Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz (; 12 December 1890 – 12 April 1963) was a Polish

philosopher 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 ...

and

logician Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the study of deductively valid inferences or logical truths. It examines how conclusions follow from premises based on the structure of arg ...

, a prominent figure in the Lwów–Warsaw school of logic. He originated many novel ideas in

semantics Semantics is the study of linguistic Meaning (philosophy), meaning. It examines what meaning is, how words get their meaning, and how the meaning of a complex expression depends on its parts. Part of this process involves the distinction betwee ...

. Among these was categorial grammar, a highly flexible framework for the analysis of natural language syntax and (indirectly) semantics that remains a major influence on work in

formal linguistics Formal linguistics is a branch of mathematical linguistics which uses formal languages, formal grammars and first-order logical expressions for the analysis of natural languages. Formal linguistics forms much of the basis of computational linguisti ...

. Ajdukiewicz's fields of research were

model theory In mathematical logic, model theory is the study of the relationship between theory (mathematical logic), formal theories (a collection of Sentence (mathematical logic), sentences in a formal language expressing statements about a Structure (mat ...

and the

philosophy of science Philosophy of science is the branch of philosophy concerned with the foundations, methods, and implications of science. Amongst its central questions are the difference between science and non-science, the reliability of scientific theories, ...

Biography

Ajdukiewicz was born in 1890 in Tarnopol in Galicia, which at that time, due to

Partitions of Poland The Partitions of Poland were three partition (politics), partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth that took place between 1772 and 1795, toward the end of the 18th century. They ended the existence of the state, resulting in the eli ...

, was annexed by

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe#Before World War I, Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military ...

( The Austrian Partition). His father was a senior civil servant. Ajdukiewicz studied at the University of Lwów, and lectured there, as well as in Warsaw and in Poznań. He received his PhD degree with the thesis on

Kant Immanuel Kant (born Emanuel Kant; 22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) was a German philosopher and one of the central Enlightenment thinkers. Born in Königsberg, Kant's comprehensive and systematic works in epistemology, metaphysics, et ...

's philosophy of space. He was Rector of the University of Poznań from 1948 to 1952. He was one of the founders of the journal ''

Studia Logica ''Studia Logica'' (full name: ''Studia Logica, An International Journal for Symbolic Logic'') is a scientific journal publishing papers employing formal tools from Mathematics and Logic. The scope of papers published in Studia Logica covers all sc ...

'' in its current incarnation, editing it from 1953 to his death.

Work

In his early epistemological system, which he called Radical Conventionalism, Ajdukiewicz analyzed any

language Language is a structured system of communication that consists of grammar and vocabulary. It is the primary means by which humans convey meaning, both in spoken and signed language, signed forms, and may also be conveyed through writing syste ...

as a set of expressions or sentences, with inferential ''rules of meaning'' that specify the relation of one expression to another, or to external data. There are three kinds of rules: Axiomatic, Deductive, and Empirical. Following the rules, one can map all knowable sentences of a language. However, some languages' vocabularies can produce ''disconnected'' sentences, which are only partly mapped by the ''meaning rules''. Therefore, when one uses a language, even scientific one, a ''conceptual apparatus'', an untranslatable set of meanings, is needed too, and with it a choice of the problems to be settled. For this reason the theory is a form of conventionalism, and it is radical because even simple experiential reports are exposed to these language-wide considerations. Ajdukiewicz discarded this theory as the 1930s progressed.

Bibliography

*1921 "Z metodologii nauk dedukcyjnych" *1923 "Główne kierunki filozofii" *1928 "Główne zasady metodologii nauk i logiki formalnej" *1931 "O znaczeniu wyrażeń" *1934 "Logiczne podstawy nauczania" *1938 "Propedeutyka filozofii" *1948 "Epistemologia i semantyka" *1949 "Zagadnienia i kierunki filozofii" *1952 "Zarys logiki" *1964 "Zagadnienia empiryzmu a koncepcja znaczenia" *1965 "Logika pragmatyczna" *1960–1965 "Język i poznanie. Wybór pism" *1966- Selected articles in "Logiczna Teoria Nauki" ( Logical Theory of Science) Ed. T.Pawłowski, Printed PWN, Warszawa. *Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz: ''Pragmatic Logic'',

Dordrecht Dordrecht (), historically known in English as Dordt (still colloquially used in Dutch, ) or Dort, is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Western Netherlands, lo ...

, Reidel, 1974 *Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz: ''Problems and Theories of Philosophy'', Cambridge,

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press was the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted a letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it was the oldest university press in the world. Cambridge University Press merged with Cambridge Assessme ...

, 1975 *Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz: ''The Scientific World-Perspective and Other essays 1931–1963'',

, Reidel, 1977

External links

Polish Philosophy Page: Kazimierz AjdukiewiczLwów–Warsaw school of logic
at the

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy The ''Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' (''SEP'') is a freely available online philosophy resource published and maintained by Stanford University, encompassing both an online encyclopedia of philosophy and peer-reviewed original publication ...

. Sections on Categorial Grammar and Radical Conventionalism. {{DEFAULTSORT:Ajdukiewicz, Kazimierz 1890 births 1963 deaths Writers from Ternopil 20th-century Polish philosophers Philosophers of science Polish logicians Members of the Polish Academy of Sciences University of Lviv alumni Academic staff of the University of Lviv Academic staff of the University of Warsaw

Biography

Work

Bibliography

See also

External links