This article describes the exchange of views between two eminent representatives of legal sciences, Jerzy Śliwowski and Leon Radzinowicz. A direct impulse for the exchange of views was given by J. Śliwowski’s categorical position that a penitentiary science is beginning to develop in the discipline of criminological sciences as an independent field of knowledge. These views prompted L. Radzinowicz to present a number of critical and polemical remarks. The article is an introduction to the topic of discourse between scientists and presents their original views.