Jerzy Giedymin

Key takeaways

Jerzy Giedymin belongs to mathematics; place it in that map before memorising details.
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Reference excerpt

Jerzy Giedymin (September 18, 1925 – June 24, 1993) was a philosopher and historian of mathematics and science.

Life Giedymin, of Polish origin, was born in 1925. He studied at the University of Poznań under Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz. In 1953 Jerzy Giedymin succeeded Adam Wiegner at the Chair of Logic at the Faculty of Philosophy. The so-called Poznań School was a Marxist current of philosophy marked by an idealisational theory of science which emphasised the scientific features of Marxism in close confrontation with contemporary logic and epistemology. In 1968 Giedymin moved to England and attended seminars by Karl Popper at the London School of Economics. In 1971 he came to Sussex to become Professor at the School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences of the University of Sussex. Giedymin died during a trip to Poland on 24 June 1993.

Work Giedymin was convinced that Henri Poincaré's conventionalist philosophy was fundamentally misunderstood and thus underestimated. Giedymin argues that Poincaré was at the origin of much of the 20th century's innovations in relativity theory and quantum physics. Giedymin's standpoint was much influenced by his exposure to Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz's perception of the history of ideas which in defiance of traditional empiricism reviews the philosophy of science of the early 20th century in the light of pragmatic conventionalism.

Bibliography

Books Jerzy Giedymin, Z problemow logicznych analizy historycznej [Some Logical Problems of Historical Analysis], Poznanskie towarzystwo przyjaciol nauk. Wydzial filologiczno-filozoficzny. Prace Komisji filozoficznej. tom 10. zesz. 3., Poznań, 1961. Jerzy Giedymin, Problemy, zalozenia, rozstrzygniecia. Studia nad logicznymi podstawami nauk spolecznych [Questions, assumptions, decidability. Essays concerning the logical functions of the social sciences], Polskie Towarzystwo Ekonomiczne. Oddzial w Poznaniu. Rozprawy i monografie. No. 10, Poznań, 1964. Jerzy Giedymin ed., Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz: The scientific world-perspective and other essays, 1931-1963, Dordrecht: D. Reidel Publishing Co., 1974 ISBN 90-277-0527-5 Jerzy Giedymin, Science and convention: essays on Henri Poincaré’s philosophy of science and the conventionalist tradition, Oxford: Pergamon, 1982 ISBN 0-08-025790-9

Articles (selection) Jerzy Giedymin, "Confirmation, critical region and empirical content of hypotheses", in Studia Logica, Volume 10, Number 1 (1960) Jerzy Giedymin, "A generalization of the refutability postulate", in Studia Logica, Volume 10, Number 1 (1960) Jerzy Giedymin, "Authorship hypotheses and reliability of informants", in Studia Logica, Volume 12, Number 1 (1961) Jerzy Giedymin, "Reliability of Informants", in British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, XIII (1963) Jerzy Giedymin, "The Paradox of Meaning Variance", in British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 21 (1970) Jerzy Giedymin, "Consolations for the Irrationalist", in British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 22 (1971) Jerzy Giedymin, "Antipositivism in Contemporary Philosophy of Social Sciences and Humanities", in British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 26 (1975) Jerzy Giedymin, "On the origin and significance of Poincaré's conventionalism", in Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, Vol.8, No.4 (1977) Jerzy Giedymin, "Revolutionary changes, non-translatability and crucial experiments", in Problems of the Philosophy of Science, Amsterdam: North Holland, 1968 Jerzy Giedymin, "The Physics of the Principles and Its Philosophy: Hamilton, Poincaré and Ramsey", in Science and Convention: Essays on Henri Poincaré's Philosophy of Science and the Conventionalist Tradition. Oxford: Pergamon (1982) Jerzy Giedymin, "Geometrical and Physical Conventionalism of Henri Poincaré in Epistemologial Formulation", in Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, 22 (1991) Jerzy Giedymin, "Conventionalism, the Pluralist Conception of Theories and the Nature of Interpretation", in Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, 23 (1992) Jerzy Giedymin, "Radical Conventionalism, Its Background and Evolution: Poincare, Leroy, Ajdukiewicz", in Vito Sinisi & Jan Wolenski (ed.), The Heritage of Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz, Amsterdam, Rodopi, 1995 ISBN 90-5183-808-5 Jerzy Giedymin, "Ajdukiewicz's Life and Personality", in Vito Sinisi & Jan Wolenski (ed.), The Heritage of Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz, Amsterdam, Rodopi, 1995 ISBN 90-5183-808-5 Jerzy Giedymin, "Strength, Confirmation, Compatibility", in Mario Bunge (ed.), in Critical Approaches to Science and Philosophy (Science and Technology Studies). Piscataway, N.J.:Transaction Publishers (1998)

About Jerzy Giedymin Laurent Rollet, Le conventionnalisme géométrique de Henri Poincaré : empirisme ou apriorisme ? Une étude des thèses de Adolf Grünbaum et Jerzy Giedymin, Université de Nancy 2, 1993 Laurent Rollet, "The Grünbaum-Giedymin Controversy Concerning the Philosophical Interpretation of Poincaré's Geometrical Conventionalism" in Krystyna Zamiara (ed.) The Problems Concerning the Philosophy of Science and Science Itself, Poznań, Wydawnictwo Fundacji Humaniora (1995) Krystyna Zamaria, "Jerzy Giedymin – From the Logic of Science to the Theoretical History of Science", in Wladyslaw Krajewski (ed.), Polish Philosophers of Science and Nature in the 20th Century, Amsterdam, 2001 ISBN 90-420-1497-0

External links Obituary: Jerzy Giedymin Obituary published in The Independent The Poznań School Presentation of the Poznań school Polish Logic of the Postwar Period Article by Jan Zygmunt of the University of Wrocław The Giedymin - Grünbaum Controversy Concerning the Philosophical Interpretation of Geometrical Conventionalism Article by Laurent Rollet French Conventionalism and its Influence on Polish Philosophy Archived 2009-10-07 at the Wayback Machine Article by Anna Jedynak in Parerga – MIĘDZYNARODOWE STUDIA FILOZOFICZNE, No. 2 (2007)

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Jerzy Giedymin

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Jerzy Giedymin claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In mathematics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Jerzy Giedymin before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Jerzy Giedymin ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Jerzy Giedymin

In research: Jerzy Giedymin appears in mathematics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Jerzy Giedymin in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Jerzy Giedymin is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1925 births, 1993 deaths, 20th-century Polish philosophers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Jerzy Giedymin outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

How to study Jerzy Giedymin in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Jerzy Giedymin means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
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Frequently asked questions

What is Jerzy Giedymin in simple terms?

Jerzy Giedymin (September 18, 1925 – June 24, 1993) was a philosopher and historian of mathematics and science. Life Giedymin, of Polish origin, was born in 1925.

Why does Jerzy Giedymin matter?

Because it connects several mathematics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Jerzy Giedymin?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Jerzy Giedymin.