Stefan Czarnowski

Stefan Czarnowski
Photograph in his book Kultura
Born	(1879-09-01)1 September 1879
Died	29 December 1937(1937-12-29) (aged 58)
Academic background
Education	University of Warsaw
Academic advisors	Marcel Mauss, Henri Hubert
Academic work
Discipline	Sociologist
Institutions	University of Warsaw
Main interests	Sociology of culture and religion, folklore
Notable works	Kultura
Military career
Allegiance	Poland
Service	Polish Legions
Battles / wars	Polish-Soviet War

Stefan Zygmunt Czarnowski (1 September 1879 – 29 December 1937) was a Polish sociologist, folklorist and professor of the University of Warsaw.

Biography

Czarnowski was a member of the Polish pro-independence movements, he fought in the Polish Legions and the Polish-Soviet War. At first supporter of endecja, he gravitated towards supporting Polish Socialist Party.

After studies in Leipzig under figures such as Wilhelm Wundt, in Berlin with Georg Simmel and in Paris as a student and assistant to Marcel Mauss and Henri Hubert, Czarnowski habilitated in 1926 for cultural history at the University of Warsaw, 1928 to 1929 he lectured at the École pratique des hautes études in Paris. From 1930 he taught at the University of Warsaw as an associate professor of cultural history, from 1934 as a full professor of sociology and cultural history.

In his sociological work, Czarnowski closely followed Émile Durkheim's positivist concept of science, in which he researched the socio-cultural world using empirically verifiable theories and methods. At the same time he advocated an "ontological" humanism in the view that this world is a dimension constituted by symbolic communication, to be observed separately from natural phenomena. In most of his work, he appeared simultaneously as a historian and sociologist, which is why he is considered the first Polish representative of historical sociology. His main work Kultura offers a series of historical-sociological studies on the emergence, transformation and renewal of culture and is an attempt at a synthesis of Durkheim's concept of society and Marxist categories of analysis.

His works centered on sociology of culture and religion. He studied social movements, theory of heroes as well as history of the Celts.

He wrote in French a very important book: Le culte des héros et ses conditions sociales; Saint Patrick, héros national de l'Irlande, Paris, Félix Alcan, Collection des travaux sociologiques sous la direction d'Emile Durkheim, Préface d'Henri Hubert, 1919.

Further reading

• Kornelia Kończal, Joanna Wawrzyniak and Jonathan Scovil, (ed.), Publicystyka Stefana Czarnowskiego (1912–1936), Warszawa: Oficyna Naukowa (Biblioteka Myśli Socjologicznej, 13) (in preparation).
• Kornelia Kończal and Joanna Wawrzyniak (ed.), Stefan Czarnowski: Lettres à Henri Hubert et à Marcel Mauss (1905–1937) / Listy do Henri Huberta i Marcela Maussa (1905–1937), trans. by Damien Thiriet and Filip Rogalski, Warsaw: Oficyna Naukowa, 2015 (Biblioteka Myśli Socjologicznej, 11).