Maria Ossowska

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Maria Ossowska (née Maria Niedźwiecka, b. 16 January 1896, Warsaw, d. 13 August 1974, Warsaw) was a Polish sociologist and social philosopher. A student of the philosopher Tadeusz Kotarbiński, she originally received a doctorate in philosophy at the University of Warsaw with a thesis on Bertrand Russell in 1925. In her later work, she focused on the philosophy and sociology of ethics. Ossowska is often mentioned as a member of the Lwów–Warsaw School of Logic, although this is strictly speaking not correct, since formal logic was not her main area of interest.

From 1941 until 1945, Ossowska taught in the Polish underground university system. 1945-1948 she was a professor at the University of Łódź, since then at the University of Warsaw. She was banned from teaching between 1952 and 1956, while sociology was removed from Polish universities as a "bourgeoise" discipline. From 1952 until 1962, she directed the Institute for the History and Theory of Ethics within the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN). In 1972, Ossowska was awarded a first-degree Polish National Award (Polska Nagroda Państwowa I stopnia), the highest accolade of the Polish state.

Ossowska was married to sociologist Stanisław Ossowski, with whom she closely cooperated in research and teaching.

[edit] Works

• 1925 (as Maria Niedźwiecka): Ontologia Bertranda Russell [The ontology of Bertrand Russell]. Warszawa.
• 1946: Wzór obywatela w ustroju demokratycznym [The model of the citizen in the democratic system]. Warszawa: Zarząd Główny Towarzystwa Uniwersytetu Robotniczego.
• 1947: Podstawy nauki o moralności [Foundations of the science of morality]. 2nd edition 1994, ed. by Paweł J. Smoczyński. Wrocław: Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich. ISBN 83-04-04075-1
• 1949: Motywy postępowania: Z zagadnień moralności [The motivations of action: On the problems of ethics]. Warszawa: Książka i Wiedza. 3rd edition 2002. ISBN 83-05-13245-5
• 1956: Moralność mieszczańska [Bourgeois morality]. 2nd edition 1985. Wrocław: Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich. ISBN 83-04-01877-2
  (English translation 1986: Bourgeois morality. London/New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul. ISBN 0-7100-9782-4
• 1957: O pewnych przemianach etyki walki [On certain changes in the ethics of struggle]. 2nd edition 1977. Warszawa: Niezależna Oficyna Wydawnicza (a Samisdat edition)
• 1963: Socjologia moralności: zarys zagadnień [The sociology of morality: An outline of its problems]. 4th edition 2005. Warszawa: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe. ISBN 83-01-14009-7
  English translation 1971: Social determinants of moral ideas. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1971 edition London/New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul. ISBN 0-7100-7013-6
• 1966: Myśl moralna Oświecenia angielskiego [The moral thought of the English Enlightenment]. Warszawa: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe.
• 1970: Normy moralne: próba systematyzacji [Moral norms: An attempt at systematization]. 4th edition 2000. Warszawa: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe. ISBN 83-01-13278-7)
  English translation 1980: Moral norms: a tentative systematization. Warszawa: Polish Scientific Publ. ISBN 83-01-01297-8
• 1973: Ethos rycerski i jego odmiany [The ethos of chivalry and its changes]. 3rd edition 2000. Warszawa: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe. ISBN 83-01-13277-9
• 1983: O człowieku, moralności i nauce: miscellanea [On Man, morality, and science: miscellanies, ed. by Maria Ofierska and Maria Smoła. Warszawa: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe. ISBN 83-01-00801-6
• 1992: Wzór demokraty: cnoty i wartości [The paragon of a democrat: Virtues and values] Lublin: Daimonion. ISBN 83-900135-3-3
• 2002: Intymny portret uczonych: korespondencja Marii i Stanisława Ossowskich [An intimate portrait of a scholarly couple: The correspondence of Maria Ossowska and Stanisław Ossowski], ed. by Elżbieta Neyman. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo "Sic!". ISBN 83-88807-13-7

[edit] On Ossowska

• Olgierd Sochacki (ed.): Wątki polityczne w pracach Marii i Stanisława Ossowskich [Political threads in the works of Maria Ossowska and Stanisław Ossowski]. Gdańsk: Gdańskie Towarzystwo Naukowe. ISBN 83-87359-24-6