DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHICAL ANTHROPOLOGY AND SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY

Dr hab. Jagna Brudzińska, prof. IFiS PAN – Head
Prof. dr hab. Stanisław Czerniak 
Dr hab. Andrzej Gniazdowski, prof. IFiS PAN
Dr hab. Daniel Sobota, prof. IFiS PAN
dr Giulia Lanzirotti

Fellows 

Prof. Pavel Barkouski – NCBR Fellow, ‘Solidarity with Scientists’ program, 2023-2025

Mag. Thomas Dojan, PhD scholar in NCN Preludium Bis1 project, PI Prof. J. Brudzinska

The Department of Philosophical Anthropology and Social Philosophy was founded in 1995. At present, the Research Group is composed of four permanent members of the research staff, all of whom are professors, and one interim post-doc researcher. In addition, two scholarship holders are affiliated with the Group. The founder and long-standing head of the department was Prof. Dr. Stanisław Czerniak, an eminent expert in German philosophy and a representative of 20th-century philosophical anthropology, a fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, now a retired member of the Group. As of 2018, the head of the Department is Prof. Dr. Jagna Brudzińska.

OBJECTIVES AND RESEARCH AREAS

The Group’s research focus is the foundations and theoretical identity of contemporary philosophical anthropology and its relation to phenomenology and social philosophy in their historical and systematic dimensions. We place particular emphasis on the possibility of further developing philosophical anthropology. Our innovative approach is based on a phenomenological theory of experience, starting from the phenomenology of Edmund Husserl, especially his genetic phenomenology. The research is carried out in the intra-, inter- and transdisciplinary dimensions and addresses the phenomenological theory of human experience, the anthropology of the subject in the lifeworld, and its social dimensions and sources – in dialogue with contemporary human sciences.

• The research deals with specific categories of phenomenologically oriented philosophical anthropology, such as freedom, interest, compensation, contingency, mimesis, corporeality, performance, vulnerability, resilience, conflict, happiness, anxiety, unconscious, or fantasy (Brudzińska, Czerniak, Gniazdowski, Sobota).
• On an inter- and transdisciplinary level, we combine phenomenological analyses with psychoanalytic approaches, unfolding the unconscious aspects of human experience and taking into account the results of empirical psychological research, Gestalt theory, and medical science.  This involves a critique of naturalistic and rationalistic positions in contemporary anthropological theories (Brudzińska).
• From a phenomenological perspective, the subject in the life-world is a social being. Therefore, an important aspect of our research is the social and socio-political meaning of human nature. The research devoted to these issues is conducted in the phenomenological and hermeneutic tradition, and focuses on the phenomena of intersubjectivity and community (Brudzińska) as well as state, nation, and society (Gniazdowski).
• Our research operates within the history of ideas and takes up historical, socio-political phenomena, therein contending with the critique of ideology and authoritarianism as well as the phenomena of migration and social integration (Barkouski, Gniazdowski).
• With regard to the phenomena of sociality, our research integrates the critical thought of the Frankfurt School and sociological theories of knowledge and cognition (Czerniak).
• Among the emerging research perspectives, it is worth mentioning the phenomenological study of material culture, innovatively linking phenomenological anthropology with contemporary research in archaeology (Lanzirotti).

INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION

The Research Group has extensive international links and cooperates with

• Germany: Husserl Archive, University of Cologne; Sigmund Freud Institute, Frankfurt am Main
• Italy: University Roma III, Rome; University of Trieste; University of Palermo; University Federico II, Naples;
• United States: Duquesne University, Pittsburgh; Pennsylvania State University
• Czech Republic: Charles University, Prague; Czech Academy of Sciences
• Belgium: Husserl Archive, KU Leuven
• Finland: University of Jyväskylä
• Austria: Institute of Human Sciences, Vienna

The Group is a leading member of the international research network gPHEN genetic Phenomenology and the Human Sciences

https://husserl.phil-fak.uni-koeln.de/projekte/gphen

Since 2018, the Group organizes the international Research Summer School in Genetic Phenomenology, which takes place yearly in Warsaw.

PUBLICATIONS (selection)

Recent publications of the research team include:

GRANTS (recent)

• Translation into Polish, critical study, editing, preparation for print and publication of Max Scheler’s war writings, National Program for the Development of the Humanities (NPRH), PI Andrzej Gniazdowski (2023-2028)
• The Phenomenology of the State. A Historical-Critical Introduction, National Center for Science (NCN), Opus 20, PI Andrzej Gniazdowski (2021-2025)
• Towards a Depth Phenomenology of Embodied Individuation, National Science Centre (NCN), Prelude Bis 1, PI Jagna Brudzinska, PhD student Thomas Dojan (2019-2024)
• Genetic Phenomenology of Personal Experience. The Interdisciplinary Potential of
• Edmund Husserl’s Transcendental Philosophy, National Science Centre (NCN), Opus 15, , PI Jagna Brudzinska (2018-2023)
• The Political Applications of Phenomenology, Institute for Human Sciences, Vienna, Józef Tischner Fellowship, PI Andrzej Gniazdowski (2023)
• Transformation processes in Belarusian society in context of protest movements and the new approach to democracy, NAWA, ‘Solidarity with Scientists 2021’ , PI Pavel Barkouski, contractor Andrzej Gniazdowski (2022-2025)
• Translation into German and publication of Daniel R. Sobota’s monograph entitled ‘The Birth of Phenomenology. ‘The birth of phenomenology from the spirit of the question. Johannes Daubert and phenomenological start-up”, (Publ. IFiS PAN, Warsaw 2017), National Program for the Advancement of the Humanities (NPRH), Universalia 2.1. PI Daniel Sobota (2018-2022)

PhD-Supervising (recent)

• Thomas Dojan, Psychosexual Embodiment and Genealogy of Gendered Personhood between Phenomenology and Psychoanalysis, cotutelle IFiS PAN – University of Cologne, supervisors: Jagna Brudzińska (Warsaw) and Dieter Lohmar (Köln)
• Mitchell Atkinson III, “Alterity and the Flint Water Crisis”, defence 23.03.2022, supervisor Jagna Brudzińska
• Andrea Lanza, “Passive Synthesis and Cognitive Penetration: The Husserlian motivational Legacy Applied to the Relationship between Perception and Cognition”, cotutelle University of Florence – IFiS PAN, defence 07.10.2021, supervisors: Roberta Lanfredini (Florence) and Jagna Brudzińska (Warsaw)
• Ying-Chien Yang, “Die Passivität in der Aktivität bei Edmund Husserl. Eine phänomenologische Untersuchung ihrer Funktion für die Erfahrung in Subjektgenesis und transzendentaler Logik”, cotutelle University of Cologne – IFiS PAN, defence 21.12.2021, supervisors: Dieter Lohmar (Köln) and Jagna Brudzińska (Warsaw)
• Paweł Grad, “Realism in the Theory of the Meaning of Religious Language. A Philosophical Contribution to the Theory of Secularisation”, defence 30.11.2020, supervisor Andrzej Gniazdowski

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