Hubert BożekDepartament of Logic and Science Methodology
Institute of Philosophy and Sociology
Pedagogical University o Cracow
The Double-faced Relativism:
Chwistek and Fleck
Ludwik Fleck- Traditions, Inspirations, Interpretations
Wrocław, 20th of March 2014
1. Introduction: main points of this presentation
- Some facts from the life Leon Chwistek
- A brief Introduction to the Theory of Multiple Realities (MRT) by
Chwistek
- Relativist and onto-logical interpretation of MRT
- Applliction of Ludwik Fleck’s Thought Colectives/Styles Theory to MRT
- Further disscusion…
2. Leon Chwistek (1884 – 1944)
Polish logician, philosopher and painter
- 1884: born in Kraków.
- 1903 – 1904: studies painting at the Fine Arts Academy in Kraków.
- 1906: Doctorate (‘On Axioms’ – unpublished) at the Jagiellonianian University.
- 1908 – 1909: studies mathematics and philosophy in Getingen (meets H. Poincary).
- 1913 - 1914: Studies drawing in Paris.
- 1914; joins the 1st Brigade of the Polish Legioners. .
- 1930: Habilitation at the Jagiellonian University.
- 1930: Appointed Head of the Departament of Methematical Logic at the Faculty of
Mathematics and Natural Science at the Jan Kazimierz University in Lwów and
moves to Lwów.
- 1935: His main work Limits of science published.
- 1936: writes a laudatory review of Ludwik Fleck’s book.Entstehung und Entwicklung
einer wissenschaftlichen Tatsache.
- 1941: Evacuated with the Soviet personnel in the face of German advance on Lwów..
- 1944: dies in Barwicha near Moscow.
3. Theory of Multiple Realities – an outline
Main works on MRT:
- 1906: Meaning and Reality (unpublished until 2006): ‘worlds of
experience’;
- 1917: Three Lectures on the Notion of Existance (‘reality of
impresions v.s. reality of things’);
- 1918: Multiple Realities in Art.;
- 1921: Multiple Realities;
- 1935: Litmits of Science (English translation: 1948).
3. Theory of Multiple Realities – an outline (cont’d)
In brief:
(1) We can conceive many ‘realities’ instead of one.
(2) These ‘realities’ can be cosntructed in a way analogous to logical
systems based on certain sets of axioms.
(3) These systems are internally coherent but they contradict each
other externally.
(4) There are no metasystematical criteria to choose between them.
3. Theory of Multiple Realities – an outline (cont’d)
(I) Reality of impressions
(1) wx → ix
(2) bx → ix
(3a) ∀x (ix → wx v bx)
(4a) wx ≡ wjx
(4d) ∃x ¬(wx ≡ wnx)
(II) Reality of things
(1) wx → ix
(2) bx → ix
(3b) ∃x (ix ˄ ¬ wx ˄ ¬ bx)
(4a) wx ≡ wjx
(4c) wx ≡ wnx
(III) Reality of imagination
(1) wx → ix
(2) bx → ix
(3a) ∀x (ix → wx v bx)
(4b) ∃x ¬(wx ≡ wjx)
(4d) ∃x ¬(wx ≡ wnx)
(IV) Physical reality
(1) wx → ix
(2) bx → ix
(3b) ˅x (ix ˄ ¬ wx ˄ ¬ bx)
(4a) wx ≡ wjx
(4d) ∃x ¬(wx ≡ wnx)
3. Theory of Multiple Realities – an outline (cont’d)
ix – x exists
wx – x is perceivable
bx – x is immedietly given
wjx - x is perceivable when awake
wnx – x is perceivable in normal conditions
4. The Model Theory interpretation of MRT (Teresa
Kostyrko)
Chwistek’s ‘realities’ as proper models of different ontologies:
„If there are at least two syntactically non-identical theories of reality
and each of them has a proper model, there are at least two
realities, i.e. two different domains serving respectively as two
different proper models of these theories.”
(Kostyrko: 1968, p. 96).
5. Relativist ontology meets relativst epistemology:
Chwistek and Fleck
„Fleck’s book revolves in the sphere of bacteriology, however it is
written in a way, which enables any intelligent person to read it with
both pleasure and profit. The book belongs to the province of
methodology and epistemology and I will not exaggerate by saying
that it is a turning point in the history of these disciplines, who are
still largely prevailed by the murk of archaic superstition.”
(Chwistek: 1936, p. 6)
5. Relativist ontology meets relativst epistemology:
Chwistek and Fleck (cont’d)
- unidealised vision of a scientific fact as a weapon in the struggle for
scientific rationality
- the danger of subjectivism
- the need for a structural orderliness in the theory of scientific fact
6. For further discussion…
- Model Theory version of MRT as an anti-metaphysical tool (the
question of idealised facts)
- Can epistemology be reduced to sociology, history etc?
- Local ontologies and relativist metaphysics – can we not assume an
existance?
7. Literature References
• CHROBAK, Karol (2004): Niejedna rzeczywistość. Racjonalizm krytyczny Leona Chwistka, Kraków: Inter-Esse.
• CHWISTEK, Leon (1917): Trzy odczyty odnoszące się do pojęcia istnienia, Przegląd Filozoficzny, XX, 122-151.
• CHWISTEK, Leon (1918): Wielość rzeczywistości w sztuce, Maski, 1-4.
• CHWISTEK, Leon (1921): Wielość rzeczywistości, Kraków: Ministerstwo Wyznań Religijnych i Oświecenia Publicznego.
• CHWISTEK, Leon (1935): Granice nauki: zarys logiki i metodologii nauk ścisłych, Lwów, Warszawa: Książnica-Atlas.
• CHWISTEK, Leon (1936): Ciekawa książka, ‘Pion’, n. 33 (150)
• FLECK, Ludwik (1986): Powstanie i rozwój faktu naukowego, Lublin: Wydawnictwo Lubelskie
• KOSTYRKO, Teresa (1968): Interpretacja koncepcji wielości rzeczywistości L. Chwistka, Studia Metodologiczne, 4, 89-104.
• QUINE, Willard van Orman (1961): From a Logical Point of View, London: Harper&Row.
Thank you very much
for your attention!
