A New Organon

When Poland became independent in 1918, knowledge about organizing the state and society gained utmost importance. Until 1939 sociologists, philosophers, pedagogues, and representatives of the natural sciences met around the journal Nauka Polska and the Science Studies Circle (Koło Naukoznawcze) to discuss the advancement of science and the academic system. They asked how scientific creativity could be generated and stabilized (Antoni B. Dobrowolski), how a socio-psychological “science of knowledge” should look like (Florian Znaniecki), or how society would benefit from a “science of science” (Maria Ossowska und Stanisław Ossowski). Unlike other contemporary reflections on science, such as those of Ludwik Fleck, most of these ideas have fallen into oblivion. This volume reconstructs the forgotten history of the Warsaw based initiative and presents key contributions in English translation, many for the first time.