The Historical, Pedagogical, and Philosophical Background of Kazimierz Twardowski’s Project of Teaching Philosophical Propaedeutics

This paper aims to present the context and background of Kazimierz Twardowski’s programmes of teaching the school subject of philosophical propaedeutics, which has not been done extensively before. We propose to categorize the programmes as follows: “minimalistic” (1921/1922), “maximalist” (1935) and “pragmatic” (1937). The article accompanies the first English edition of Twardowski’s 1935 programme, as it is impossible to understand the meaning of this document without a broader context. We conclude that through the whole interwar period Twardowski influenced the programme that was officially in use, and in this way he shaped Polish intellectual culture. Twardowski and his philosophical school (the Lvov milieu) were the main actors in the development of philosophical propaedeutics in interwar Poland. Unfortunately, after World War II the communist regime eventually eliminated propaedeutics of philosophy as a fully-fledged school subject.