Adam Schaff
Adam Schaff was born in Ukraine in 1913 and died in Warsaw in 2006. He studied in L’viv, Paris and Moscow, from where he graduated in 1944. He was a professor in Warsaw from 1948, opening Marxism to analytical philosophy. Among his works are Wstęp do semantyki (‘Introduction to semantics’, 1960), Marksizm a egzystencjalizm (‘Marxism and existentialism’, 1961), Język a poznanie (‘Language and knowledge’, 1967), Marksizm a jednostka (‘Marxism and human individual’, 1965), Historia a prawda(‘History and truth’, 1974) and Entfremdung als soziales Phänomen (‘Alienation as a social phenomenon’, 1977). From 1955-68 he was a member of the central committee of the Polish Unified Labor Party and following the Polish crisis, which started in 1980, he stressed his departure from communist orthodoxy: Die kommunistische Bewegung am Scheideweg(‘Communist movement at a crossroads’, 1982), Polen Heute (‘Poland today’, 1983), Perspektiven des modernen Sozialismus (‘Perspectives of modern socialism’, 1988), etc.
Programme
MI CURRICULUM VITAE CIENTIFICO
From June 17th to 28th, 1991
1- Presentación y problemática de la Weltanschauung de A. Schaff (debat)
3- Conocimiento y lenguaje (debat)
3.1- Problemas de semántica
3.2- ¿Existe un principio lingüístico de relatividad?
3.3- Teoría de los estereotipos
4- Metodología de las ciencias sociales: historia y verdad
5- Antropología filosófica: el individuo humano
6- Lo vivo y lo caduco en el marxismo actual
7- ¿Adónde conduce el camino? Consecuencias sociales de la nueva revolución industrial
Click here to download the programme in pdf.
Invited specialists
By indication of Prof. Schaff, the below mentioned were also invited to participate: Helmut Gipper (Münster), Boris Koval (Moscou), Tatiana Koval (Moscou), Agustìn Fallas Santana (Costa Rica), Manuel Azcárate (Madrid) and Juan N. García-Nieto (Barcelona).
Conferences:
- Euro-communism in Eastern Europe. The Political Thought of Adam Schaff, by Jerzy J. Wiatr (Warsaw), Tuesday, June 18
- Adam Schaff’s Epistemology in the Light of Contemporary Cognitive Science, by Agustín Fallas-Santana (Costa Rica / MIT), Thursday, June 20
- A new vision of socialism, by Manuel Azcárate (Madrid), on Friday, June 21
- Le problème du signe linguistique et de signification a la lumière de linguistique néohumboldtienne, by Helmut Gipper (Münster), on Tuesday, June 25
- ALa philosophie du langage d’Adam Schaff, by Helmut Gipper (Münster), Wednesday, June 26
- Marxism and Christianity in the Thought of Adam Schaff: Theoretical and Practical Aspects, by Juan N. García-Nieto (Barcelona), on Thursday, June 27
Others activities
During the Schaff seminar, a series of conferences were open to the general public at the La Mercè Cultural Center. The conference program was as follows:
Cycle of conferences Socialism, ways and perspectives
- Religion and State in Today’s Russia, by Tatiana Koval (Moscow), June 19
- The future of socialism, by Manuel Azcárate (Madrid), June 20
- The Socialism of the Future, by Adam Schaff (Vienna), June 21
Publication
The lessons of Adam Schaff were published in Catalan entitled Currículum científic d’un marxista (Eumo, Vic 1992), and Spanish under the title El marxismo a final de siglo (Editorial Ariel, Barcelona, 1994).
