Piotr Lenartowicz (25 August 1934 – 10 October 2012) was a Polish philosopher, vitalist, professor of philosophy at the

Jesuit University of Philosophy and Education Ignatianum Jesuit University Ignatianum in Kraków (''JUI'') is a private Catholic higher education institution run by the Society of Jesus in Kraków, Poland. It is officially recognized by the state of Poland. It has faculties of philosophy conferring the ...

, jesuit.

Life

Lenartowicz was born in Warsaw, Poland, the son of Wiesław Lenartowicz and Krystyna Schneider. He completed his medical studies at School of Medicine in Warsaw in 1958. In 1961 he obtained a doctorate in neurophysiology at the School of Medicine in Warsaw. Studied philosophy (Lic. in philosophy (Jesuit Faculty of Philosophy, Cracow, 1965) and theology Lic. in theology (Jesuit Faculty of Theology, Warsaw, 1970). He studied philosophy in Rome, at the Philosophical Faculty of

Pontifical Gregorian University The Pontifical Gregorian University ( it, Pontificia Università Gregoriana; also known as the Gregorian or Gregoriana,) is a higher education ecclesiastical school (pontifical university) located in Rome, Italy. The Gregorian originated as ...

, and received a doctorate in developmental biology in 1975. He received another degree (doctor habilitowany) at the Philosophical Faculty of Pontifical Academy of Theology, Cracow, working on theory of biological phenomena, in 1986. In 1999 he became a full professor. Lenartowicz participated in seminars in

Castel Gandolfo Castel Gandolfo (, , ; la, Castrum Gandulphi), colloquially just Castello in the Castelli Romani dialects, is a town located southeast of Rome in the Lazio region of Italy. Occupying a height on the Alban Hills overlooking Lake Albano, Caste ...

invited by

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

. He was a member of the

and at one time was vice president of that institution.

Work

His main interests revolve around philosophy of biology including integration of biological phenomena, theory of the genetic program, aristotelian theory of biological substance, cognitive aspects of biological dynamisms, problems of biological observation, experimentation and concept formation, and reconstruction of fossil hominids. Lenartowicz wrote about the principles of

irreducible complexity Irreducible complexity (IC) is the argument that certain biological systems with multiple interacting parts would not function if one of the parts was removed, so supposedly could not have evolved by successive small modifications from earlier ...

before the hypothesis gained ground after the publication of Michael Behe's

Darwin's Black Box ''Darwin's Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution'' (1996; second edition 2006) is a book by Michael J. Behe, a professor of biochemistry at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania and a senior fellow of the Discovery Institute's Center for ...

. In his dissertation Phenotype-Genotype Dichotomy published in 1975, he described irreducibility of certain biological phenomena.Lenartowicz, P., Fundamental patterns of biochemical integration. Part I. The functional dynamism, Ann. Fac. Philosophicae SJ, Cracoviae 1993, p. 203-21

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Notes and references

Publications

Lenartowicz, P. (1975) Phenotype-Genotype Dichotomy (in English). Pontif. Univ.Gregoriana, Roma, 1975.
* Lenartowicz, P. Philosophy of Biological Phenomena (in Polish), WAM, Cracow, 1985. * Lenartowicz, P. Theory of cognition (Polish text), Jesuit Philosophical Faculty, Cracow, 1995. * Lenartowicz Piotr, Koszteyn Jolanta, Introduction to philosophical questions (in Polish), Jesuit University of Philosophy and Education Ignatianum - WAM, Cracow, , 2000. * Vivere & Intelligere. Selected papers by Piotr Lenartowicz SJ published on his 75th birthday. Jesuit University of Philosophy and Education Ignatianum - WAM, Cracow, 2009. * Lenartowicz, P. People or Manapes. Problem of Human Genealogy (in Polish; Summary in English), Jesuit University of Philosophy and Education Ignatianum, Cracow, 2010. * Lenartowicz, P. Theory of cognition (new edition, in Polish), WAM, Ignatianum, Cracow, 2014. * The complete list of publications Dzieła Piotra Lenartowicza

External links

jezuici.pl
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lenartowicz, Piotr 1934 births 2012 deaths Pontifical Gregorian University alumni 20th-century Polish Jesuits Intelligent design advocates Writers from Warsaw 20th-century Polish philosophers 21st-century Polish philosophers