Philosophy of Tadeusz Garbowski

Abstract

The period between the two World Wars was very fruitful for Polish philosophy. The best known intellectual formation of that time was the Lvov–Warsaw School of Logic. At the time, when members of that school philosophized in the context of logic and mathematics, there was a group of thinkers in Cracow, who attempted at creating a philosophy of nature. Unfortunately, because of the outbreak of the Second World War, they have never produced any philosophical school. One of the first of Cracow philosophers of nature was the biologist, Tadeusz Garbowski. He died in 1939 in Sachsenhausen concentration camp, leaving several philosophical papers which focus mostly on the theory of evolution. In the present paper, the author critically reviews his analyses. A lot of his ideas, e.g., the one called by the author the 'evolutionary epistemology', can be found in works of later thinkers, for instance in the works of Konrad Lorenz. Although it is doubtful that they actually knew Garbowski's papers, it still seems to be worthwhile to notice this historical fact.