Photos: Mateusz Kowalski, Ronald Wójcik z Wydziału Filozoficzno-Historycznego UŁ
Twelfth Polish Congress of Philosophy (11-16 September 2023) at the University of Lodz is taking place on the centennial of the First Polish Congress of Philosophy organised in 1923 at the University of Lviv na Uniwersytecie Łódzkim odbywa się w 100. rocznicę I Polskiego Zjazdu Filozoficznego zorganizowanego w 1923 roku na Uniwersytecie Jana Kazimierza we Lwowie.
Dr hab. Janusz Maciaszek, Professor of the University of Lodz, Head of the Institute of Philosophy at the University of Lodz is the Chair of the organising committee, while Prof. Elżbieta Żądzińska, Rector of the University of Lodz agreed to chair the Honorary Committee.
Debates, discussion panels, plenary lectures, symposia and sessions in over 20 thematic sections are taking place in the building of the University of Lodz Faculty of Philosophy. Additionally, participants may also organise additional colloquia in consultation with the congress organisers. Professor Paul Guyer from Brown University (USA) is the special guest of the congress.
On 11 September, during the opening ceremony, the audience was welcomed by Prof. Janusz Maciaszek, representing the event organisers. He introduced and welcomed the members of the Honorary Committee of the Congress. The Chair of the committee, Prof. Elżbieta Żądzińska, Rector of the University of Lodz, was represented by Dr hab. Łukasz Korporowicz, the University of Lodz Vice-Rector for Research, the 1st Deputy of the Rector.
The Head of the University of Lodz Institute of Philosophy also welcomed the plenary speakers and the hosts of debates, symposia and panel discussions. He also informed that the congress, which gathered over 600 participants, included many guests from abroad, including the United States, as well as India, Vietnam and Indonesia.
Dr hab. Łukasz Korporowicz was in charge of the ceremonial opening of the congress:
I feel convinced that philosophy lies at the heart of the university. It is one of the elements that makes a university what it is.
Then Prof. Dr hab. Joanna Odrowąż-Sypniewska from the University of Warsaw, Chair of the Presidium of the Committee on Philosophical Sciences of the Polish Academy of Sciences took the floor. In her speech, she referred to a document recommending methods of organising congresses, which was developed after the 1st Polish Congress of Philosophy, which took place in 1923 at the Jan Kazimierz University in Lviv.
The next speaker, Prof. Paweł Łuków from the University of Warsaw, Chair of the Board of the Polish Philosophical Society, said, among other things:
The Congress of Philosophy this time taking place in Lodz, for which we are grateful to the University of Lodz, is a celebration of philosophy. The Polish Philosophical Society, as its main task, has the promotion of philosophical sciences. Here, during the congress, there is no need to promote philosophical sciences, because you all deal with them on a daily basis. But I think it is important to convey a message that philosophy is a discipline that is alive, that functions and that is also important from the point of view of social impact.
The last speech devoted to the history and background of the First Polish Congress of Philosophy, which took place 100 years ago in Lviv, was delivered by Prof. Ryszard Kleszcz from the Institute of Philosophy of the University of Lodz, Representative of the Polish Philosophical Society.
The congress in Lviv inaugurated the organisation of congress of philosophy in Poland. We had two such meetings in the interwar period, in Warsaw and Krakow. However, after the war, the first such congress took place only in 1977 in Lublin. It was organised by the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University. Then there were meetings in Krakow, Toruń, Szczecin, Warsaw, Katowice, Wisła, Poznań and Lublin (this time KUL – the Catholic University of Lublin was its organiser). Our Lodz reunion is the twelfth one. I hope that we will continue the meetings tradition. However, the shape of future congresses will be decided by the philosophical community itself and the organisations representing them, i.e. the Committee on Philosophical Sciences of the Polish Academy of Sciences and the Polish Philosophical Society
– concluded Prof. Ryszard Kleszcz.
The Polish Congress of Philosophy is supplemented by accompanying events. One of them is the "Live Uprightly!" exhibition, which can be viewed on 11-16 September at the University of Lodz Library at Matejki 32/38. At the exhibition, you can see private and official documents connected with the First Rector of the University of Lodz, Professor Tadeusz Kotarbiński. The exhibition includes private and official documents, archives from the initial years of the University of Lodz's activity, correspondence pertaining to academic issues, private letters and photographs. The presented exhibits come from the collections of the Section of Manuscripts of the University of Lodz Library and from the archive of the University of Lodz Faculty of Law and Administration.
Edit: Honorata Ogieniewska, Communications and PR Centre, University of Lodz