Web Quotableonline.com Frasescelebres.org Greatbookscollection.org

Leon Chwistek (b. January 13, 1884 in KrakĂłw,
Poland - August 20, 1944 near Moscow, Russia) was
a Poland|Polish Avant-garde painter, theoretician
of modern art, literary critic, logician,
philosopher and mathematician.

In the 1920s-30s many philosophers in Europe
attempted to reform traditional philosophy by
means of mathematical logic. Leon Chwistek did not
believe that such a reform could succeed. He
thought that reality could not be described in one
homogenous system, which would be based on the
principles of formal logic, because there is not
one reality but many.

Chwistek developed his theory of the multiplicity
of realities first with regard to the arts. He
distinguished four basic types of realities and
then matched them with four basic types of
painting.

Here are the four types of realities:
:1. The popular reality (common-sense realism)
:2. The physical reality (constructed by physics)
:3. The phenomenal reality (sensual impressions)
:4. The visionary/intuitive reality (dreams,
hallucinations, subconscious states).

The types of painting which correspond to the
above are:
:1. Primitivism
:2. Realism 
:3. Impressionism
:4. Futurism

Chwistek never intended his views to constitute a
new metaphysical theory. He was a defender of
"sound reason", against metaphysics and the
irrationalistic feelings. His theory of plural
reality was merely an attempt to specify the
various ways in which the term “real” is used.

It is interesting that Stanislaw Ignacy
Witkiewicz|Witkiewicz, although Chwistek’s
closest friend, harshly criticized his friend’s
philosophical views.

Wikiewicz’s philosophy was based on the idea of
monadic character of the existence of the
individual, which embraces multiplicity of
existences, and the world being made up of a
multiplicity of Particular Existences. 
mathbiostub