| Region: | Western Philosophy |
| Era: | 20th-century philosophy |
| Barbara Skarga | |
| Birth Date: | 25 October 1919 |
| Birth Place: | Warsaw, Poland |
| Death Place: | Olsztyn, Poland |
| School Tradition: | Philosophy of dialogue |
| Main Interests: | Epistemology, humanity, ontology, ethics |
Barbara Skarga (25 October 1919 – 18 September 2009) was a Polish philosophy historian and philosopher who worked mainly in ethics and epistemology.
Skarga was born in 1919 at Warsaw to a Calvinist family with gentry roots. Her sister was actress Hanna Skarżanka and brother was Edward Skarga.
Skarga studied philosophy at Wilno University. During World War II, she was a member of the resistance movement Armia Krajowa. In 1944 the Soviet NKVD arrested and sentenced her to ten years at the katorga. Afterwards, she was forced to live at a collective farm. After the war she wrote an anonymous memoir about her time in the gulag.[1]
She returned to Poland in 1955[2] and graduated in 1957 with a Ph.D. in philosophy at the University of Warsaw. In 1988 she became a full professor of philosophy.
Skarga was an editor-in-chief of Etyka. In 1995, she was awarded Order of the White Eagle.
Skarga died on 18 September 2009 in Olsztyn, and was buried in Warsaw.[3]
In 2022, the Barbara Skarga Foundation is based in Warsaw and offers a scholarship to unpublished philosophers.[4]