Adam Schaff (10 March 1913 – 12 November 2006) was a Polish

Marxist philosopher Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflict, and ...

Life

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

origin, Schaff was born in

Lemberg Lviv ( or ; ; ; see #Names and symbols, below for other names) is the largest city in western Ukraine, as well as the List of cities in Ukraine, fifth-largest city in Ukraine, with a population of It serves as the administrative centre of ...

(Lwow, Lviv) into a lawyer's family. Schaff studied economics at the ''Ecole des Sciences Politiques et Economiques'' in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, and

philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

in Poland, specializing in

epistemology Epistemology is the branch of philosophy that examines the nature, origin, and limits of knowledge. Also called "the theory of knowledge", it explores different types of knowledge, such as propositional knowledge about facts, practical knowle ...

. In 1945 he received a philosophy degree at

Moscow University Moscow State University (MSU), officially M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University,. is a public research university in Moscow, Russia. The university includes 15 research institutes, 43 faculties, more than 300 departments, and six branches. Al ...

, and in 1948 he returned to

Warsaw University The University of Warsaw (, ) is a public research university in Warsaw, Poland. Established on November 19, 1816, it is the largest institution of higher learning in the country, offering 37 different fields of study as well as 100 specializat ...

. He was considered the official ideologue of the

Polish United Workers' Party The Polish United Workers' Party (, ), commonly abbreviated to PZPR, was the communist party which ruled the Polish People's Republic as a one-party state from 1948 to 1989. The PZPR had led two other legally permitted subordinate minor parti ...

, especially during its Stalinist period. He was a member of the

Polish Academy of Sciences The Polish Academy of Sciences (, PAN) is a Polish state-sponsored institution of higher learning. Headquartered in Warsaw, it is responsible for spearheading the development of science across the country by a society of distinguished scholars a ...

and of the

Club of Rome The Club of Rome is a nonprofit, informal organization of intellectuals and business leaders whose goal is a critical discussion of pressing list of global issues, global issues. The Club of Rome was founded in 1968 at Accademia dei Lincei in R ...

Works

* ''Word and Concept'' * ''Language and Cognition'' * ''Introduction to Semantics'' * ''Problems of the Marxist Theory of Truth'' * ''A Philosophy of Man'' Several of Schaff's works were translated into German by Witold Leder.

External links

Adam Schaff (1913-2006) - Necrology

References

1913 births 2006 deaths Writers from Lviv Marxist theorists 20th-century Polish philosophers Jewish philosophers 20th-century Polish Jews Jewish socialists Polish United Workers' Party members Academic staff of the University of Warsaw Recipients of the State Award Badge (Poland) Jews from Austria-Hungary Jews from Galicia (Eastern Europe) {{Poland-philosopher-stub

Life

Works

External links

See also

References