Andrzej Nowicki (philosopher)

Andrzej Nowicki
Born27 May 1919
Warsaw, Poland
Died1 December 2011(2011-12-01) (aged 92)
NationalityPolish
Alma materUniversity of Warsaw
Era20th-century philosophy
InstitutionsUniversity of Warsaw
(1952–63)
University of Wrocław
(1963–73)
Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin
(1973–91)
Part of Nowicki's library with label's in Chinese showing the interest in the language he developed in his later years.

Andrzej Rusław Fryderyk Nowicki[1] (27 May 1919 – 1 December 2011) was a Polish philosopher of culture, a specialist in the history of philosophy and of atheism, in Italian philosophy of the Renaissance and in religious studies and Grand Master of the Grand East of Poland[2][3] and a connoisseur of the fine arts, poet and diplomat.

In the years 1937–1939 he studied philosophy, psychology and Italian studies at the University of Warsaw. He resumed his studies in philosophy during the World War II in underground education. His teachers were, among others: Tadeusz Kotarbiński, Władysław Tatarkiewicz, Władysław Witwicki.[4]

Nowicki conceived his own philosophical system which he called "the ergantropic and incontrological (Polish: ergantropijno-inkontrologiczny) philosophical system of meetings within things". He worked as an academic at the University of Warsaw (1952–1963), the University of Wrocław (1963–1973), the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin (1973–1991) and achieved the rank of a professor.

He was co-founder and chairman of the Association of Atheists and Freethinkers and of the Polish Association for Religious Studies [pl]. He was a member of the committee of the Front of National Unity in 1958.[5]He was the founder and editor-in-chief of the "Euhemer" magazine. He was the grandmaster of the Grand Orient of Poland in 1997–2002.[6]

Later in his life he developed an interest in the Chinese language.[7]

  1. ^ Siedlaczek, Iwona Agnieszka (12 May 2011). "Andrzej Rusław Fryderyk Nowicki". Wyborcza.pl (in Polish). Archived from the original on 10 February 2018.
  2. ^ "Andrzej Rusław Fryderyk Nowicki". wolnomularstwo.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 20 August 2023.
  3. ^ "Jestem wolnomularzem od XVIII wieku" ["I have been a Freemason since the 18th Century"]. wolnomularstwo.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 20 August 2023. Interview with Professor Nowicki on his freemasonry by journalist and writer Wojciech Giełżyński.
  4. ^ Majewska, Zofia (2013). "Wspomnienie o Profesorze Andrzeju Nowickim (1919–2011)" [Memories of Professor Andrzej Nowicki (1919–2011)] (PDF). SOFIA (in Polish) (13). Rzeszów: Wydawnictwo Wyższej Szkoły Pedagogicznej: 393. ISSN 1642-1248. Retrieved 26 December 2020.
  5. ^ Trybuna Robotnicza, no 4 (4350), 7 January 1958, p. 2.
  6. ^ Miciński, Tadeusz (2004). Nietota. Księga tajemna Tatr. Warsaw: tCHu. p. 335. ISBN 83-901178-1-9.
  7. ^ Recollection of Ivonna Nowicka, author of the picture of Nowicki's library.