The Science of Science (naukoznawstwo) in Poland: Defending and Removing the Past in the Cold War

Abstract

The chapter sketches the history of naukoznawstwo (literally meaning “science studies” or “science of science”) in Poland through World War II (1939–1945), the Soviet Communist dominance (1944–1989), the Cold War (1947–1991), to the present days. It describes the changing research perspectives of this interdisciplinary field of knowledge in Poland in the background of changing political conditions caused by the reconfigurations of political order. It outlines the fundamental achievements of main scholars (such as Florian Znaniecki, Maria and Stanisław Ossowski’s, Tadeusz Kotarbiński, Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz), committees (such as The Scientific Circle of Józef Mianowski Fund and The Science of Science Committee of the Polish Academy of Sciences), academic units (such as The Department of Praxeology and Science of Science at the Institute for the Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences), and university studies (The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Faculty of Philosophy).