Human Activities as an Objective Dimension of Humanities Research Comparative Analysis of the Concepts of Kazimierz Twardowski and Florian Znaniecki Cover Image

Czynności ludzkie jako obiektywny wymiar badań nauk humanistycznych. Analiza porównawcza koncepcji Kazimierza Twardowskiego i Floriana Znanieckiego
Human Activities as an Objective Dimension of Humanities Research Comparative Analysis of the Concepts of Kazimierz Twardowski and Florian Znaniecki

Author(s): Arkadiusz Jabłoński
Subject(s): Social Sciences, Sociology, History and theory of sociology
Published by: Towarzystwo Naukowe KUL & Katolicki Uniwersytet Lubelski Jana Pawła II
Keywords: activity; Humanities; anti-psychologism; Kazimierz Twardowski; Florian Znaniecki

Summary/Abstract: The article is an analysis of the concept of human activities of two great Polish thinkers − Kazimierz Twardowski and Florian Znaniecki. The text is analytical and synthetic in nature, bordering on the history of ideas and methodology. The main problem of the article is to show what research approach in humanities results from the concept of human activities by Twardowski and Znaniecki. They present different ways of conceptualizing human activities, which complement each other logically and define complementary areas of description of human behavior. Twardowski strives to objectively describe human activities as logical and semiotic situations contained in human products. Such a perspective provides the basis for a scientific treatment of them, different from discovering hidden deterministic cause-and-effect relationships specific to natural phenomena. In Znanieckiʼs approach, activities are treated as a material of culture, i.e. an order of relations between all externalized human experiences. This is the basis of a humanistic understanding of human behavior that conforms to cause and effect thinking in the natural sciences.

  • Issue Year: 48/2020
  • Issue No: 3
  • Page Range: 5-25
  • Page Count: 21
  • Language: Polish