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What was and what could have been: Janina Hosiasson-Lindenbaum's role in the philosophy of probablity.

Project description

Acknowledging Janina Hosiasson-Lindenbaum’s contribution to analytic philosophy

Janina Hosiasson-Lindenbaum (1899-1942) was a Polish philosopher known for her work in inductive reasoning and the interpretation of probability. Albeit well-published and internationally recognised in her day, she never lectured at university and is often overlooked in histories of analytic philosophy. Funded by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, the Janina Project seeks to discover the reasons for her exclusion from professorship and historical references. More importantly, the project seeks to determine her rightful place in the development of philosophical thought. It will first investigate Hosiasson-Lindenbaum’s social and academic environments to understand the influences on her intellectual development and career prospects. A comprehensive analysis of the philosopher’s life work (published and unpublished) will then determine her role in the development of confirmation theory.

Objective

Janina Hosiasson-Lindenbaum (1899-1942) was a philosopher working on inductive reasoning and the interpretation of probability. In spite of her impressive publication list and international recognition, she never managed to secure a university post; and the histories of analytic philosophy barely engage with her work. This project will contribute to our understanding of what led to her exclusion from the philosophical canon, and develop a thorough analysis of the full body of her work—establishing what her rightful position in the history of analytic philosophy actually is.

The first objective of the project is to understand how the career of Hosiasson-Lindenbaum and the uptake of her ideas in the philosophy community were influenced by her social status and her academic biography. This will be done by analysing her academic and social environment in Warsaw, focusing on how it shaped her intellectual development and how it determined her chances and recognition as a professional philosopher. Then, I will look at the last period of her career: her unsuccessful efforts to secure funding as a refugee scholar during World War II. I will identify the causes that led to the rejection of her appeals. The working hypothesis here is that the factors identified in these two parts are relevant to the uptake of Janina Hosiasson’s ideas in the wider philosophical community.

The second objective is to reconstruct Hosiasson-Lindenbaum’s position on the foundational questions in philosophy of probability and inductive logic and to evaluate its conceptual and historical importance. This will be achieved by a detailed study of her whole body of work, spanning over thirty published and unpublished items, and her correspondence with other philosophers. Based on this analysis, I will first reconstruct her own position on the nature of the concept of probability. Then, I will establish what was her role in the development of confirmation theory.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

Keywords

Programme(s)

Topic(s)

Funding Scheme

HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships

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Call for proposal

(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2022-PF-01

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Coordinator

UNIVERSITAT WIEN
Net EU contribution
€ 183 600,96
Address
UNIVERSITATSRING 1
1010 Wien
Austria
Region
Ostösterreich Wien Wien
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
Total cost
No data