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CFP JEMS Special Issues Spring-Fall 2023

The Journal of Early Modern Studies (JEMS), ISSN: 2285-6382 (paperback), ISSN: 2286-0290 (electronic), edited by the Foundations of Modern Thought Research Centre, University of Bucharest, welcomes proposals for its Spring and Fall 2023 Special Issues. Prospective guest editors are invited to explore any topic pertinent to JEMS’s general interest in cross-disciplinary approaches to early modern thought that draw on intellectual history, history of philosophy and history of science. The main language of the journal is English, although contributions in French are also accepted. JEMS is a double blind peer-reviewed journal, currently indexed in Web of Science Emerging Sources Citation Index, ERIH+, EBSCO, Philosophy Research Index, PhilPapers.

Please prepare proposals that contain the following:

  • A description of the topic (up to 1200 words)
  • A table of contents (6-8 articles of 8000 words each)
  • Short abstracts of the contributions (up to 300 words each)
  • Short bios of the editors and contributors
  • A timeline of manuscript submission

The deadline for submission of proposals for either of the two issues is October 1, 2021.

Please send your queries and your proposals to jems@zetabooks.com.

For further details about JEMS, please visit https://zetabooks.com/library/journals/journal-of-early-modern-studies/.

CFP JEMS 5.1

CALL FOR PAPERS

GENERAL (NON-THEMATIC) ISSUE OF THE JOURNAL OF EARLY MODERN STUDIES (ISSUE 5.1)

The Editors of the Journal of Early Modern Studies are pleased to announce a call for papers for the Spring 2016 general (non-thematic) issue of JEMS. Submissions of articles and reviews, in English and French, falling within the
general scope of JEMS are welcome.

JEMS is an interdisciplinary, blind double peer-reviewed journal of intellectual
history, dedicated to the exploration of the interactions between philosophy, science and religion in Early Modern Europe. It aims to respond to the growing awareness within the scholarly community of an emerging new field of research that crosses the boundaries of the traditional disciplines and goes beyond received historiographic categories and concepts. JEMS publishes high-quality articles reporting results of research in intellectual history, history of philosophy and history of early modern science, with a special interest in cross-disciplinary approaches. It furthermore aims to bring to the attention of the scholarly community as yet unexplored topics, which testify to the multiple intellectual exchanges and interactions between Eastern and Western Europe during the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It is edited by the Research Centre “Foundations of Modern Thought”, University of Bucharest, and published and distributed by Zeta Books. For further information on JEMS and its previous issues, please visit http://www.zetabooks.com/journals/journal-of-early-modern-studies.html

Please send your contributions no later than the 15th of November 2015 to
jems@zetabooks.com.

 

Bran 2015

BUCHAREST-PRINCETON SEMINAR
IN EARLY MODERN PHILOSOPHY
15th Edition
 
Organized by the Research Centre for the Foundations of Modern Thought (FME), University of Bucharest, in collaboration with the Philosophy Department at Princeton University 
12 – 17 July 2015
Bran, Romania
Philosophical Conversations:
Intellectual Interactions in the 17th Century
Programme (PDF)
    The Bucharest-Princeton Seminar in Early Modern Philosophy is an international annual meeting of scholars interested in various aspects of early modern thought. The aim of the seminar is to create a stimulating environment for discussing papers and ideas. It includes workshops in the morning and presentations of papers in the afternoon, where participants can present work in progress. While the morning sessions will focus on the theme of “Philosophical Conversations: Intellectual Interactions in the 17th Century,” the afternoon sessions seek to give participants an opportunity to discuss their own special interests with an open and sympathetic audience of students and scholars with broad interests in early modern thought. Throughout we try to maintain a balance between the high scholarly level and the informal friendly spirit of a colloquium.
    The Seminar will take place in Bran, a small mountain resort near Brasov, in Transylvania. It will be hosted in a small, friendly Bed and Breakfast (single or double rooms). The participation fee is 250 EUR for faculty and 150 EUR for students (covering accommodation with breakfast). There will be a certain number of scholarships for participants; please indicate on your application if you would like to be considered. We invite applications for contributions (from researchers) and for attendance (from students). Researchers are strongly encouraged to contribute papers, though not required. While the morning sessions will focus on the announced theme of the workshop, contributed papers may be about any subject in early-modern philosophy and/or science. If you want to contribute a paper, please send a CV and a one-page abstract, and if you want to attend, a CV and a letter of intent – by May 2th – to Vlad Alexandrescu (valexandrescu@gmail.com), Dana Jalobeanu (dana.jalobeanu@celfis.ro). 

 

Programme Bran 2014

Bucharest-Princeton Seminar in Early Modern Philosophy
Bran, 8–13 July 2014
De rerum natura: Naturalism, Supernaturalism, Unnaturalism
Programme
Tuesday, 8 July
9.30 Departure to Bran from Hotel Flowers, Plantelor str. 2, Bucharest  (lunch on the way in Brașov)
17.00 Arrival in Bran (Vila Andra)
19.00 Dinner
Wednesday, 9 July
10.00-10.40 Enrico Pasini (Turin): The development of physics/philosophy of nature between Copernicus and Galilei
10.40-10.55 Coffee break
10.55-13.00 Reading group (I): Naturalism: Cardano, Telesio and Bacon
Convenors: Daniel Garber, Mihnea Dobre, Doina-Cristina Rusu
Texts: Cardano, De subtilitate II (fragments); Telesio, On the Nature of Things (Chaps. 8-16); Bacon, Sylva Sylvarum, experiments 800-830 (SEH II 602-609), 30-32 (SEH II 351-353); Bacon, Novum organum II (OFB XI 221-253).
13.00-15.00 Lunch break
Section 1
16.00-16.35 Doina-Cristina Rusu (Bucharest): Naturalizing the unnatural in Francis Bacon’s Sylva Sylvarum: the power of imagination to create forms
16.35-16.50 Coffee Break
16.50-17.25 Oana Matei (Bucharest/Arad): The use of experiment with plants in Francis Bacon’s Syla Sylvarum V
17.25-18.00 Claudia Dumitru (Bucharest): Sounds and Spirits in Francis Bacon’s Sylva Sylvarum
Section 2
16.00-16.40 Aaron Spink (South Florida): Descartes: knowing passions and clueless minds
16.40-17.00 Coffee Break
17.00-17.40 Daniel Colette (South Florida): Passions embodied: Descartes’ ethics in the Letters to Elisabeth revisited
19.30 Dinner
Thursday, 10 July
9.15-9.50 Tamàs Pavlovits (Szeged) : La perception de l’infini et la nature de l’esprit chez Descartes
9.50-10.40 Igor Agostini (Lecce): Descartes and More on the infinity of the world
10.40-10.55 Coffee break
10.55-13.00 Reading group (II): Descartes and supernaturalism
Convenors: Vlad Alexandrescu, Grigore Vida, Daniel Garber
Texts: Descartes to X, September 1629 (AT I 21); to X, early 1638? (Clerselier II 159); to Morin, 12 September 1638 (AT II 365); to Mersenne, 19 June 1639 (AT II 557-558); to Elisabeth, November 1646 (AT IV 531-532); to Mersenne, 25 January 1647 (AT IV 593-594); to Silhon, March or April 1648 (AT V 136-137); Descartes, Cogitationes privatæ (AT X 218); Le Monde (AT XI 443); Principes de la philosophie, art. 187 (AT IX-2 308-309); Annotationes in sua Principia philosophiæ (AT XI 654)
13.00-15.00 Lunch break
Section 1
16.00-16.40 Sarah Ellenzweig (Rice, English): Richard Bentley’s Boyle Lectures and the Epicurean void
16.40-17.00 Coffee Break
17.00-17.40 Veronika Szànto (Budapest): Margaret’s Cavendish’s hierachical vitalism
Section 2
16.00-16.35 Ed Slowik (Winona State): The ‘situation’ of the unextended in Leibniz’s immaterialist metaphysics
16.35-16.50 Coffee Break
16.50-17.25 Andrea Strazzoni (Rotterdam): The concept of nature in early modern Dutch philosophy
17.25-18.00 Rodolfo Garau (UniTo/MPIWG Berlin): Gassendi’s experimental naturalization of astrology
19.00 Dinner
Friday, 11 July
9.15-9.50 Olivier Dubouclez (Liège): Fascination as a case of action at a distance in Early Modern science
9.50-10.40 Jennifer Rampling (Princeton): Alchemy, theory of matter and natural magic
10.40-10.55 Coffee break
10.55-13.00 Reading group (III): Heaven on Earth: Celestial Virtues in Early Modern Astrology and Alchemy
Convenors: Jennifer Rampling (Princeton), Steven Vanden Broecke (Ghent)
Texts: Basic readings: Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Ia.q105.a3-4; Cornelius Agrippa, On Occult Philosophy, book I (chapter 12-16; chapters 1-11 highly recommended); Pierre Bayle, Various Thoughts on the Occasion of a Comet, selected passages; John of Rupescissa, De consideratione quintae essentiae, selected passages; ps.-Ramòn Lull, Novum Testamentum, selected passages;
Additional readings: Cornelius Agrippa, On Occult Philosophy, book III (chapters 3-9); Joshua Childrey, Indago Astrologica, selected passages; John Goad, Astro-Meteorologica, selected passages.
13.00-15.00 Lunch break
Section 1
16.00-16.35: Alison Peterman (Rochester): Spinoza on the common notions
16.35-16.50 Coffee break
16.50-17.25 Michael A. Rosenthal (Washington): Spinoza on beings of reason
17.25-18.00 Raphael Krut-Landau (Princeton/ENS): Spinoza’s naturalism about the emotions
Section 2
16.00-16.40 Charles T. Wolfe (Ghent): Medical Epicureanism and Philosophical Epicureanism: La Mettrie and Diderot
16.40-17.00 Coffee break
17.00 -17.40 Tinca Prunea-Bretonnet (NEC Bucharest): Baumgarten’s conception of the transcendental and its role in Kantian philosophy
19.00 Dinner
Saturday, 12 July
9.15-9.50 Steven Vanden Broecke (Ghent) : L’analyse de Michel de Certeau du croire et les avantages possibles pour l’étude historique des rapports entre la science et la religion
9.50-10.40 Roger Ariew (South Florida) : Leibniz and the Petrifying Virtue of the Place
10.40-10.55 Coffee break
10.55-13.00 Reading group (IV): Naturalism in Spinoza and Leibniz
Convenors: Daniel Garber, Roger Ariew, Yitzhak Melamed, Michael Rosenthal
Texts: Spinoza, Ethics, part I, particularly props. 15&S, 16, 17, 18, 28-33, appendix; part III, pref.; part IV, pref. (note also the version of E1p18 from the Opera Posthuma in a separate file); Spinoza, Short Treatise (KV) I.4; Spinoza, TTP chapt 6, note; Leibniz, “Two Sects of Naturalists”; Leibniz, “On Nature Itself”
13.00-15.00 Lunch
16.00-16.40 Peter Anstey (Sydney): Early modern experimental philosophy and the principles of religion
16.40-17.00 Coffee break
17.00-17.40 Justin E. Smith (Paris) : The Unity of human species in Aristotle, Leibniz and Kant
18.00 Dinner
Sunday, 13 July
9.30 Departure to Bucharest
This Seminar is supported by two research grants of the Romanian National Authority for Scientific Research, CNCS-UEFISCDI, project number PN-II-ID-PCE-2011-3-0998: Models of Producing and Disseminating Knowledge in Early Modern Europe: the Cartesian Framework and project number PN-II-ID-PCE-2011-3-0719: From Natural History to Science: the emergence of experimental philosophy.

List of participants Bran 2014

BUCHAREST-PRINCETON SEMINAR IN EARLY MODERN PHILOSOPHY

8– 13 July 2014

De rerum natura: Naturalism, Supernaturalism, Unnaturalism

Participants:



1.         Daniel Garber (Princeton University)
2.         Roger Ariew (University of South Florida)
3.         Igor Agostini (Università del Salento) –
4.         Peter Anstey (Sydney)
5.         Olivier Dubouclez (Liège)
6.         Justin E.H. Smith (Paris)
7.         Tamás Pavlovits (Szeged)
8.         Jennifer Rampling (Princeton University)
9.         Charles T. Wolfe (Ghent University)
10.       Steven Vanden Broecke (Ghent University)
11.       Vlad Alexandrescu (University of Bucharest)
12.       Sorana Corneanu (University of Bucharest)
13.       Mihnea Dobre (University of Bucharest)
14.       Grigore Vida (New Europe College, Bucharest)
15.       Doina-Cristina Rusu (University of Bucharest)
16.       Claudia Dumitru (University of Bucharest)
17.       Oana Matei (Vasile Goldis University of Arad)
18.       Aaron Spink (University of South Florida)
19.       Rafael Krut-Landau (Princeton University)
20.       Michael Rosenthal (University of Washington)
21.       Ed Slowick  (Winona State University)
22.       Rodolfo Garau (Università degli studi di Torino)
23.       Sarah Ellenzweig (Rice University)
24.       Enrico Pasini (Università degli studi di Torino)
25.       Tinca Prunea-Bretonnet (New Europe College, Bucharest)
26.       Daniel Collette (University of South Florida)
27.       Alison Peterman (University of Rochester)
28.       Andrea Strazzoni (Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam)
29.       Veronika Szanto (Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest)

BUCHAREST-PRINCETON SEMINAR
IN EARLY MODERN PHILOSOPHY
14th Edition
Organized by the Research Centre for the Foundations of Modern Thought (FME), University of Bucharest, in collaboration with the Philosophy Department at Princeton University 
8–13 July 2014
Bran, Romania
De rerum natura: Naturalism, Supernaturalism, Unnaturalism
Invited speakers include: Daniel Garber (Princeton), Roger Ariew (South Florida), Igor Agostini (Università del Salento), Peter Anstey (Sydney), Olivier Dubouclez (Liège), Justin E.H. Smith (Paris), Tamás Pavlovits (Szeged), Jennifer Rampling (Princeton), Charles T. Wolfe (Ghent).

List of participants

Programme

This seminar is concerned with early-modern conceptions of nature in the broadest sense. We will inquire into definitions of the natural and of what lies beyond or goes against it within several quarters of early modern thought, from the late Renaissance up to the early eighteenth century. In line with the important influence that Lucretius’s great Epicurean poem, “De rerum natura,” had at the time, we will raise the issue of naturalism, and attempts in figures as diverse as Cardano, Telesio, Bacon, Hobbes, or Spinoza to explain everything or nearly everything in naturalistic terms. The Epicurean, as well as Stoic and Platonic, influences are also at work in the traditions of natural history, from Pliny to Bacon and beyond, as well as in the new trends of medicine, natural magic, astrology, and alchemy, where reflections on the scope of the natural went hand in hand with practical thinking about technological and experimental intervention into nature. Drawing the boundaries of the natural and exploring the territory of the un-natural, preter-natural or contra-natural (whether in the form of ghosts, demons, monsters, or diseases) was also a powerful early modern concern. There was also the key development of new definitions of nature articulated in terms of natural laws and of their relationship with God, as well as discussions of the infinite and the finite with reference to both the natural and the super-natural worlds, such as in Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, or Newton. Whether committed to vital(ist) or to mechanical frames of thought, and whether using the instruments of physics, metaphysics, or mathematics, of medicine, alchemy, or the interventionist arts, these early modern inquiries asked fundamental questions about the boundaries of the natural, the structure and potential of matter, the status of the mind and the status of the human being with respect to nature.
The Bucharest-Princeton Seminar in Early Modern Philosophy is an international annual meeting of scholars interested in various aspects of early modern thought. The aim of the seminar is to create a stimulating environment for discussing papers and ideas. It includes workshops in the morning and presentations of papers in the afternoon, where participants can present work in progress. While the morning sessions will focus on the theme of “De rerum natura: Naturalism, Supernaturalism, Unnaturalism,” the afternoon sessions seek to give participants the opportunity to discuss their own special interests with an open and sympathetic audience of students and scholars with broad interests in early modern thought. Throughout we try to maintain a balance between the high scholarly level and the informal friendly spirit of a colloquium.
The Seminar will take place in Bran, a small mountain resort near Brasov, in Transylvania. It will be hosted in a small, friendly Bed and Breakfast (single or double rooms). The participation fee is 150 EUR for faculty and 90 EUR for students (covering accommodation with breakfast). We invite applications for contributions (from researchers) and for attendance (from students). If you want to contribute a paper, please send a CV and a one-page abstract, and if you want to attend, a CV and a letter of intent — by April 20 — to Vlad Alexandrescu (valexandrescu@gmail.com) and Dana Jalobeanu (dana.jalobeanu@celfis.ro). 

Colloque J.L. Marion

L’Université de Bucarest – Faculté de Philosophie 
 Société Roumaine de Phénoménologie
Centre d’études phénoménologiques
Centre « Fondements de la Modernité Européenne »
vous invitent
Jeudi et Vendredi les 10 et 11 octobre
au colloque
« Lectures de Jean-Luc Marion »
Faculté de Philosophie, Université de Bucarest
(Splaiul Independenței nr. 204, Amphithéâtre « Mircea Florian »)
JEUDI 10 OCTOBRE
Cristian Ciocan: Ouverture(10h00)
Anca Vasiliu: Jean-Luc Marion: le visible, le donné, l’acte. La philosophie de la donation entre métaphysique et phénoménologie
Première Session (11h00)
Modérateur: Anca Vasiliu
Georgiana Huian : Jean-Luc Marion lecteur d’Augustin
Marilena Vlad: Jean-Luc Marion lecteur de Denys l\’Aréopagite
Florin Crîșmareanu : Jean-Luc Marion lecteur de Maxime le Confesseur
Jean-Luc Marion : Réponses
Deuxième Session  (15h30)
Modérateur: Cristian Ciocan
Alexander Baumgarten : Jean-Luc Marion lecteur d’Anselme
Bogdan Tătaru-Cazaban : Jean-Luc Marion lecteur de Thomas d’Aquin
Vlad Alexandrescu : Jean-Luc Marion lecteur de Descartes
Călin Cristian Pop : Jean-Luc Marion lecteur de Pascal
Cristian Moisuc : Jean-Luc Marion lecteur de Malebranche
Jean-Luc Marion : Réponses
VENDREDI 11 OCTOMBRIE 2013
Troisième Session  (10h00)
Modérateur: Vlad Alexandrescu
Claudia Șerban : Jean-Luc Marion lecteur de Kant
George Bondor : Jean-Luc Marion lecteur de Nietzsche
Delia Popa : Jean-Luc Marion lecteur de Husserl
Bogdan Mincă : Jean-Luc Marion lecteur de Heidegger
Jean-Luc Marion : Réponses
Quatrième Session  (15h30)
Modérateur: Claudia Șerban
Tinca Prunea-Bretonnet : Jean-Luc Marion lecteur de Hans Urs von Balthasar
Cristian Ciocan : Jean-Luc Marion lecteur de Levinas
Sorin Ovidiu Podar : Jean-Luc Marion lecteur de Michel Henry
Paul Marinescu : Jean-Luc Marion lecteur de Paul Ricoeur
Ovidiu Stanciu : Jean-Luc Marion lecteur de Derrida

Jean-Luc Marion : Réponses et Conclusions

Programme – The Losers of the Scientific Revolution

Bucharest-Princeton Seminar in Early Modern Philosophy
Bran, 5–10 July 2012
The Losers of the Scientific Revolution
Programme
Friday, 5 July
9.30 Departure to Bran from Hotel Flowers, Plantelor str. 2, Bucharest  (lunch on the way in Brașov)
17.00 Arrival in Bran (Vila Andra)
19.00 Dinner
Saturday, 6 July
9.30-10.30 Conference: Vlad Alexandrescu (Bucharest): Descartes et le rêve (baconien) de “la plus haute et plus parfaite science”
10.30-10.45 Coffee break
10.45-13.00 Reading group (I): Baconianism and Cartesianism. On Method
Convenors: Mihnea Dobre, Igor Agostini
Texts: Descartes\’s Regulae, the Discourse, and the Objections; (fragments)
a chapter on Bacon from Mersenne\’s La verité de sciences, pp. 206-224; Nicolas Poisson\’s Commentaire ou remarques sur la methode de Descartes, pp. 54-72
13.00-15.00 Lunch break
16.00-16.35 Fabrizio Baldassarri (Parma): Useless Victories and Useful Losses. Descartes and Losers in Scientific Revolution
16.35-16.50 Coffee break
16.50-19.00 Reading group (II): Baconianism and Cartesianism. On experiments
Convenors: Mihnea Dobre, Sophie Roux
Texts: Rochon, Lettre d\’un philosophe à un cartésien de ces amis, p. 119-129, p. 141-55, p. 194-202; Mariotte, Essai de logique, p. 8-33, p. 110-149); Jacques Rohault, System of Natural Philosophy, On Void, p. 56-68.
19.30 Dinner
Sunday, 7 July
9.15-9.50 Igor Agostini (Universita degli studi del Salento): What does it mean to edit an Index scolastico-cartésien today?
9.50-10.40 Stefano Di Bella (Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa), Idolon naturae. Seventeenth-century discussions on the concept of nature
10.40-10.55 Coffee break
10.55-13.00 Reading group (III): Vitalism vs. the Scientific Revolution (1)
Convenors: Emanuela Scribano, Stefano Di Bella
Texts: Cureau de La Chambre, Le Système de l\’âme 1664, Livre III (\”Corpus des oeuvres de philosophie en langue française\”); Cudworth\’s digression on \’plastick nature\’ in the True Intellectual System 
13.00-15.00 Lunch break
16.00-16.35: Rodolfo Garau (Torino), Descartes’ reception of the late-scholastic concept of conatus
16.35-16.50 Coffee break
16.50-17.25 Mihai-Dragoş Vadana (Bucharest), On the shivery separation between philosophy and theology: Descartes, Wittich and Meijer
17.25-18.00 Andrea Sangiacomo (Groningen): Explaining superstition: Spinoza’s conatus doctrine and its evolution between 1661 and 1670
19.00 Dinner
Monday, 8 July
9.30-10.05 Charles Wolfe (Ghent): Vitalism between ontology and scientific pursuit-worthiness in the wake of the Scientific Revolution
10.05-10.20 Coffee break
10.20-12.35 Reading group (IV): Vitalism vs. the Scientific Revolution (2)
Convenors: Charles Wolfe, Sorana Corneanu
Texts: Glisson, excerpt from De natura substantiae energetica, 1672 (trans. G. Giglioni); excerpts from the Leibniz-Stahl debate (Animadversiones circa Assertiones aliquas Theoriae Medicae Verae clarii Stahlii … Or Negotium otiosum, seu Schiamachia, 1708) (trans. J.E.H. Smith and F. Duchesneau); A. von Haller, A Dissertation on the Sensible and Irritable Parts of Animals, 1752/1753; excerpts from Bordeu (1751), Ménuret (1765) and Diderot (1769) on the ‘beeswarm’ (trans. C.T. Wolfe); Ménuret, article “Oeconomie animale” from the Encyclopédie(1765)
13.00-15.00 Lunch break
16.00-16.35 Ohad Nachtomy (Tel Aviv): “Ce qu’il vient de dire de la double infinité n’est qu’une entrée dans mon système” – Leibniz’s Response to Pascal on the Nature of Living Beings
16.35-16.50 Coffee break
16.50 -17.25 Lucian Petrescu (Ghent): Bartholomaeus Des Bosses’ Eucharistic Key
17.25-18.00 Sebastian Mateiescu (Bucharest): Francis Bacon on the Stability and Transmutation of Species
19.00 Dinner
Tuesday, 9 July
9.15-9.50:  Ian Lawson (Sydney): \’This Brittle Art\’: Margaret Cavendish and the Microscope
9.50-10.25 Ofer Gal (Sydney): The Jesuits and the telescope
10.25-10.40 Coffee break
10.40-12.55 Reading group (V): Mechanical philosophy vs. the spirit of nature: Henry More.
Convenors: Daniel Garber, Stefano Di Bella, Grigore Vida
Texts:
Henry More, Immortality of the Soul, fragment
Kenelm Digby, Discourse on the powder of symathy, or The weapon salve, fragment
13.00-15.00 Lunch
16.00-16.35 Grigore Vida (New Europe College): Newton’s De Gravitatione and the Descartes-More Correspondence
16.35-16.50 Coffee break
16.50-17.25 Monica Solomon (Notre Dame), Newton, Huygens, and the (truly?) Rotating Globes
17.25-18.00 Claudia Dumitru (Bucharest): Robert Hooke\’s “Baconian Method”: Memory and Natural History
19.00 Dinner
Wednesday, 10 July
9.30 Departure to Bucharest
This Seminar is supported by a grant of the Romanian National Authority for Scientific Research, CNCS-UEFISCDI, project number PN-II-ID-PCE-2011-3-0998: Models of Producing and Disseminating Knowledge in Early Modern Europe: the Cartesian Framework.

4th Bucharest Colloquium in Early Modern Science, 12-14 May 2013

4thBucharest Colloquium in Early Modern Science
Experiments and the Arts of Discovery in the Early Modern Europe
12-14 May 2013
Center for the Logic, History and the Philosophy of Science
Faculty of Philosophy, University of Bucharest

Recent research has been oriented towards the exploration of experiments, experimental methodologies and experimental practices in the early modern period. On the one hand, traditional histories of science and philosophy have been challenged by an increased number of examples that were not easily adapted to the existing categories (e.g., numerous observational practices and ways to note the reports of experiments). On the other hand, these historiographical categories have been criticized for their limited explanatory possibilities (e.g., quite often they described experiment in a way that was much closer to its development in the 18th and 19th centuries). Such problems revealed an urgent need to re-evaluate and change our traditional views concerning the experimental practice.
With our workshop on Experiments and the arts of discovery in early modern Europe, we are interested to put together researchers interested in the study of the multiple uses of experimentation in the 16th and 17thcenturies (e.g., natural philosophy, natural history, mixed-mathematics, medicine, moral philosophy, theology etc.). Here is a non-exhaustive list of such points of interest: (a) The creative value(s) of early modern experiments; (b) The use of experiments in analogical thinking and the use of experiments in ‘grounding’ analogies; (c) The methodologically driven experimentation.
Program:
Sunday, May 12, 2013
Chair: Dana Jalobeanu (Bucharest)
10:00-11:00     Peter Anstey (Sydney), Experimental natural history (keynote lecture)
11:00-11:30     Coffee Break
11:30-12.30     Sergius Kodera (Vienna), The Laboratory as Stage: Giovanni Battista della Porta’s Experiments
12.30-13.30     Lunch Break
Chair: Cesare Pastorino (Sussex)
13.30-14.30     Arianna Borrelli (Wuppertal), The invisible technique: the emergence of transparent glass and the development of Giovan Battista Della Porta\’s optical experiments
14.30-15:00     Coffee break 
15:00-16:00     Evan Ragland (Alabama), Making Trials in Sixteenth and Early Seventeenth-Century Medicine
16:00-16:30     Coffee break
16:30-17:30     Jonathan Regier (Paris), Mathematics and experiment in Kepler\’s De stella nova (1604)
17:30-18:00     Coffee break
18:00-19:00     Round-up discussion: Experiments in Early Modern Philosophy.
Monday, May 13, 2013
Chair: Roger Ariew (South Florida)
10:00-11:00     Daniel Garber (Princeton), Merchants of Light and Mystery Men: Bacon’s Last Projects in Natural History
11:00-11.30     Cofee break
11:30-12.30     Sorana Corneanu (Bucharest), Experimenting with the Operations of the Mind: Medicine and the ‘Intellectual Arts’
12:30-13:30     Lunch break
Chair: Richard Serjeantson (Cambridge)
13:30-14.30     Kathryn Murphy (Oxford), Strategies of Experimental Reading in Francis Bacon and Dean Christopher Wren
14.30-15:00     Coffee break                                 
15:00-16:00     Vlad Alexandrescu (Bucharest), Descartes et le rêve (baconien) de \”la plus haute et plus parfaite science\”
16:00-16:30     Coffee break
16:30-19:00     Round-up discussion: Baconian experimentation (Proponents: Dana Jalobeanu, Cesare Pastorino, Mihnea Dobre, Oana Matei, Sebastian Mateiescu, Claudia Dumitru)
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
Chair: Daniel Garber (Princeton)
10:00-11:00     Mordechai Feingold (Caltech), What was the \”Experimental Philosophy\’?(keynote lecture)
11:00-11:30     Coffee break
11:30-12:30     Albrecht Heeffer (Ghent), The use of material models in physico-mathematics
12:30-13:30     Lunch break                                                                                  
Chair: Peter Anstey (Sydney)
13:30-14:30     Koen Vermeir (Paris),  John Wilkins\’ mathematical experiments and the perpetuity of discovery
14:30-15:00     Coffee break
15:00-16:00     Benedino Gemelli (Bellinzona), Francis Bacon in Isaac Beeckman’sJournal
16:00-16:30     Coffee break
16:30-17:30     Alberto Vanzo (Warwick), Experimental philosophy in late seventeenth-century Italy
17:30-18:00     Coffee break
18:00-19:00     Round-up discussion (Cesare Pastorino)

Organizers:
Dana Jalobeanu (University of Bucharest) and Cesare Pastorino (Essex University)