Letter to Kazimierz Twardowski written 25.08.1921

Author Roman Ingarden

Category outgoing correspondence, Polish researchers

Archive Joined Libraries WFiS UW, IFiS PAN and PTF

Date of creation 25.08.1921

Related places Cracow, Freiburg, Lviv, Toruń, Warsaw

Reference code in archive PTF Rps 02.1, t. XII

Resource type letter

Subject matter academic issues, organizational issues, publication issues

Field philosophy, theory of cognition

Tags #1918, #academic work, #Adolf Reinach, #apartment issue, #Bergson's articles, #books, #Bydgoszcz Suburb, #Cracow, #Dietrich von Hildebrand, #dissertation, #dissertation on the formal development of a subject, #doctorate, #doctorate publication, #Edith Stein, #Freiburg, #French, #German, #Germany, #Henri Bergson, #Hildebrand's work, #intuition of Bergson, #Jahrbuch, #Kazimierz Twardowski, #Lviv, #Max Niemeyer, #meetings, #move, #nostrification of a diploma, #nostrification of a doctorate, #offprints, #petitio principii in the theory of cognition, #philosophers, #printing of doctorate, #request, #Roman Ingarden, #Stein's work, #textbook on the history of philosophy, #Toruń, #translation of Windelband, #translations, #Ueber psychische Kausalität, #university in Freiburg, #Warsaw, #Wilhelm Windelband

Toruń, ul. Mickiewicza 115 2nd fl.
25/8/1921

Most Honourable Professor!

Finally, after many problems and a lot of wasted time, for the past few days I’ve found myself in my new home in Toruń. I have a very nice, comfortable apartment here in the garden district of the city (in the so-called Bydgoszcz Suburb). Thus I’m hoping to be able to get down to work freely here, something I was unable to do for a long time due to the lack of my own comfortable flat. Admittedly, I’m missing people and books here, but it’s possible to bring in the necessary books, and, as for philosophers, I’ll be visiting Warsaw from time to time. Anyway, I hope this exile won’t last long, and that I’ll manage to return to Lviv or even to Cracow.

In the coming weeks, my dissertation on intuition in Bergson will finally appear in Volume V of [Philosophical] Yearbook. It’s already been printed (11 arkuszy[O1] ); recently, I sent the first arkusz to Niemeyer along with the title page for the dissertation. Unfortunately, due to the current situation in Germany, I’ll receive a negligible number of separate offprints over and above those going to the university in Freiburg, so that this paper, too ‒ like its predecessor on the petitio principii in the theory of cognition ‒ will be hard to get hold of in Poland and will probably remain unknown here. But what can I do about it?

In this connection, I’d like to carry out the nostrification [validation in one country of degrees awarded in another] of my doctorate. Accordingly, I’m taking the liberty of turning to you with a polite inquiry as to whether I might carry out this nostrification in Lviv with you. What is more, I don’t know whether I should file the relevant application with the Philos. Department, or whether I should address myself officially and directly to you, insofar as you wouldn’t mind my nostrifying my degree with you. Nor do I know whether this is a simple formality, or whether it’s still necessary to take some kind of exam. I suppose, however, that, because I passed the exam at a time when the situation in Germany was quite normal (16/1/1918), my doctorate will not be considered an exam of the ‘wartime’ type.

Volume V of [Philosophical] Yearbook, containing my paper, is going to appear shortly. There’s also a paper by E. Stein[O2] , ‘Ueber [Über] psychische Kausalität’ [German: On psychological causality] and some kind of ethical paper by Hildebrand[O3] . Recently, a volume of the collected writings of A. Reinach [O4] appeared. Immediately following Volume V, Volume VI of Yearbook will go to press.

I’ve undertaken a translation of Windelband[O5] ’s one-volume textbook on the history of philosophy, because textbooks in Poland are sorely lacking. When I finish it, I’ll undertake a translation of Bergson’s minor articles, which are unavailable in Poland. At the same time, I want to continue working on a dissertation on the formal development of a subject, which I’d like to complete this year.

Asking for your gracious response in the matter of the nostrification of my doctorate, I enclose expressions of profound esteem

Roman Ingarden

[O1]Należy umieścić notatkę
[O2]Słynna Edith Stein (1891‒1942), aka St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross
[O3]Dietrich von Hildebrand (1889‒1977)
[O4]Adolf Reinach (1883‒1917)
[O5]Wilhelm Windelband (1848‒1915)