Work-in-Progress Talk
Propaedeutic of Philosophy
Austrian Influences on the Heritage of Polish Didactics of Philosophy
Datum: Mittwoch 5. Juni 2024, 13.15-14.45 Uhr
Ewelina Grądzka (UPJPII, Kraków, POL)
Abstract:
Propaedeutic of philosophy was introduced into the Polish educational system in the 19th c. during the Partitions while one part of Poland, called Galicia, belonged to the Austria-Hungarian Empire. In the paper, I will present how this heritage evolved and how it influenced Polish education after the independence in 1918. First, I will analyze a discussion in the 1920s among Polish philosophers on the goals and content of the future program of propaedeutic of philosophy that emphasized the need to evolve from the Austrian model of teaching psychology and logic only. Secondly, I will present the ideas of the central figure of that discussion, Kazimierz Twardowski. I will analyze how the program proposed by him evolved between 1921/1922 and 1935, from the confinement to psychology and logic to a program that included ethics, aesthetics, sociology and incorporated discussion as one of the methodological tools. Among the reasons for this development might be the influence of the discussion among Polish philosophers to which I refer in the paper, but also more general developments in education politics of the time, and finally reforms that took place in the Austrian school system since 1918/19. Unfortunately, the work on reforming the propaedeutics of philosophy was discontinued with the establishment of the communist regime in Poland after the Second World War.
