Jerzy Kmita (1931-2012) – remembrance

Abstract

Jerzy Kmita was one of the most prominent Polish philosophers. He specialized in the methodology of the humanities, epistemology, and philosophy and theory of culture. He is the author of the original conception of the philosophy of humanities, theory of scientific knowledge (historical epistemology) and the theory of culture (socio-regulatory theory of culture). He authored 16 books: monographs and academic textbooks, nearly 200 scientific articles, over 100 popularscience articles, and also edited 13 joint publications. In 1955 he graduated from Polish Studies at the Faculty of Philology at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, then was hired at AMU where he worked continuously for 47 years (1955-2002). He headed the Department of Logic, was the director of the Institute of Philosophy and director of the Institute of Cultural Studies. He received his PhD in 1962, obtained a readership (habilitation) in 1968, became Associate Professor in 1974 and in 1979 – Professor. In 1986 he became Corresponding Member of the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAS), in 1994 – Real Member. He participated in the PAS Committee for Philosophy, he was member of the PAS Science of Science Committee and PAS Committee on Cultural Studies. He was a member of several scientific societies: International Union of History and Philosophy of Science, Polish Philosophical Society, Polish Semiotic Society, Poznan Society of Friends of Sciences. He participated in the work of editorial boards of scientific journals: Philosophical Studies (Studia Filozoficzne), Methodological Studies (Studia Metodologiczne), Dialectics and Humanism (Dialektyka i Humanizm), Poznan Studies in the Philosophy of the Sciences and the Humanities, Poznan Studies in the Philosophy of Science (Poznańskie Studia z Filozofii Nauki), Methodological Literature Review (Przegląd Literatury Metodologicznej), Philosophical Education (Edukacja Filozoficzna), Praxeology (Prakseologia), In the 1970s and 1980s he edited with J. Topolski Polish Scientific Publishers PWN editorial series “Methodology of Humanities”. He was the promoter of 63 master theses in the field of cultural studies, philosophy, and sociology, 26 doctoral dissertations, and a reviewer of more than 50 habilitation and professorial title procedures.