The academic virtues in public discussion: Adam Schaff and the campaign against the Lvov-Warsaw School in post-war Poland

Adam Schaff was at the front of the ideological campaign organized in post-war Poland during the wave of Stalinization. By attempting to adapt the Soviet “model” of public discussion to Polish academia, Schaff wanted to teach the representatives of the Lvov-Warsaw School of logic how to lead a scholarly debate. Schaff ’s group consisted of young scholars from the Instytut Kształcenia Kadr Naukowych [Institute for Education of Scientific Staff] and with critical reviews on the works of Polish logicians they tried to force their opponents to change the basic principles of their academic practice under the new circumstances. Nevertheless, Schaff ’s project failed since, unlike Soviet scholars, the participants in the discussion referred to different academic virtues that made the adaptation of the Soviet model of public discussion impossible.Cnoty akademickie w dyskusji publicznej: Adam Schaff i kampania przeciwko szkole lwowsko-warszawskiej w powojennej Polsce Artykuł dotyczy kampanii ideologicznej prowadzonej przez Adama Schaffa, zorganizowanej w powojennej Polsce na fali stalinizacji. Próbując dostosować radziecki „model” dyskusji publicznej do polskiego środowiska akademickiego, Schaff chciał „nauczyć” przedstawicieli lwowsko-warszawskiej szkoły logiki, jak prowadzić debatę naukową. Pisząc krytyczne recenzje prac polskich logików, grupa Schaffa, w skład której wchodzili młodzi naukowcy z Instytutu Kształcenia Kadr Naukowych, próbowała zmusić swoich przeciwników do zmiany podstawowych zasad praktyki akademickiej w nowych warunkach. Niemniej jednak projekt Schaffa nie powiódł się, ponieważ, w przeciwieństwie do sowieckich uczonych, uczestnicy dyskusji odnosili się do różnych cnót akademickich, które uniemożliwiały adaptację „radzieckiego modelu” dyskusji publicznej

Conceptualising ‘Anti-Zionism’: Piasecki’s Group as an Intellectual Resource for the 1968 Antisemitic Campaign in People’s Poland

March 1968 has become one of the most significant dates in Polish history in the 20th century. The student demonstrations and antisemitic campaigning caused considerable changes in the social, political and cultural landscape of the Polish state. This article covers the participation of the Catholic group PAX headed by Boleslaw Piasecki in the ‘Anti-Zionist’ campaign of 1968. This question will be analysed both within the socio-political context of 1968 and in retrospect, with a focus on the intellectual genealogy of Piasecki’s group

On the Way to 'Unity': Jozef Chalasinski and the Search for a 'Permissible' Genealogy of Sociology in Post-War Poland (1945-1951)

This article deals with the public debates on the genealogy of Polish social sciences after the Second World War. The author shows how the changes in political conditions in the period between the end of the war (1945) and the 'Stalinisation' of Polish science at the First Congress of Polish Science (1951) influenced the 'limits of the permissible' in public discussions about the scientific identity of sociology. The article describes the stages in the development of public discourse on the genealogy of the social sciences and thematises the increasing influence of the political agenda on the public practices of academics. When, immediately after the war, continuity with inter-war tradition, and the limited character of the Marxist approach, were particularly emphasised in the public discourse on the genealogy of social sciences, the beginning of the 'Stalinisation' of public space in 1948 forced the scholars to put emphasis on the political role of sociology, which, according to them, belonged to the 'progressive camp' together with Marxism. The closing of the sociological departments, and a journal, between 1950 and 1951 started a new stage of the debates within the preparatory meetings for the scientific congress. At this congress, the task of the social scientists was to construct, together with philosophers, a 'progressive scientific tradition' in Poland. For the Polish social scientists, the congress was a task to write a 'mathematical equation' with a known result and several mandatory elements such as 'the progressive national tradition,' 'Marxism-Leninism,' and 'six-year plan.' However, even under strong political pressure, the participants in the discussions did not come to a compromise concerning the progressive tradition of the Polish social sciences, and did not achieve the necessary 'unity.

The “Scientific View” of the Intelligentsia: The Literary Roots of Scholarly Public Debates in Post-War Poland (1946–1948)

This paper addresses the public discussions among Polish scholars and social scientists which took place following the Second World War. The debate on the sociological and historical genealogy of the Polish intelligentsia started with the publication of a lecture given by the sociologist Józef Chałasiński. Covering this debate, the paper shows the way in which the literary and publicist stereotypes came to be a research question for the Social Sciences and Humanities