The lecture was held in English and took place via Zoom. Now it is available on our website! You can find video below. Warm welcome!

JÓZEF MARIA BOCHEŃSKI (1902-1995) is one of the most renowned Polish 20th-century logicians, analytic philosophers, Thomists and historians of philosophy. As a member of the Dominican Order and a theologian, he contributed greatly to the development of the Cracovian Analytical School of Thomism. As a philosopher he was not just a theoretician, but a practically involved thinker invited numerous times to consult various governments (West Germany, South Africa, USA, Argentina, Switzerland). His concise and clear style of writing marks an achievement in popularizing philosophy. The overall corpus of his works includes 42 larger philosophical works, numerous talks, short essays and volumes thereof popularizing philosophy as well as almost two hundred scientific articles. Among these publications A History of Formal Logic (Formale Logik, 1956) stands out as the world- renowned contribution to the history of philosophy.

The main subject of the proposed lecture is Bocheński’s understanding of philosophy. The lecture focuses on some of specific themes he developed, in particular the Dominican’s theory of thinking, truth and a human being. This demonstrates the consistency of the philosopher’s approach and enable the situating of the thinker within particular 20th-century philosophical traditions. It also discusses Bocheński’s metaphilosophical observations distinguishing various methods of practicing philosophy. The lecture is finalized with an analysis of the thinkers relevance to the contemporary culture and science.