s axiological and especially his aesthetic studies, in one of his later works he shouldered the task of enumerating what we do not know about values. And while Maria Ossowska remained steadfast in the pursuit of her descriptive approach, she continued to entertain doubts about the possibility of ethical knowledge. Józef Maria Bocheński struck a similarly skeptical note when he said that that the role of the philosopher is to analyze, not to moralize.
In spite of all the differences, these authors have much in common. All were convinced that questions of values are critically important, important enough to make them devote a huge share of their intellectual effort to reflecting on them: for each of these thinkers, axiological reflection was integral to their life project. This reflection is marked by the exceptional care, seriousness and rigor with which it was carried out. It is striking how, in their different ways, they aimed to apprehend the facts and incorporate them into the sort of precise formulas that could build the structure of a well-formed argument. These common features reflect the position taken by Twardowski and his school. That position attracted many outside of Twardowski’s school, going on to become a part of the bonum commune of Polish philosophy in the 20th century.
Władysław Stróżewski, President, Polish Philosophical Society