Danuta Gierulanka facts for kids
Danuta Gierulanka (1909–1995) was a very smart Polish woman. She was a teacher of math, a psychologist, a philosopher, and a translator. She was known for her deep thinking about how we understand things (called phenomenology) and about the ideas behind math (the philosophy of mathematics).
Her Early Life and Math Studies
Danuta Gierulanka was born in Kraków, Poland, on June 30, 1909. Her father worked for the government.
She loved math! From 1927 to 1932, she studied mathematics at the Jagiellonian University. She earned a master's degree by writing a special paper about math problems. After that, she studied for another year to become a teacher.
From 1933 to 1938, she taught high school. She taught math, science, and even philosophy in two schools in Kraków.
Becoming a Psychologist
In 1938, Danuta went back to Jagiellonian University. This time, she studied psychology. She worked in a special lab that studied how people think and learn.
Her studies were stopped because of World War II. During the war, she and her brother, who was a physicist, taught students in secret. This was very brave!
After the war, she finished her psychology studies. She earned her doctorate degree in 1947. Her special paper was about "How We Learn Geometric Ideas." It was later published as a book in 1958.
Danuta stayed at the university. For a while, she worked on combining math and psychology. But in 1957, she went back to working in the psychology lab.
Her Work as a Philosopher
In 1958, Danuta Gierulanka started working in philosophy. She became very interested in the ideas of Roman Ingarden, another famous philosopher. He studied "phenomenology," which is about how we experience the world around us.
In 1962, she wrote a big paper about the philosophy of mathematics. It was called "On the Peculiarity of Mathematical Cognition." This paper was also published as a book.
Even though she did important work, she didn't get a permanent job in philosophy. So, she returned to psychology at Jagiellonian University. She retired in 1971. Danuta Gierulanka passed away in Kraków on April 29, 1995.
After her big philosophy paper, Danuta helped edit all of Roman Ingarden's writings. She also translated important books into Polish. She translated works by Ingarden, Edmund Husserl, and Edith Stein.
