Jan Woleński

Jan Hertrich-Woleński (also known as Jan Woleński; born 21 September 1940) is a Polish philosopher specializing in the history of the Lwów–Warsaw school of logic and in analytic philosophy.

He has spent most of his academic career at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, where he is currently Professor Emeritus. His main fields of research are logic, epistemology, and the history of philosophy in Poland. He was chosen a member of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences and Warsaw Scientific Society.

Life Jan Woleński was born in Radom, Poland on 21 September 1940. His first interest was law and he began studies at Jagiellonian University in 1958. Soon philosophy drew his attention and by 1963 he was employed in the Department of State and Law as an assistant professor. He looked to analytical jurisprudence in the United Kingdom, and with the guidance of Kazimierz Opałek, in 1968, he produced his thesis. Continuing his ascent, he produced a Habilitation in 1972: Problems in the Interpretations of Law. In 1974 he straddled two positions: the Institute of Social Sciences at the Academy of Mining and Metallurgy, and lecturer on philosophy of science at the Institute of Philosophy at Jagiellonian University. His doctoral students include Tomasz Placek, Katarzyna Kijania-Placek, , , and .

He is on the consulting board of the philosophy journal, Theoria.

Institute Vienna Circle held a conference in 1997 on the Austro-Polish connections in logical empiricism. Woleński described the semantic theory of truth in his introductory essay, "Semantic Revolution – Rudolf Carnap, Kurt Gödel, Alfred Tarski". It was followed by a score of contributions from philosophers. Working with Eckehart Köhler, Wolenski edited the papers and the collection was published as Alfred Tarski and the Vienna Circle.

In November 2004 he received Kraków Book of the Month Award for the book . In 2013 Woleński was awarded the Prize of the Foundation for Polish Science for a comprehensive analysis of the work of the Lwów-Warsaw school and for placing its achievements within the context of international discourse in contemporary philosophy.

Woleński was a plenary speaker at the second world congress on religion and logic held in Warsaw, June 18 to 22, 2017. He has continued academic involvement at the University of Information Technology and Management in Rzeszów Poland.

Personal Woleński is active in Poland's atheist movement. In the 1960s he was a member of the government-sponsored Association of Atheists and Freethinkers, and since 2007 he is a member of the Honorary Committee of the Polish Rationalist Association. He is widely recognized in Poland as an atheist and has promoted the replacement of religion classes with philosophy classes in Polish schools.

Woleński is involved in the secular Jewish movement, writing on the common Polish-Jewish past and on today's Polish-Jewish relations. He is a member of B'nai B'rith and was deputy president of its Polish chapter from 2007 to 2012.

He was a member of the Polish United Workers' Party (the Polish communist party) from 1965 to 1981. From 1980 to 1990 he was a member of the Solidarity (Polish trade union) movement.

Works In English and French

Woleński, Jan, Essays on Logic and Its Applications in Philosophy, Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main 2011; Woleński, Jan, L’école de Lvov-Varsovie : Philosophie et logique en Pologne (1895-1939), Vrin, Paris 2011; Woleński, Jan, Historico-Philosophical Essays, v. 1, Copernicus Center Press, Kraków 2013; Woleński, Jan, Logic and Its Philosophy, Peter Lang, Berlin 2018; Woleński, Jan, Semantics and Truth, Springer Nature, Heidelberg 2019;

In Polish Woleński, Jan (1980). Z zagadnień analitycznej filozofii prawa, Quaestiones ad philosophiam analyticam iuris pertinentes, Warsaw, PWN. Woleński, Jan (1985). Filozoficzna szkoła lwowsko-warszawska, Warsaw, PWN. Woleński, Jan (1990). Kotarbiński, Wiedza Powszechna, Warsaw. Woleński, Jan (1993). Metamatematyka a epistemologia, Warsaw, PWN. Woleński, Jan (1996). W stronę logiki, Aureus, Cracow. Woleński, Jan (1997). Szkoła Lwowsko-Warszawska w polemikach, Warsaw, Scholar. Woleński, Jan (1999). Okolice filozofii prawa, Cracow, Universitas. Woleński, Jan (2000). Epistemologia, 3 volumes, Cracow, Aureus (reedited in one volume in 2005 by WN PWN, Warsaw). Woleński, Jan (2004). Granice niewiary, Cracow, Wydawnictwo Literackie.