Ryszard Wójcicki – författare

Proceedings of the Conference for Formal Methods in the Methodology of Emperical Sciences, Warsaw, June 17-21, 1974, Poland.

The general aim of this book is to provide an elementary exposition of some basic concepts in terms of which both classical and non-dassicallogirs may be studied and appraised. Although quantificational logic is dealt with briefly in the last chapter, the discussion is chiefly concemed with propo- gjtional cakuli. Still, the subject, as it stands today, cannot br covered in one book of reasonable length. Rather than to try to include in the volume as much as possible, I have put emphasis on some selected topics. Even these could not be roverrd completely, but for each topic I have attempted to present a detailed and precise t'Xposition of several basic results including some which are non-trivial. The roots of some of the central ideas in the volume go back to J.Luka- siewicz's seminar on mathematicallogi

11 original. Modifications which I introduced are radical and often far going. In my opinion the Polish text had two main drawbacks. It was overloaded with informal considerations and at the same time formal concepts included in some parts of the book were presented in a too complicated way. Of course one of the motives to revise it was also the fact that much time has passed since I finished writing the Polish version and obviously certain decisions and ideas contained in the first edition seem not quite relevant now. So it is not only the desire to make the exposition clearer but also the reasons of substantial nature which motivated writing a revised version. I do not think it desirable to bother the reader with a detailed discussion of all changes to which the Polish version was subjected and that is why I will confine myself to pointing out only the most significant ones. Explanations concerning logical and set-theoretical notions applied in the book have been shortened as much as possible, in the Polish version one whole chapter was devoted to the discussion of them.

11 original. Modifications which I introduced are radical and often far going. In my opinion the Polish text had two main drawbacks. It was overloaded with informal considerations and at the same time formal concepts included in some parts of the book were presented in a too complicated way. Of course one of the motives to revise it was also the fact that much time has passed since I finished writing the Polish version and obviously certain decisions and ideas contained in the first edition seem not quite relevant now. So it is not only the desire to make the exposition clearer but also the reasons of substantial nature which motivated writing a revised version. I do not think it desirable to bother the reader with a detailed discussion of all changes to which the Polish version was subjected and that is why I will confine myself to pointing out only the most significant ones. Explanations concerning logical and set-theoretical notions applied in the book have been shortened as much as possible, in the Polish version one whole chapter was devoted to the discussion of them.

The anthology presents a selection of methodological writings pub­ lished by Polish logicians after World War 11 (the first of them dated 1947). All the papers belong to what may be called Logical Methodology or Logical Theory of Science. The epithet ''logical'' characterizes rather the general point of view than the particular methods employed by the authors. Apart from articles which make an essential use of different formal (logical and mathematical) methods, there are many which do not involve any formal apparatus whatsoever. The problems the papers deal with may be characterized as problems of the general methodology of empirical science. The papers do not consider the methodological problems of formal (mathematical) knowledge, and, as a rule, they are concerned with empirical science as a whole and not with some of its specific branches. The topics covered by the selected writings include the main issues and controversies discussed within the contemporary methodology of science. A considerable part of the anthology is con­ cerned with the semantics of empirica1languages and considers problems such as interpretation of observational and theoretical terms, analyticity, empirical meaningfulness, etc. Another group of papers deals with the problem of induction and examines various ways of its justification. Some articles discuss the nature and the status of methodology itself. The materials have been selected so as to make up a whole representative of what has been done in this field in Poland since 1945. The book comprises 33 articles by 20 authors.

Proceedings of the Conference for Formal Methods in the Methodology of Emperical Sciences, Warsaw, June 17-21, 1974, Poland.