NAOCZNOŚĆ

The sentence … prowadził badania nad formami naoczności czasu i przestrzeni …. The term “naoczność” could perhaps be rendered by “evidence”, but the only connection is etymological, from “videre”, “to see”. I think this means, “he did research on the ways that time and space appear to us”. Is “naoczność” one of those words that only philosophers use in order to be difficult? Does it appear, as a noun that is, in normal everyday discourse? It is not in my dictionary, although “naoczny’ is. And “naoczny” is one of those words that can translated as a phrase or part of phrase, so how can we make a single English adjective out of it?

"trafność"

Stawianie problemów. Ten etap charakteryzują [...] ; trafność, wyrażająca się w tym, że problem nie implikuje fałszywych założeń, ani nie prowadzi do fałszu: [...]

"Soundness".

So says context, so says WSP-A (sort of). Though of course by itself the first assocation is "accurate", or something of the sort.

Given

The adjective “dany” is, of course, “given”. In English we might say “on any given day”. Polish writers, maybe especially in philosophy, use “dany” very often. Even though English can use it the same way, it does not appear as often. I think Polish writers use it to emphasize that the subject is definite or general, since by default we do not know if a subject is definite or indefinite in Polish. I find it usually makes better English without losing any meaning if “dany człowiek” is translated as “anyone”, or “any particular person”, “a particular person”.

Reduce, or Can be reduced

The verb “sprowadzić” is primarily rendered as “to reduce”. When it comes to ideas, English authors as I read them use the terms “reducible”, and “can be reduced” where Polish authors would write “reduced” and “is reduced” (sprowadzony, sprowadzi się).

MAYBE TROUBLE WITH ADJECTIVES

Some adjectives can be confusing if translated literally. For example “logiczne” and “prawne” — logical, legal. For example, “logiczne dzieła Bertranda Russella”, “the logical works of Bertrand Russell” — this is fine if the reader knows that Russell wrote about logic, but “logic works” or “works on logic” is more clear, because “logical” is the opposite of “illogical” (absurd). “Logical” does not primarily mean “about logic”, but English does not have a single word for “about logic”. The same with “nauki prawne” as “legal sciences”, which implies that it is a science that is not against the law, as opposed to an illegal science, for which the policeman will arrest you.