Letter to Stefan Morawski written 23.06.1967

Author Roman Ingarden

Category outgoing correspondence, Polish researchers

Archive Archive of Science PAN and PAU in Cracow

Date of creation 23.06.1967

Related places Rabka Zdrój

Reference code in archive K_III-26_D_69

Resource type letter

Subject matter organizational issues

Field aesthetics, philosophy

Tags #academic life, #academic work, #aesthetic attitude, #aesthetics, #bibliography, #cognition, #control of literature, #culture development, #deadline, #dean, #Dean's office, #doctoral dissertation, #doctoral regulations, #doctoral scholarship, #doctoral thesis, #doctoral thesis defence, #doctoral thesis supervisor, #doctorate, #evaluation of a doctoral dissertation, #Faculty Council, #general theory of values, #Institute of Art, #Institute of PAN, #lectures, #lecturing activities, #Max Bense, #PAN, #periphery of competence, #Phd procedure, #Piotr Graff, #Polish Academy of Science, #praxeology, #presentations, #Rabka Zdrój, #review, #review of a doctoral thesis, #reviewer, #role of values in cognition, #Roman Ingarden, #sociologically recognized praxeology, #static values, #Stefan Morawski, #thesis of a dissertation, #vacation, #values

Prof. Roman Ingarden
Krakow, Biskupia 14 n n n n n Rabka-Zdrój, June 23, 1967

Honorable Dean,
n    n    n yesterday my wife informed me that there was a telephone call – from the Dean’s Office, it seems – that my review of Graff’s xxx doctoral dissertation must be done by June 27, because that is when – as Mr. Dean once wrote me – the last meeting of the Faculty Council takes place. Meanwhile, according to the regulations, I have an obligation to provide the review within up to three months from my receipt of the dissertation. I have received Mr. Graff’s doctoral dissertation on April 15 this year, so if you were to count the time of the summer break, I would have until mid-July to review it. Of course, as a courtesy to Mr. Dean, I was intending to provide a review before that deadline. But, unfortunately, I had to give a rather unexpected lecture at the Art Institute, for which I had to read a lot of things, not to mention Bense’s book, which I knew, but which I had to reread, etc. So after an initial look at Graff’s dissertation, I could only continue reading it carefully after the 19th of this month. I also went to Rabka so I can work in peace here, but a closer reading made me wonder how to deal with this this. The dissertation turned out not to be in aesthetics, as I presumed based on preliminary information and the fact that Mr. Dean was its supervisor, but in general theory of values, or not really theory of values, but rather sociologically understood praxeology, and the last chapter which refers to matters related to esthetic values only speaks of the role of these values in cognition.
n    n    n The whole dissertation is then in the periphery of my competence, it requires me to thoroughly reflect on various matters, and also to check the literature used by Graff. I found, for example, that the notes contain some titles, and the text does not show that the author used them at all, because I think that if he did the considerations would look differently. I am also terrified by the main thesis of the dissertation, which seems very dangerous to the development of culture. That it seems wrong to me does not matter to me as a reviewer, as I always say that the authors of dissertations reviewed by me have the right to take a position quite opposite to mine. But this is about much more. That is why this matter requires deeper consideration on my part. In any case, I will be continuing my work on this and I will deliver the review soon eough for the doctoral proceedings to be able to continue right after the summer holidays. This will not mean any harm to the candidate, because even had I sent in my review right this moment, the dissertation could not be defended before the holidays. In accordance with doctoral studies regulations. Either way, this student received, as far as I remember, a doctoral scholarship at the Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences which is supposed to last for a year (adopted on April 10).
n    n    n With regards to the other matters I will write separately. For now, I am only dealing with the dissertation of Graff, MA. I will be back in Rabka in July, for now I will be returning to Krakow in a few days.

Respectfully and with cordial greetings

(Roman Ingarden)