Jan Woleński

Jan Hertrich-Woleński (also known as Jan Woleński; born 21 September 1940 in Radom, Poland) is a Polish philosopher specializing in the history of the Lwów-Warsaw school and in analytic philosophy.

He has spent most of his academic career at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, where he is currently professor emeritus. His main fields of research are the philosophy of language, epistemology, and the history of Polish philosophy.

He is widely recognized in Poland as an atheist and has promoted the replacement of religion classes with philosophy classes in Polish schools.

Woleński studied simultaneously philosophy and law at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. He belongs to the tradition of analytic philosophy, and considers himself close to the heritage of the Lwów–Warsaw school.

He has spent most of his academic career at the Jagiellonian University, where he is currently professor emeritus.

He is on the consulting board of the philosophy journal, Theoria.

In 2013 Woleński was awarded the Prize of the Foundation for Polish Science for a comprehensive analysis of the work of the Lwów-Warsaw school and for placing its achievements within the context of international discourse in contemporary philosophy.

His main fields of research are the philosophy of language, epistemology, and the history of Polish philosophy.

Academic CV

1963-1968 Research and Teaching Assistant, Jagiellonian University in Cracow, Poland
1968-1974 Assistant Professor, Jagiellonian University in Cracow, Poland
1974-1979 Associate Professor, Jagiellonian University in Cracow, Poland
1979-1988 Associate Professor, Wrocław University of Science and Technology
1988-1992 Associate Professor, Jagiellonian University in Cracow, Poland
1993-? Full Professor, Jagiellonian University in Cracow, Poland
?-? Professor, Andrzej Frycz-Modrzewski Academy in Cracow, Poland
2013(?)-Present Professor, Information Technology and Management College in Rzeszów, Poland
2014-2016 Rector (Pro Vice-Chancellor), Information Technology and Management College in Rzeszów, Poland

Private life

Woleński is active in Poland's atheist movement. In the 1960s he was a member of the government-sponsored Association of Atheists and Freethinkers, and since 2007 he is a member of the Honorary Committee of the Polish Rationalist Association. He is widely recognized in Poland as an atheist and has promoted the replacement of religion classes with philosophy classes in Polish schools.

Woleński is involved in the secular Jewish movement, writing on the common Polish-Jewish past and on today's Polish-Jewish relations. He is a member of B'nai B'rith and was deputy president of its Polish chapter from 2007 to 2012.

He was a member of the Polish United Workers Party (the Polish communist party) from 1965 to 1981. From 1980 to 1990 he was a member of the Solidarity (Polish trade union) movement.

In English

In Polish

• Woleński, Jan (1980). Z zagadnień analitycznej filozofii prawa, Quaestiones ad philosophiam analyticam iuris pertinentes, Warsaw, PWN.
• Woleński, Jan (1985). Filozoficzna szkoła lwowsko-warszawska, Warsaw, PWN.
• Woleński, Jan (1990). Kotarbiński, Wiedza Powszechna, Warsaw.
• Woleński, Jan (1993). Metamatematyka a epistemologia, Warsaw, PWN.
• Woleński, Jan (1996). W stronę logiki, Aureus, Cracow.
• Woleński, Jan (1997). Szkoła Lwowsko-Warszawska w polemikach, Warsaw, Scholar.
• Woleński, Jan (1999). Okolice filozofii prawa, Cracow, Universitas.
• Woleński, Jan (2000). Epistemologia, 3 volumes, Cracow, Aureus (reedited in one volume in 2005 by WN PWN, Warsaw).
• Woleński, Jan (2004). Granice niewiary, Cracow, Wydawnictwo Literackie.