Application for the appointment as professor written 11.02.1931

DEPARTMENT OF HUMANITIES                   c              c              c           In Lviv, 11 February 1931
JAN KAZIMIERZ UNIVERSITY
IN LVIV

c   Nr. 120.

On the issue of the appointment of docent
Dr Roman INGARDEN as associate professor
of the faculty of philosophy at Jan Kazimierz University.

To
c   THE MINISTRY OF
RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS AND PUBLIC EDUCATION
c              c              c              c              c   in Warsaw.

c   With the retirement of Prof. Dr K. Twardowski, one of the three chairs of philosophy at the Jan Kazimierz University in Lviv has become vacant.
c   With the aim of filling it, the Council of the Department of Humanities, at its meeting of 4 June 1930, elected a Committee, composed of Professor Emeritus Twardowski and Professors Ajdukiewicz and Wartenberg and chaired by the Dean. A meeting of this committee convened for 16 July 1930 did not take place due to Prof. Wartenberg’s absence from Lviv. At the beginning of the current academic year, the Dean convened a meeting on 8 November 1930 at which it was decided to send letters to professors of philosophy of other Polish Universities requesting opinions on candidates for the aforementioned chair. When the responses arrived, the Committee met on 16 January 1931 to reflect on the proposed candidates and make a final decision. The list of candidates included: Chmaj, Elzenberg, Harassek, Heitzman, Jasinowski, and Ingarden. Following an exhaustive discussion, the members of the Committee arrived at the unanimous conclusion that the most suitable candidate for the vacant chair of philosophy is Dr Roman INGARDEN, habilitated docent of Philosophy at the University of Lviv, who was also mentioned nearly unanimously as a very serious candidate in the opinions of the professors of philosophy at other Polish Universities.
c   Information referring to Dr Ingarden has already been submitted in the Department Council’s report of 12 February 1925, L: 121, on the occasion of his habilitation as a docent; therefore it can be omitted here. In this paper, a detailed report is submitted on the academic activity of Dr Ingarden prior to his habilitation.
c   During this pre-habilitation period, Dr Ingarden published the following papers:

c   1. ‘Dążenia fenomenologów’ [The aspirations of the phenomenologists], Philosophical Review, Vol. XXII, p. 76.
c   2. Über die Gefahr einer PetitioPrincipii in der Erkenntistheorie [German: On the danger of a petitio principii {Latin: begging the question} in cognition theory], Yearbook of Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, Vol. IV, p. 24.
c   3. ‘Intuition und Intellekt bei Henri Bergson’ [German: Intuition and intellect in Henri Bergson], Yearbook of Phil. and Phen. Res., Vol. V, p. 177.
c   4. ‘Max Scheler’, Warsaw Review, vol. IV, p. 27.
c   5. ‘Spór o istotę filozofji’ [The controversy over the essence of philosophy], Warsaw Review, vol. IV, p. 12.
c   6. ‘W sprawie istoty doświadczenia wewnętrznego’ [On the issue of the essence of internal experience], Philosophical Review, vol. XXV, p. 12.
c   7. Essentiale Fragen. Ein Beitrag zum Problem des Wesens [German: Essential questions: A contribution concerning the problem of essence], Yearbook of Phil. and Phen. Research, p. 180.
c   In addition, during this period Dr Ingarden wrote several longer critical reports and several reviews contained in Philosophical Review, Philosophical Movement, and Warsaw Review.

c   Since his habilitation, Dr Ingarden has been constantly developing his very prominent academic activity, and has published the following papers:

1) Über die Stellung der Erkenntistheorie in System der Philosophie [German: On the position of cognition theory in the system of philosophy], Halle Max Niemeyer 1925, 36 pages.
This paper, which Dr Ingarden chose as the subject of his habilitation lecture, appeared first in Polish under the title ‘Stanowisko teorji poznania w systemie nauk filozoficznych’ [On the position of cognition theory within the system of philosophy] in Reports of the State Middle School in Toruń for the year 1924/25 and was subsequently published in German.

c   The purpose of this dissertation is the justification of its main thesis, namely, that the theory of cognition is equivalent to other philosophical sciences, and that it is related to certain other philosophical sciences, namely, the phenomenology of consciousness and formal and material ontology. The Author understands the theory of cognition as a science aimed at discovering the content of the chief general idea of cognition in general, as well as the less general ideas included within it. This is supposed to lead a theory of cognition for the establishment of a system of epistemological axioms, some of which may be used as a criterion for assessment of the cognitive value of the results of scientific research and individual cases of cognition of specific types. Thus understood, the theory of cognition, which the Author calls the pure theory of cognition, is, in his opinion, an a priori science, as compared with the applied theory of cognition, which deals with the study of cognitive operations performed by actually existing cognitive entities of one kind or another (e.g. people) and the assessment of cognitive results resulting from these operations. The applied theory of cognition is no longer an a priori science; it applies the results of the pure theory of cognition to the specific cases it is used to study. In order to demonstrate that the pure theory of cognition is equivalent to other theoretical and general sciences, it is necessary to prove: 1. that it does not apply, as the foundations of its claims, the claims of other sciences, philosophical and XXX cognitive XXX that can be obtained from these sciences; that it is independent of these sciences; 2. that its claims are not the assumptions of other sciences, with the obvious exception of the theory of applied cognition. The dissertation attempts to prove this, thus indicating in particular the independence of the pure theory of cognition from the natural sciences, especially physics and physiology; from psychology; and from the phenomenology of consciousness, metaphysics, and ontology, formal and material, as sciences as to which doubt might arise regarding the dependence of pure theory of cognition on them. The dissertation ends with an argument concerning the independence of other sciences from the pure theory of cognition.

c   The paper is characterised by compactness and brevity, which, however, means that the views expressed therein are sketched rather than precisely developed.

2. Bemerkungen zum Problem „Idealismus-Realismus” [German: Comments on the “idealism-realism” problem]. A dissertation published in the commemorative book dedicated to Edmund Husserl on his 70th birthday (Festschrift Edmund Husserl zum 70. Geburtstag gewidmet), pp. 159–190.

c   In the dispute between idealists and realists, the reason no decisive settlement or agreement has yet been obtained, according to the author, is that it has not yet been realised that concealed beyond this dispute is a whole tangle of problems pertaining to several different fields and requiring different methods of solution. The task of the dissertation is therefore to separate particular groups of issues, sketching the most important questions included in these groups and indicating the relationships that exist between them.

c   The dissertation begins with the Husserlian distinction between the spheres of pure consciousness and of the real world; with regard to XXX XXX XXX issues it poses the question: is there only a sphere of consciousness or is there also, next to and apart from it, the sphere of the real world? To opt in favour of the former eventuality would be to resolve the dispute in accordance with idealism; declaring for the latter would be a realistic resolution of the issue. This question arises from the recognition of the transcendence of the real world in relation to the experiences of consciousness, and from acceptance of the fact that the existence of the real world may fundamentally cast doubt on the possibility of doubting the cognitive value of the cognitive acts thanks to which the cognitive subject attempts to gain knowledge of the real world.

c   In becoming aware of the motives that lead to the interim question above, as well as the paths along which it might be answered, and finally the nature of the issue itself, the supposition arises that these are mixed-up issues of different natures, and that as a result there exist not one but many different and interrelated questions belonging to various fields of philosophical research. Therefore it is necessary first and foremost to consider these issues, group them accordingly, and perceive the relationship between them.

c   Accordingly, the Author puts forward the following thesis: In the issue of idealism-realism, three issues should be distinguished, namely, ontological, metaphysical, and epistemological. Among the last-named, it is again necessary to distinguish existential-ontological, formal-ontological, and material-ontological issues. The central issue of the dispute is the metaphysical issue, which, to the extent it can be resolved at all, can be resolved exclusively by means of metaphysical cognition, if at all possible. At the same time, by metaphysics the author understands the science which is to determine whether there are spheres of being and what they are in their factual essence, and XXX XXX XXX to ontologists XXX the task is supposed to be analysis of the contents of an idea, without prejudging whether there are indeed objects encompassed within these ideas. The central metaphysical issue of the dispute between realism and idealism, however, in the Author’s opinion, can be formulated precisely only when the ontological issues that enter the picture here are resolved and lead to a series of statements which serve as the assumptions of the metaphysical issue and to the establishment of a number of basic concepts included in this issue. Despite this dependence on ontological issues, however, the metaphysical issue is, in relation to them, a new issue, which requires specific methods with respect to both its formulation and its solution. However, the role of epistemological issues and conclusions adopted on the basis of the theory of cognition is, in the dispute between realism and idealism – in spite of the way it is usually viewed – secondary, as it is limited to assessment of the cognitive value of ontological and metaphysical results.

c   Caused, no doubt, by conditions of a technical nature, the overly modest length of the paper in which the Author included such abundant material was the reason for his inability in this dissertation to properly develop his views and to exhaustively justify himself against potential objections on the part of the reader; however, he had to content himself with sketching their main features.

3. Psycho-fizjologiczna teorja poznania i jej krytyka [The psycho-physiological theory of cognition and a critique thereof]. Individual offprint from the commemorative Book of the Szajnocha Middle School no. 2 in Lviv, Lviv, 1930, p. 41.

c   The dissertation sets itself two tasks:

1. To define the subject, assumptions, and tasks of the psycho-physiological theory of cognition, a concept which naturally occurs to the researcher when he makes the transition from practical life or from particular scientific studies without specially conducted preliminary reflections for the development of epistemological issues. Thus understood, the theory of cognition would involve, as the object of research, cognitive mental activities conditioned in their course and properties by both the structure of the human body and physiological processes taking place therein and by the properties of the human soul and mental processes that occur therein. Its goal is thus to solve the problem of objectivity of cognition in the resulting cognitive experiences.
2. To elaborate and justify the statements:

c   that defining a field of psycho-physiological research of cognition theory is inappropriate;

c   that some other theory of cognition logically prior to a psycho-physiological theory of cognition is necessary;

c   that, due to the empirical nature of research into the psycho-physiological theory of cognition, its results can only be statistical generalisations from experience and can comprise only probable generalisations, whereas, according to the author, epistemological problems demand strictly general and absolutely certain solutions; finally,

c   that, due to the assumptions of the psycho-physiological theory of cognition, it inevitably leads, when solving basic epistemological problems, to logical errors, particularly the error of a faulty principle (petitio principii [Latin: begging the question]). The author justifies this last statement on the example of solving the problem of cognition of the outside world, indicating that none of the possible solutions to this problem on the basis of this theory can be justified without the commission of logical errors.

c   The final conclusion of the dissertation is that the concept of a psycho-physiological theory of cognition should be rejected and an attempt made to define quite differently the object, the cognitive means, and assumptions of a theory whose task would be to solve the problems of objectivity of cognition.

c   The dissertation is an excerpt from a larger work entitled Prolegomena do teorji poznania [Prolegomenon to the theory of cognition], which the author is preparing for print.

c   The papers of Dr Ingarden mentioned above, as well as his papers of the pre-habilitation period, revolved mainly around issues concerning the theory of cognition, which constituted the focal point of his academic interests.

Dr Ingarden enters another area of work in his latest, most recently published work entitled:

4. Das literarische Kunstwerk. Eine Untersuchung aus dem Grenzgebiet der Ontologie, Logik und Literaturwissenschaft [German: The Literary Work of Art: An Investigation on the Borderlines of Ontology, Logic, and Theory of Literature] (Literackie dzieło sztuki. Studjum z pogranicza ontologji, logiki i teorji literatury). Halle, Max Niemeyer, 1931, XIV and 389 pages.

A work of these dimensions does not allow for an exhaustive, detailed report on its very rich content; therefore, one must limit oneself here to sketching the general nature of its guiding themes and the results at which it arrives.

c   The theory of literature deals above all with various specific issues. Thus it must employ a whole range of basic concepts, the clarification and determination of which are not presently within the scope of the relevant research, because they can be clarified only on the basis of philosophical cognition of the fundamental structure of a literary work, which belongs to its essence. Thus the Author sets himself the task of becoming acquainted with and describing this basic structure, of capturing a literary work in its special manner of existence, and contrasting it with its various concretisations which arise during individual readings, as well as with the psychological experiences through which the literary work is created or perceived by the reader. In this way, literary studies, insofar as they relate to the literary work itself, can be freed from the errors committed by the psychological method of studying these works and can base themselves on philosophical foundations.

A literary work is not a uniform but a multi-layered creation. The layers constituting its structure are as follows:

1. the layer of linguistic sound creations;
2. the layer of semantic wholes of various types;
3. the layer of objects presented in the work;
4. the layer of schematic appearances of Ansichten [German: views, ideas] in which the objects presented are manifested.

The author devotes thorough and exhaustive consideration to these individual layers.

c   Each of these layers introduces its own specific material and quality of aesthetic values to a literary work and plays its own role in the entirety of the work, as indicated by its essential structure. Thanks to this structure, the individual layers are also bound into the work as an organic whole, leading, as the result of the diversity of their elements, to the constitution of polyphonic harmony of the quality of aesthetic values. In their co-operation is the source – in the culminating phases of the work – of one more special element, which the Author calls the disclosure of metaphysical qualities. The disclosure of these qualities along with the polyphonic harmony of the quality of aesthetic values creates the specific aesthetic value of a particular literary work of art.

c   In addition to its layered structure, the literary work is also distinguished by the particular structure of the appearance of its parts in succession, thanks to which the work acquires compositional values and dynamic effects. This successive structure is also the reason that the concretisations of a literary work are creations extended in time.

c   The construction of the semantic layer makes the literary work a schematic work whose fullness and liveliness can be obtained only in its concretisations, which emerge during reading. Moreover, it is only by its emergence in these concretisations that a literary work becomes an aesthetic object in the strict sense of the word. Individual concretisations are conditioned not only by the work itself but also by the subjective operations in which we perceive them and through the various circumstances in which the work is read.

c   A literary work is the purely intentional product of subjective operations and acts of consciousness. As a product of this kind, it is characterised by heteronomy in terms of its existence; the foundation of its origin and properties is found in acts of consciousness, the foundation of its being in ideal concepts and ideas that ensure its intersubjective identity. Because it is a purely intentional creation and therefore suspended in its structure from acts of consciousness, it can be changed by either the author or the reader. Hence its capacity to live emerges in the wake of changes which occur in their particular concretisations.

c   The construction of a literary work outlined above affords the Author many opportunities to elaborate a whole range of issues that are important in both logic and ontology as well as, ultimately, in the dispute between idealism and realism. In this way, despite the distinct nature of the topic, a certain link is preserved between the work in question and the Author’s previous works. From logical issues, the following are elaborated, or at least outlined: the distinction between different types of meanings of words and sentence structures, in particular adjudicating sentences, and the issue of the relationship between sentences and the whole composed thereof. Among ontological issues, the Author takes a closer look at the construction of a purely intentional object and the structure of the state of affairs (Sachverhalt [German: facts]) which is the subject of adjudication.

c   It goes without saying that such a comprehensive work which deals with so many issues and which, in its own way, differs from the previous, mainly psychological considerations, identifies and illuminates XXX XXX XXX the Author will provoke critical remarks. In any case, it must be said that we have here a serious work, probably the first attempt at a synthetic approach from the philosophical position elaborated in a monograph on the structure and essence of a literary work of art, an attempt that will undoubtedly contribute to further studies on the issue raised therein, and that in this respect Dr Ingarden’s paper must be considered an academically important and momentous work.

c   Dr Ingarden’s dissertation on the subject ‘Niektóre założenia idealizmu Berkeley’a’ [Some assumptions of Berkeley’s idealism], although as yet unpublished, has been completed and prepared for print. This dissertation is to appear in the Commemorative Book of the Polish philosophical Society in Lviv.

c   Apart from the papers mentioned above, Dr Ingarden has written several more extensive reviews, several occasional articles, and articles featuring popular content, and has delivered a series of lectures at the Polish philosophical Society in Lviv on the following topics:

c   ‘On classification’,
c   ‘Marburgian research on eidetic images’,
c   ‘The transcendental idealism of E. Husserl’,
c   ‘Issues inherent in the problem of idealism and realism’,
c   ‘On functional names and words’,
c   ‘Verbum finitum [Latin: finite verb] vs the sentence’.

c   A series of shorter or more extensive reports and reviews on Dr Ingarden’s academic papers has already appeared in specialised Polish and foreign journals, i.e.:

c   On the dissertation entitled Essentiale Fragen [German: Essential questions], a comprehensive critical report in Philosophical Review; in the English journal Mind, two reports, one of them shorter, in connection with the review of volume VII of Jahrbuch für Philosophie und phänomenologische Forschung [German: Yearbook for philosophy and phenomenological research], volume XXXV, no. 138, and the other, longer, in the issue of June 1927; and finally in Kantstudien [German: Kant Studies], volume XXXI, issues 2 and 3.

c   On the dissertation ‘Über die Stellung der Erkenntistheorie in System der Philosophie’ [German: On the position of cognition theory in the system of philosophy], a report in XXX XXX XXX, volume V, issue 8, in Philosophisches Jahrbuch der Görres–Gesellschaft [German: Philosophical yearbook of the Görres Society] and in Berichte über die gesamte Biologie [German: Reports on All Biology], volume II, issues 7 and 8;

c   On the dissertation Bemerkungen zum Problem „Idealismus-Realismus” [German: Comments on the “idealism-realism” problem], a report in Revue de métaphysique et de morale [French: Review of metaphysics and ethics], volume 36, no. 3, in which the reviewer, in discussing Księgę pamiątkową ku czci Husserla [Commemorative book in honour of Husserl], distinguishes (in particular, of the 12 dissertations contained therein, along with a paper by Stein) the dissertation by Ingarden as ‘shedding new light on certain aspects of the doctrine of phenomenologists’.

c   These opinions from specialist publications, for the most part favourable, emphasising this ‘diligence in the formulation of theses’, testify to the fact that Dr Ingarden has already made a certain name for himself and earned recognition in the academic world.

c   Dr Ingarden is the possessor of a lively and inventive mind and a very prolific and hard-working academic researcher with enthusiastic zeal, a point that must be raised especially considering that, in simultaneously fulfilling the duties of a middle-school teacher, he is unable to devote all of his time to academic work. – As a member of the school of phenomenologists, a trend which plays a major role in the philosophical movement abroad, especially in Germany, and as one of its most eminent representatives today, Dr Ingarden admittedly proceeds in his papers with the system of concepts, terminology, and method of this school, though nevertheless maintaining, in the posing and grasping of philosophical problems and their solution, his independence. A serious attitude towards scientific issues, a methodical approach to their development, insight in terms of analysis, and above all the ability to make subtle distinctions – these are the hallmarks of his academic work.

c   Thus the members of the Philosophical Committee, in choosing and presenting Dr Ingarden to the Department Council as a candidate for the vacant chair of philosophy, do so in the conviction that in the person of Dr Ingarden the University of Lviv will gain a serious academic force, and he himself will gain a suitable field for further fruitful academic work, unencumbered by any peripheral tasks.

c   Given these considerations, the Council of the Department of Humanities, at its meeting of 11 February 1931, adopted the unanimous proposal of the Philosophical Committee to turn to the Ministry of Religious Denominations and Public Enlightenment with a request for the approval of the President of the Republic of Poland.

c   Of the appointment of Dr Roman INGARDEN, habilitated docent of philosophy, as associate professor of philosophy at the Jan Kazimierz University in Lviv and granting him the direction of one of the branches of the Philosophical Seminar.

c   From the Council of the Department of Humanities at the Jan Kazimierz University in Lviv

Enclosures:

1. 4 printed papers Dr Podlacha
2. 8 letters (opinion)               c              c        Dean, Dept. of Hum.
3. certificate of baptism
4. copies of doctoral diploma
5. 2 decrees of nomination.

Total: 16 enclosures