Leszek Nowak

Leszek Nowak ( born January 7, 1943 in Więckowice, powiat Tarnowski, † October 20, 2009 in Poznań ) was a Polish philosopher.

Biography

As a firm believer in Marxism Nowak 1961 was a member of the Polish United Workers' Party ( PZPR ). He studied post-school first law at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, graduated in 1965 from a Master and then studied philosophy at the University of Warsaw, which he also finished 1966 with a master's. In 1967 his doctorate with a dissertation on the meaning in the philosophy of language and semiotics ( " Problemy znaczenia i obowiązywania normy prawnej a funkcje semiotyczne języka "). Between 1965 and 1970 he was a research associate at the University of Poznan. In 1970 his habilitation thesis on Karl Marx and "Capital " ("U metodologicznych podstaw ' Kapitału ' Karola Marksa "). He then worked as a lecturer at the University of Poznan.

In 1976 he was finally appointed professor at the Department of Philosophy at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, where he taught until his death. Between 1976 and 1984 he was also editor of "Studies in Philosophy and Human Sciences " ( Poznańskie Studia z filozofii Humanistyki ).

In 1980, he stepped out of the PZPR out because of their political course and became a member of the trade union movement Solidarity. In the following years he was critical to the events of the March riots in 1968 in Poland and the then Minister of Education and Higher Education and 1972-1985 incumbent Council of State, Henryk Jablonski decreed Relegation of the participating students. He was then detained between December 1981 and December 1982 in the prison of Ostrow Wielkopolski.

After his release, he took up teaching again and was employee at the Philosophy Institute of the University of Poznan in 1985. In 1994 he became a corresponding member of the Polish Academy of Sciences ( Polska Akademia Nauk ).

During his teaching and research activities, he worked together with the Director of the Historical Institute of the University of Poznan Jerzy Topolski especially with Marxism and logical empiricism.

Publications

Nowak has written more than 25 books and 300 scientific papers on philosophical topics with a focus on Marxism as:

• "On the ( Idealizational ) Structure of Economic Theories ", 1989
• "Dimensions of the Historical Process", 1989
• " Paradoxes of Social Consciousness Under Socialism ", 1992
• " Marx 's theories today", 1998 ( co-author: Ryszard Panasiuk )