Leszek Nowak

Leszek Nowak (Więckowice, Tarnów County, 7 January 1943 – Poznań, 20 October 2009) was a Polish philosopher.

In 1965, he graduated in law at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, having written a thesis under the direction of Sigmund Ziembiński. In 1966 he completed his master's degree in philosophy at the University of Warsaw under the direction of Janina Kotarbinska. In 1967 he obtained a doctorate in law, writing on the interpretation of the law, the rule of law and semiotic functions of language, under Ziembiński. He was named assistant professor in 1970 and wrote on the methodological foundations of Karl Marx . In 1976 he was an associate professor of philosophy, the youngest such professor in Poland, and in 1990 he became a regular professor. In 1994, he became a member of the Academy of Sciences.

In 1965-1970 he worked in the Law Department of Applied Logic UAM, and between 1970 and 1985 in the Institute of Philosophy University. In 1985, he was fired from his job for publishing underground literature. In 1989, he was restored to his previous academic position.

He worked as a visiting professor at the universities of Berlin, Canberra (Australian National University), Catania and Frankfurt. He was a Fellow of the Institutes for Advanced Study in Wassenaar and Berlin.

In 1975, he founded an international series of bookish Poznan Studies in the Philosophy of the Sciences and the Humanities (published by Rodopi, Amsterdam / New York), where he was editor-in-chief until 2006.

In 1976 he founded a series of Poznan Studies in the Philosophy of Humanities (PWN, now publishing Profit & S-ka Poznan). In the years 1976-1984 he was the editor in chief and co-editor since 1989.

In 2000, he supervised 15 doctoral dissertations. Among those, 8 people received their habilitation, 4 received the title of professor, and two ordinary professor, and one was chosen a corresponding member of Academy of Sciences.

In his socio-political outlook, he strongly approached anarchism.