Bücher der Reihe Historische Wissensforschung

When Poland gained independence in 1918, it became an urgent priority to secure information on just how the state and society ought to be organized. Up until 1939, the journal Nauka Polska and the working group Kolo Naukoznawcze provided sociologists, philosophers, pedagogues, and scientists with a forum to debate the advancement of science and the academic system. Among other things, they asked how scientific creativity could be generated and stabilized (Antoni B. Dobrowolski), what a socio-psychological "science of knowledge" should look like (Florian Znaniecki), and how society could profit from a "science of science" (Maria Ossowska and Stanislaw Ossowski). Unlike similar contemporary contributions, such as Ludwik Fleck's, most of these ideas are unknown today. The volume reconstructs the forgotten history of this Warsaw-based sociology of knowledge and science, presenting for the first time pivotal articles in English translation.