The Methods of Contemporary Thought: Translated from the German by Peter Caws

by Józef Maria Bocheński

Professor Bochenski, as he himself points out in the prologue, is a logician; he is best known in England and the United States for his work in the history of logic, and more recently in Soviet and East European philosophy. But he has taught philosophy for many years - in Rome, in Switzerland, and on a number of visits to the United States - and in this book provides an elementary introduction to contemporary work in the field. As a means to this end he has chosen to deal with four alternative methods employed by philosophers in the twentieth century. Philosophical methodology has not attracted much attention, in English speaking circles, as a distinct branch of the discipline of philosophy; the term "methodologist," if used at all, would ordinarily be taken to refer to somebody concerned with scientific rather than philosophical method. When, therefore, Professor Bochenski refers, as he frequently does, to "contemporary methodologists," meaning people who debate the re spective merits of phenomenology and mathematical logic as ways of approaching the world, the phrase has an odd ring. But philosophical methodology really makes a great deal more sense than scientific method ology. In science methodology is almost superfluous; given all the avail able information and a reasonably clear idea of what is wanted, there is usually not much ambiguity as to the means of getting it, or not much that could be resolved by mere argument."

Hardcover

First published July 31, 1965

About the author

Józef Maria Bocheński (born 30 august 1902 in Czuszw, Poland - 1995) was a Polish dominican, logician and philosopher. After taking part in the 1920 campaign against Bolshevik Russia, he took up legal studies in Lww, then he studied economy in Poznań. Having received his doctorate in philosophy (studied in Freiburg, 1928-1931) and theology (Rome, 1931-1934), he lectured in logic at the Collegium Angelicum in Rome (until 1940). During World War II he served as a chaplain for Polish forces fighting in the September campaign (1939) taken prisoner of war, he escaped the Germans and reached Rome. He joined the Polish army and served as chaplain first in France, and then in England. Fought as a soldier in 1944, in the Italian campaign of the II Corps at Monte Cassino. In 1945 he received the chair of history of twentieth-century philosophy at the Freiburg University (of which he was Rector in 1964-1966); he founded and ran the Institute of Eastern Europe in Freiburg, published the journal Studies in Soviet Thought and a book series concerned with the foundations of the Marxists philosophy (Sovietica). Bocheski served as consultant to several governments: West Germany (under K. Adenauer), South Africa, USA, Argentina, and Switzerland. Before 1989 none of his works had been published officially in Poland.