The city of Warsaw has a longstanding history of teaching philosophy, dating back to the times of Collegium Nobilium, where Antoni Wiśniewski lectured (1746-1763), and, later, the Knight School, where logic and ethics were taught by Marcin Nikuta (1766-1788). Other notable lecturers of philosophy at the Royal University of Warsaw were Bohumin Linde (1817-1818), Adam Zubelewicz (1818-1823) (previously (1809-1816) teacher at the Medical Academy in Warsaw)) and Krystyn Lach-Szyrma (1824-1931). Henryk Struve was a leading philosopher in Warsaw during the second half of the nineteenth century. Struve was first a lecturer at the Warsaw Main School (1864-1869), where Stefan Pawlicki (1866-1869) was giving lectures on the history of philosophy, and later a professor at the Imperial University of Warsaw in Russia (1870-1915). At the turn of the century, lectures in philosophy were conducted in Polish at the Flying University by Adam Mahrburg and were later continued at the Scientific Courses Society by Władysław Mieczysław Kozłowski.
During the interwar period, the philosophical departments at the University of Warsaw were headed by Jan Łukasiewicz (1915-1918, 1920-1923 and after 1926), Władysław Tatarkiewicz (1915-1919 and from 1923), Tadeusz Kotarbiński (from 1918), Stanisław Leśniewski (from 1918), and, temporarily, Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz (1925-1928), and Stanisław Schayer (1926-1929). These departments were established within the Faculty of History and Philosophy (1915-1916), which then became the Faculty of Philosophy (1916-1927) and later was divided into the Faculty of Humanities (Tatarkiewicz, Kotarbiński and Schayer) and the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics (Łukasiewicz, Leśniewski and Ajdukiewicz). During this period, venia legendi was received, among others, by Alfred Tarski (1925), Henryk Elzenberg (1928) and Maria and Stanisław Ossowski (1932 and 1933). The Warsaw Logic School, a branch of the Lvov-Warsaw School, was later established by Łukasiewicz and Leśniewski to be recognised as a world-leading institution.
During World War II, Łukasiewicz, Tatarkiewicz, Kotarbiński and the Ossowskis conducted secret classes at the Underground University. Łukasiewicz’s renown is evidenced by his position as head of the Ministry of Religious Denominations and Public Education under Paderewski’s government (1919), and twice as the rector of the University of Warsaw (1922-1923 and 1931-1932). Kotarbiński was the dean of the Faculty of Humanities for one term (1929-1930).
After the war, both faculties resumed their activities. However, changes were made as Leśniewski had passed away in 1939 and Łukasiewicz had emigrated to Ireland, whilst Tatarkiewicz and Ossowska were removed from teaching philosophy in 1950 and 1952 respectively. The new Faculty of Philosophy and Social Sciences (1951-1953) was separated from the Faculty of Humanities, which was later transformed into the Faculty of Philosophy (1953-1968). The deans of the Faculty of Philosophy were Jan Legowicz (1953-1958), Janina Kotarbińska (1958-1960), Roman Suszko ( 1960-1963), Marek Fritzhand (1963-1965), Stefan Morawski (1965-1967) and Klemens Szaniawski (1967-1986). In 1951, Tadeusz Kotarbiński became chair of the Department of Logic, with Janina Kotarbińska assuming that position a decade later. Between 1956 and 1958 Maria Ossowska and Władysław Tatarkiewicz returned to teaching. Ossowska was the head of the Department of History and Moral Theory, while Tatarkiewicz oversaw the Department of Aesthetics. After the events of March 1968, philosophy at the University underwent a thorough structural reorganisation. The Faculty of Philosophy was first renamed the Faculty of Social Sciences (1968-1981), and then the Faculty of Philosophy and Sociology (1981-2020). There were several deans of the faculty who were philosophers: Klemens Szaniawski (1968-1970), Henryk Jankowski (1987-1993), Elżbieta Pietruska-Madej (1999-2001), Jacek Migasiński (2008-2012) and Mieszko Tałasiewicz (2016-2020). The Institute of Philosophy was established in 1968 as a part of the new faculty structure. The directors of the Institute of Philosophy were, in turn, Jan Legowicz (1968-1971), Marian Dobrosielski (1971-1973), Henryk Jankowski (1974-1987, 1996-1999), Marek Siemek (1987-1989), Dobrochna Dembińska-Siury (1993-1996, 1999-2005), Jacek Jadacki (2005-2008), Aleksander Ochocki (2008-2012), Mieszko Tałasiewicz (2012-2016) and Jakub Kloc-Konkołowicz (2016-2020).
In addition to those mentioned above, during the post-war period philosophy at the University of Warsaw was taught by such renowned professors as: Zdzisław Augustynek, Bronisław Baczko, Andrzej Kasia, Leszek Kołakowski, Władysław Krajewski, Tadeusz Kroński, Janusz Kuczyński, Jerzy Pelc, Marian Przełęcki, Adam Schaff, Adam Sikora, Barbara Stanosz and Bogusław Wolniewicz.
In 2020, the Institute of Philosophy separated from the Faculty of Philosophy and Sociology. It returned to its previous name of the Faculty of Philosophy and Paweł Łuków was appointed dean.
The philosophical community of the University of Warsaw has organised the second and the eighth Polish Philosophical Congress (1927 and 2008) and has been supportive in the publication of the following philosophical journals: Dialogue and Humanism (1991-1994), Edukacja Filozoficzna (since 1986), Etyka (since 1966), Philosophy of Science (since 1993), Kronos (since 2007), Przegląd Filozoficzno-Literacki (since 2002), Przegląd Filozoficzny. Nowa seria (since 1992), Rocznik Historii Filozofii Polskiej (since 2008) and Sztuka i Filozofia (since 1989). The Faculty is also affiliated with the Poznań Studies in the Philosophy of the Sciences and Humanities journal, currently published by Brill.
The Facutly is supported by the Combined Libraries of WFiS, IFiS PAN and PTF, which were established and managed by Janusz Krajewski (1952-1973), who was succeeded by Dr. Barbara Wielejszys (1973-1978), Jan Siek (1978-2007), Aleksandra Łabuńska (2007 -2016) and Michał Chlebicki (from 2016).