The main goal of this paper is to present a fully developed concept of Paul A. Roth’s philosophy of history to the Polish reader. Of course, it is just an introduction, but with the interview it should be a good starting point for further analysis. These seem desirable given Roth’s very ambitious programme, which in addition is based on “old facts”; that is, an analytical philosophy of history and science. The rapprochement between the two “visions” is not only a philosophical consideration, but also responds to the often-raised voices of practitioners. This introduction refers primarily to Roth’s latest book, indicating a possible interpretation. This “reading” is conducted by indicating the historical context, recalling philosophical analyses and determining the validity of the proposed solutions in order to decide how much science there is in history and vice versa.
Gaston Milhaud (1858–1918) was a French modern philosopher, who, having started from mathematics, came to philosophy (especially epistemology) and history of science. His works on the history of science were devoted to Greek science and modern science. Milhaud in his papers claimed that important concepts and principles of science (in different disciplines) result from decisions that simultaneously transcend both experience and logic. He emphasized the role of free creation and activity of the mind. The author discusses central problems of Milhaud’s thought, especially the problem of the relationship between science and philosophy.
In the article the author deals with the contributions of Goettingian scholars to the study of the so-called “Runic”-Turkic inscriptions discovered in the early 18th century in Siberia during the 18th and 19th centuries before their decipherment by Vilhelm Ludvig Peter Thomsen (1842–1927) and Friedrich Wilhelm Radloff (Vasilij Vasilievič Radlov; 1837–1918). The author points to the scholars speculations on the unknown language of the inscriptions based in Göttingen as well as the research in this field and times outside that town.
Fin-de-siècle Central European scholarship takes on a different complexion, if it is approached from the perspective of politically responsible action. The article analyses neither scholarship involved into party politics nor apolitical scientific and scholarly activities but focuses on a specific approach: The scholars I am concerned with in this article strove for the strict division of science and politics; they nevertheless remained committed to political objectives such as improving social conditions. The approaches of Bernard Bolzano, Ernst Mach, Alois Riegl, Sigmund Freud, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Otto Neurath, Hans Kelsen are taken into account.
On November 2, 2018, an outstanding Polish medievalist Jerzy Lesław Wyrozumski died in Kraków; he was born on March 7, 1930 in Trembowla (now Ukraine). He graduated in 1955 with a degree in history at the Jagiellonian University. He wrote his master's thesis and doctoral dissertation under the supervision of Roman Grodecki. In 1981 he received the title of professor; he was dean of the Faculty of Philosophy and History in the years 1981–1987, and from 1987 to 1990 he was the prorector of the Jagiellonian University. He published over 600 scholarly books, articles and reviews.