Maria Ossowska was a Polish

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

 sociologist

Sociology

Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...

 and social philosopher

Social philosophy

Social philosophy is the philosophical study of questions about social behavior . Social philosophy addresses a wide range of subjects, from individual meanings to legitimacy of laws, from the social contract to criteria for revolution, from the functions of everyday actions to the effects of...

.

Life

A student of the philosopher Tadeusz Kotarbiński

Tadeusz Kotarbinski

Tadeusz Kotarbiński , a pupil of Kazimierz Twardowski, was a Polish philosopher, logician, one of the most representative figures of the Lwów-Warsaw School, and a member of the Polish Academy of Learning as well as the Polish Academy of Sciences...

, she originally in 1925 received a doctorate in philosophy

Philosophy

Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...

 at the University of Warsaw

University of Warsaw

The University of Warsaw is the largest university in Poland and one of the most prestigious, ranked as best Polish university in 2010 and 2011...

 with a thesis on Bertrand Russell

Bertrand Russell

Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, OM, FRS was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, and social critic. At various points in his life he considered himself a liberal, a socialist, and a pacifist, but he also admitted that he had never been any of these things...

. In her later work, she focused on the philosophy and sociology of ethics

Ethics

Ethics, also known as moral philosophy, is a branch of philosophy that addresses questions about morality—that is, concepts such as good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice, justice and crime, etc.Major branches of ethics include:...

. Ossowska is often mentioned as a member of the Lwów–Warsaw School of Logic

Lwów–Warsaw School of Logic

The Lwów–Warsaw School of Logic was headed by Kazimierz Twardowski, who had been a student of Franz Brentano and is regarded as the "father of Polish logic."-History:...

, though strictly speaking this is not correct, since formal logic was not her main area of interest.

From 1941 until 1945, Ossowska taught in the Polish underground university system

Education in Poland during World War II

This article covers the topic of underground education in Poland during World War II. Secret learning prepared new cadres for the post-war reconstruction of Poland and countered the German and Soviet threat to exterminate the Polish culture....

. 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 "bourgeois" 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

Polish Academy of Sciences

The Polish Academy of Sciences, headquartered in Warsaw, is one of two Polish institutions having the nature of an academy of sciences.-History:...

 (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.

Maria Ossowska and Stanisław Ossowski are considered to be among the founders of the field of "science of science" due to their authorship of a seminal 1935 paper entitled "The Science of Science."

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 Chivalric Ethos and Its Varieties], 3rd edition, 2000, Warsaw, 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.