Władysław Witwicki


Władysław Witwicki was a Polish psychologist, philosopher, translator, historian and artist. He is seen as one of the fathers of psychology in Poland.
Witwicki was also the creator of the theory of cratism, theory of feelings, and he dealt with the issues of the psychology of religion, and the creation of secular ethics. He was one of the initiators and co-founders of Polish Philosophical Society. He is one of the thinkers associated with the Lwów–Warsaw school.

Background

Władysław Witwicki was the fifth child of Urszula Witwicka, born Woińska, and Ludwik–Filip Wasylkowicz Witwicki, as well as father of Janusz Witwicki, the creators of the Plastic Panorama of Old Lviv.
He graduated from the University of Lviv, was a student of Kazimierz Twardowski. He also studied at the University of Vienna and at the Leipzig University. He lectured at the University of Lviv and became a professor at the University of Warsaw.

Works

Witwicki is the author of the first Polish textbooks on psychology. He also collaborated with other philosophers. For instance, he worked with Bronisław Bandrowski to develop a model of psychology based on Franz Brentano's theory on phenomenology. It included an analysis of Edmund Husserl's Theory of Content and the Phenomenon of Thinking.
In the comments to his own translation of the Gospels of Matthew and Mark – Dobra Nowina według Mateusza i Marka – Witwicki challenges the mental health of Jesus. He attributed to Jesus subjectivism, increased sense of his own power and superiority over others, egocentrism and the tendency to subjugate other people, as well as difficulties communicating with the outside world and multiple personality disorder, which made him a schizothymic or even schizophrenic type.

Selected publications