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Sorana Corneanu




SORANA CORNEANU, PhD

Researcher, Foundations of Modern Thought, University of Bucharest

Lecturer, Department of English, University of Bucharest

Book Review Editor, Journal of Early Modern Studies
soranamihaela.corneanu@g.unibuc.ro
PhD (2008), MA (1998), BA (1997) – University of Bucharest

SCHOLARSHIPS & FELLOWSHIPS

Go8 European Fellowship, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia (July-October 2012).
Huntington Francis Bacon Fellowship, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California (October 2011).
NEC Scholarship, New Europe College, Bucharest (October 2006 – June 2007).
OSI/FCO Chevening Scholarship, Oxford, St. Hilda’s College (October 2005 – June 2006).
MEMBERSHIP IN RESEARCH GRANTS
ERC Starting Grant 241125 MOM Medicine of the Mind and the Reconfiguration of Natural Philosophy: A New Interpretation of Francis Bacon (PI: Prof. Guido Giglioni), 2009-2014.
CNCSIS Research Grant IDEI-PCE (2008) 2067 Science, politics and utopia in the Republic of Letters: early modern models of the production and dissemination of knowledge (Director: Prof. Vlad Alexandrescu), 2009-2011.
CNCSIS Research Grant IDEI-PCE (2008) 1980 The cultural institution of literature from early to late modernity (Director: Prof. Mihaela Irimia), 2009-2011.
UB Research Grant IDEI-UB (In)hospitable translations: Shakespeare adapted] (Director: Prof. Madalina Nicolaescu), 2008.
CNCSIS research grant IDEI-PN2 ODISEI (Director: Prof. Mihaela Irimia), 2007-2008.
CDC-CEU Course Development Grant Shaping the Republic of Letters: Philosophy, Science and Religion in the 17thCentury (Director: Prof. Dana Jalobeanu), 2007-2008.

 

AFFILIATIONS

RSA (Renaissance Society of America); ISIH (International Society for Intellectual History); RSEAS (Romanian Society for English and American Studies); CESIC (Centre of Excellence for the Study of Cultural Identity), University of Bucharest, Member of SSOR (The Romanian Association for Eighteenth-Century Studies)’; FME (Foundations of Modern Thought Research Centre), University of Bucharest.
PUBLICATIONS

Books
Regimens of the Mind: Boyle, Locke, and the Early Modern Cultura Animi Tradition, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011.
Edited volumes/special issues
Francis Bacon and the Materiality of the Appetites: Stoicism, Medicine and Politics, co-edited with Guido Giglioni and Dana Jalobeanu, Dordrecht: Springer (series “International Archives of the History of Ideas”), forthcoming 2014.
Special issue of Perspectives on Science 20 (2012) on Francis Bacon and the Medicine of the Mind: Late Renaissance Contexts, co-edited with Guido Giglioni and Dana Jalobeanu.
Special issue of Early Science and Medicine 17 (2012) on Francis Bacon and the Transfiguration of Early Modern Natural History, co-edited with Guido Giglioni and Dana Jalobeanu.
(In)Hospitable Translations: Fidelities, Betrayals, Rewritings, co-edited with Madalina Nicolaescu, Bucuresti: Editura Universitatii din Bucuresti, 2010.
Articles in edited volumes
“Francis Bacon on the Motions of the Mind”, in Sorana Corneanu, Guido Giglioni, and Dana Jalobeanu (eds.), Francis Bacon and the Materiality of the Appetites: Stoicism, Medicine and Politics, Dordrecht: Springer (series “International Archives of the History of Ideas”), forthcoming 2014.
“Francis Bacon on Charity and the Ends of Knowledge”, in Tamas Demeter, Kathryn Murphy, and Claus Zittel (eds.), Conflicting Values of Inquiry: The Ideologies of Epistemology in Early Modern Europe, Leiden: Brill (series “Intersections: Interdisciplinary Studies in Early Modern Culture”), forthcoming 2013.
“Passions, Providence, and the Cure of the Mind: Robinson Crusoe Meets the Christian Virtuoso”, in Sabine Arnaud and Helge Jordheim (eds.), Le Corps et ses images dans l’Europe du dix-huitième siècle / The Body and Its Images in Eighteenth-Century Europe, Paris: Honoré Champion (series “Études internationales sur le dix-huitième siècle / International Eighteenth-Century Studies”), 2012, 259-276.
“Robert Boyle on ‘Right Reason’ and ‘Physical and Theological Experience’” in Vlad Alexandrescu and Robert Thais (eds.), Nature et Surnaturel: Philosophies de la nature et métaphysique aux XVIe-XVIIIe siècles, Hildesheim, Zurich, New York: Georg Olms Verlag Verlag (series “Europaea Memoria: Studien und Texte zur Geschichte der europäischen Ideen”), 2010, 125-136.
 “Devout Affections: Theology, Medicine, and the Novel” in Mihaela Irimia and Dragos Ivana (eds.), Imitatio-Inventio: The Rise of ‘Literature’ from Early to Classic Modernity, Bucuresti: Editura Institutului Cultural Roman, 2010, 179-197.
“Locke on the Study of Nature” in Vlad Alexandrescu (ed.), Branching Off: The Early Moderns in Quest for the Unity of Knowledge, Bucharest: Zeta Books (series “Foundations of Modern Thought”, 2009, 187-207.
“To ‘Clear the Mind of All Perturbation’: The Discipline of Judgment in the Seventeenth Century”, in Irina Vainovschi (ed.), New Europe College Yearbook 2006-2007, Bucharest: New Europe College, 2009, 57-94.
 “‘The Balance of the Mind’: Eighteenth-Century Reflections on Personal Identity across Disciplines” in M. Irimia and D. Ivana (eds.), Odisei (II): O cartografie identitara, Bucureşti: Editura Universităţii din Bucureşti, 2009, 247-270.
 “The Theatrical Self from the Renaissance to the Eighteenth Century: Investigations into the Transformations of a Cultural Topos” in M. Irimia and D. Ivana (eds.), Odisei (I): Trasee conceptuale, Bucureşti: Editura Universităţii din Bucureşti, 2008, 17-32.
“Self-Consciousness, Appropriation and the Concern for Happiness: Locke on Personal Identity” in A. Cornilescu, C. Lupu, A. Vlădescu (eds.), Études sur le XVIIIe siècle, Études canadiennes. Hommages offerts à Irina Bădescu, Bucureşti: Editura Universităţii din Bucureşti, 2008, 22-45.
 “Prospero’s Time” in Vlad Alexandrescu et Dana Jalobeanu (eds.), Esprits Modernes. Études sur les modèles de pensée alternatifs aux XVIe-XVIIIe siècles, Arad: University of Bucharest Press and Vasile Goldis University Press, 2003, 193-211.
Articles in journals
“Idols of the Imagination: Francis Bacon on the Imagination and the Medicine of the Mind” (co-authored with Koen Vermeir), Perspectives on Science 20 (2012): 183-206.
“Of Statues and Vines: Francis Bacon’s New Atlantis and the Question of Persuasion”, Studii de stiinta si cultura 4.23 (2010): 46-58.
“Connotations of ‘Self-Love’ in the Early Modern English Literature on the Passions”, University of Bucharest Review. A Journal of Literary and Cultural Studies X.2 (2008): 105-112.
“Defoe’s Mrs. Veal and the Rhetoric of Certainty”, Romanian Journal of English Studies3 (2006): 307-318.
“‘The Relish of Our Minds’: Locke on Educating the Self”, University of Bucharest Review. A Journal of Literary and Cultural Studies VII.3 (2005): 117-122.
“Arcana of Politeness: Lord Chesterfield’s Letters to His Son”, University of Bucharest Review. A Journal of Literary and Cultural Studies, VI.3 (2004): 106-113.
“How Can a Trickster be My Friend? Or, The Unexpected Face of the Other”, Analele Universitatii Bucuresti. Limbi si Literaturi Straine LIII (2004): 35-48.
“Striking Images: Loci Memoriae Revisited”, University of Bucharest Review. A Journal of Literary and Cultural Studies, V.3 (2003): 26-34.
Articles in dictionaries
“Methods of Education”, “The Curriculum”, “Synopsis of Some Thoughts Concerning Education” in S.-J. Savonius-Wroth, P. Schuurman, and J.C. Walmsley (eds.), The Continuum Companion to Locke, London and New York: Thoemmes Continuum, 2010.
Reviews
“Mathematics and the Cultivation of the Self” (review of Matthew L. Jones, The Good Life in the Scientific Revolution. Descartes, Pascal, Leibniz, and the Cultivation of Virtue, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006), Metascience 16 (2007): 509-513.
“The Origins of Modern Mind: the Story of a Failure” (review of Dana Jalobeanu, Inventarea modernităţii: filosofie naturală, teologie şi ştiinţă în secolul al XVII-lea, Cluj-Napoca: Editura Napoca Star, 2006), Transdisciplinarity in Science and Religion 1 (2007): 235-237.
Translations
Stelian Tănase, At Home There’s Only Speaking in a Whisper, New York: Boulder, Distributed by Columbia University Press, 2007.
J.L. Austin, Cum să faci lucruri cu vorbe (How To Do Things With Words), Bucureşti: Paralela 45, 2003, 2nd ed. 2005.
Pavel Câmpeanu, Ceauşescu: The Countdown, New York: Boulder, Distributed by Columbia University Press, 2003.
C.S. Lewis, Sfaturile unui diavol bătrîn către unul mai tînăr (The Screwtape Letters), Bucureşti: Humanitas, 2003.
Anthony Burgess, Shakespeare, Bucureşti: Humanitas, 2002.
Irina Nicolau, Come on, now! A personal journey through the world of the Aromanians, New York: Boulder, Distributed by Columbia University Press, 2002.
Sorin Mitu, National Identity of the Romanians in Transylvania, Budapest: CEU Press, 2001.

 

PAPERS & SEMINARS

[selection]
2013
“Body, Soul and Human Nature: Bacon in Medico-Theological Context”, paper, ERC Grant MOM Colloquium, New Europe College, Bucharest, 1 March 2013.
“Medicine of the Mind and Medicine of the Body in the Late Renaissance”, paper, European Society for Early Modern Philosophy (ESEMP) Conference, Grenoble, France, 1 February 2013.
2012
“Francis Bacon on Man, Matter, and the Medicine of the Mind”, paper, University of Sydney HPS Research Seminar, Sydney, Australia, 8 October 2012.
“Early Modern Science and the Virtues of the Mind”, paper, CHED Seminar Series 2012 “Intellectual History and Modernity”, CHED, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia, 27 September 2012.
“Locke on Epistemic Emotions”, paper, Conference “Sensibility in the Modern Era”, Sydney, Australia, 28-29 August 2012.
 “The Parts of Prudence and the Virtues of Experimental Knowledge”, paper, University of Otago Colloquium “Practical Knowledge and Skill in Early Modern England”, Dunedin, New Zealand, 27 August 2012.
“A Natural History of the Soul: Walter Charleton”, seminar, Bucharest-Princeton Seminar in Early Modern Philosophy, Bran, Romania, 4 July 2012.
“Sylva Sylvarum X: Imagination and Sympathy”, seminar (with Koen Vermeir), Francis Bacon Seminar, Princeton, US, 22 May 2012.
“Beyond the Pillars of Hercules: Negotiating the New and the Old Worlds in the Early Modern Period (Case Study: Francis Bacon’s New Atlantis)”, seminar, IP Programme “Frontiers and Cultures”, Venice, Italy, 29-30 March 2012.
2011
“Francis Bacon and the Epistemology of the Imagination”, paper, International Conference “Literature and the Long Modernity”, associated with the CNCSIS research grant “The Institution of Literature”, Bucharest, Romania, November 2011.
“Patience: From Moral to Intellectual Virtue”, paper, 13th International Congress of the Enlightenment, Graz, Austria, July 2011.
 “The Magician’s Imagination in Francis Bacon”, paper (with Koen Vermeir), Bucharest-Princeton Seminar in Early Modern Philosophy, Bran, Romania, July 2011.
“Francis Bacon and the Motions of the Mind”, paper, “Francis Bacon and the Materiality of the Appetites” conference associated with the ERC starting grant MOM, The Warburg Institute, London, UK, June 2011.
“External and Internal Conflict in Early Modern Thought”, paper, Annual Conference of the English Department “Tales of War”, University of Bucharest, June 2011.
“Francis Bacon on the Authority of the Imagination”, paper, International Society for Intellectual History Conference “Passionate Minds”, Bucharest, May 2011.
“John Locke, the Love of Truth, and Regulative Epistemology”, paper, International conference “Learning to Feel”, Jerusalem, Israel, April 2011.
“John Locke on the Conduct of the Understanding”, paper, Bucharest Graduate Conference in Early Modern Philosophy (invited speaker), Bucharest, Romania, March 2011.
 “‘The Good of the Mind’: Moral and Intellectual Virtues in Bacon’s Philosophy”, paper, “Francis Bacon and the Medicine of the Mind” seminar associated with the ERC starting grant MOM, The Warburg Institute, London, UK, January 2011.
2010
“The Two Cultures and the Good Life”, paper, International conference “Authority and the Canon”, associated with the CNCSIS research grant “The Institution of Literature”, Bucharest, Romania, December 2010.
“Of Idols and Bonds: Francis Bacon on imagination, judgment and the emotions”, paper, International seminar “Montaigne et Bacon”, Paris, France, September 2010.
“Natural Philosophy, Natural History, and Magic: Bruno, Bacon and Della Porta”, seminar (with Koen Vermeir and Dana Jalobeanu), Bucharest-Princeton Seminar in Early Modern Philosophy, Bran, Romania, July 2010.
“The Generic Context of Francis Bacon’s ‘New Logic’”, paper, History of the Philosophy of Science (HOPOS) Conference, Budapest, Hungary, June 2010.
“Francis Bacon on the ‘End of Knowledge’ and the Reconfiguration of Learning in the Late Renaissance”, paper, Workshop of the ERC Starting Grant MOM, Bucharest, Romania, May 2010.
2009
“Bacon’s Moral Philosophy among the Arts of Tempering the Mind”, paper, Workshop of the ERC Starting Grant MOM, Bucharest, Romania, November 2009.
“Rational Passions: Natural Philosophy, Medicine and the Novel”, paper, International conference “The Rise of Literature, from Early to Classic Modernity”, associated with the CNCSIS research grant “The Institution of Literature”, Bucharest, Romania, November 2009.
“Early Modern Regimens of the Mind and the Virtues of Scepticism”, paper, 10th International Society for Intellectual History (ISIH) Conference “Translatio Studiorum”, Verona, Italy, May 2009.
“The Meanings of ‘Discipline’: Early Modern Educational Thought”, paper, British and American Studies (BAS) Conference, Timisoara, Romania, May 2009.
“Knowledge and Self-Cultivation in the Seventeenth Century: New Perspectives”, paper (plenary), IX International Colloquium of the History of the Philosophy of Nature, Campinas State University, Brazil, April 2009.
“Boyle on the Study of ‘God’s Works’: What Kind of Discipline?”, paper, International conference “Beyond Kuhnian Paradigms: Was There a Scientific Revolution in the Seventeenth Century After All?”, Bucharest, Romania, March 2009.
2008
“‘The Longest way about is the nearest Way Home’: Robert Boyle on Reading Scripture”, paper, International conference “Homecoming” associated with the research grant ODISEI of CESIC, Sinaia, Romania, October 2008.
“Early Modern Metaphors of the Mind: the Case of ‘Tincture’”, paper, Bucharest-Princeton Seminar in Early Modern Philosophy, Mălâncrav, Romania, August 2008.
“The Tutor Figure in Some Early Modern Educational Treatises and Its Ancient Model”, paper, International conference “Mapping Identity: Case Studies” associated with the research grant ODISEI of CESIC, Bucharest, Romania, May 2008.
“Connotations of Self-Love in the Early Modern Literature on the Passions”, paper, Conference of the English Department, University of Bucharest, June 2008.
“The Ethical Dimensions of Translation, via Ricoeur”, paper, Workshop associated with the research grant “In(hospitable) translations”, Bucharest, April 2008 .
“Robert Boyle on ‘Right Reason’ and ‘Physical and Theological Experience’”, paper, Conférence de l’Université de Luxembourg “Nature et surnaturel”, Université de Luxembourg, Luxemburg, February 2008.

TEACHING

[current]
British literature in intellectual context, 16th to 18thcenturies, BA 1st year, English Department, University of Bucharest.
“Early Modern Intellectual History: The Imagination before the Romantics”, BA 3rd year, University of Bucharest.
“Emotions and the Good Life across Genres and Ages”, BA 3rdyear, English Department, University of Bucharest.
“Shaping the Republic of Letters: Crisis and Reformation in Early Modern Europe”, MA 1styear, BCS MA programme, University of Bucharest.
“Perspectives on Modernity: Intellectual and Cultural History”, MA 2ndyear, BCS MA programme, University of Bucharest .

ACADEMIC EVENT ORGANISATION

The Bucharest-Princeton International Seminar in Early Modern Philosophy (co-organised with D. Garber, D. Jalobeanu, V. Alexandrescu, M. Dobre), 2005-2013.

ERC Grant MOM Colloquium “The Order of Nature, Theological Anthropology, and Medicine of the Mind: Francis Bacon and Religion Reconsidered”, NEC, Bucharest, 1-2 March 2013.

11th International Society for Intellectual History Conference “Passionate Minds: Knowledge and the Emotions in Intellectual History”, BCU, Bucharest (co-organised with Dana Jalobeanu), 26-28 May 2011.

International Conference “Translation: Betrayal or Creative Statement”, funded by the research grant IDEI-UB (In)Hospitable translations, UB, Bucharest (co-organised with M. Nicolaescu, O. Popescu, R. Visan, P. Naidut), March 2008.


Vlad Alexandrescu


Curriculum Vitæ






EMAIL: valexandrescu@gmail.com
EDUCATION
1989 University of Bucharest, University of Bucharest (BA in French and German Studies); 1991 École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris (MA Philosophy of Language); 1995 École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris, (PhD Philosophy, “Summa cum Laude”);
2014, Habilitation Thesis.
LANGUAGES
Romanian (Native), French (Fluent), English (Fluent), German (Fair), Italian (Intermediary), Latin (Fair).
PRIZES, SCHOLARSHIPS
2014 \”Nicolae Bălcescu\” Prize, Romanian Academy, Bucharest; 2013 \”P.G. Castex\” Prize, Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques, Paris; 1991–1995 French Government Stipend, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris; 1995 – 1996 Fellow of the New Europe College, Bucharest; 1998 – 2001 “Relink”-Program, New Europe College, Bucharest; 2005 Mellon Fellow of the Warburg Institute, London.
MEMBERSHIPS
(1995) Association des Amis et Correspondants du Centre International Blaise Pascal; (1995) New Europe College, Bucharest; (1997) Romanian Association of the Francophone Researchers in Human Sciences (ARCHES); (1997), Société d\’étude du dix-septième siècle, Paris; (2001), Research Centre Foundations of Early Modern Thought, University of Bucharest; (2002), The Romanian Association for the History of Religions; (2005) The Warburg Institute, London; (2005) Centro Inter-dipartimentale di Studi su Descartes e il Seicento dell’Università del Salento, Lecce.
EDITORIAL ACTIVITY
Co-editor of ARCHES. Revue Internationale des Sciences Humaines (2001-2005). Responsible and editor of the issues: ARCHES. Revue Internationale des Sciences Humaines, 5, 2003, Modèles concurrents de l’individu dans la pensée moderne; ARCHES. Revue Internationale des Sciences Humaines, 7, 2004, Sauver les miracles. Etudes sur la pensée de l’exception; Co-editor of Journal of Early Modern Studies; Responsible and editor of: Journal of Early Modern Studies, Volume 1, Issue 1 (Fall 2012), Special Issue: Shaping the Republic of Letters: Communication, Correspondence and Networks in Early Modern Europe, Journal edited by the Research Centre “Foundations of Modern Thought”, University of Bucharest.

TEACHING ACTIVITY

2015 – to date: Professor, University of Bucharest, French Studies Department;  2000 – 2014 Associate Professor, University of Bucharest, French Studies Department; 1997 Invited Lecturer, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris ; 1995 – 2000 Senior Lecturer, 1993 – 1995 Assistant Lecturer, 1991 – 1993 Teaching Assistant, University of Bucharest, French Studies Department.

MANAGING EXPERIENCE AND OTHER COLLECTIVE RESPONSIBILITIES

2001 – to date, Director of the Research Centre Foundations of Early Modern Thought, University of Bucharest; 2006 – 2011, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Romania to the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg; 2009-2011, Director of a Research Grant financed by the Romanian Government: “Science, Politics and Utopia in the Republic of Letters: Early Modern Models of Producing and Disseminating Knowledge”; 1998 – 2000, 2003 – 2005, President of the Romanian Association of the Francophone Researchers in Human Sciences, Bucharest; 2001, Director of the International Summer School “Spaces of Freedom in Modern Thought”, Tescani, Romania, financed by The Open Society Institute (HESP) in Budapest and the French Foreign Ministry; 2000-2002, Director of a Research Grant financed by the World Bank and the Romanian Government: “The Emergence of the Concept of Law in Some Early Modern Programs for the Reformation of Knowledge”; 1998-2001, Co-ordinator of the Research Group on 17th-Century Thought, New Europe College, Bucharest; 1996, Coordinator of the International Conference René Descartes, Bucharest-Tescani; 1995 – 2006, Scientific Advisor of the Students’ Scientific Workshop, Department for French Language and Literature, Bucharest University.
ACADEMIC CONFERENCES
1992 (May), Le paradoxe sceptique chez Pascal, communication at the International Conference « Lieux communs, topoï, stéréotypes, clichés », Université Lumière Lyon 2 (Lyon); 1996 (September), Alphonse Dupront : une vision classique du monde, intervention at the International Conference « L’Europe dans son histoire : la vision d’Alphonse Dupront », The European Academic Institute (Florence); 1996 (October), Descartes et la théorie de l\’énonciation, communication at the International Colloquy René Descartes (Bucharest); 1998 (May), Alphonse Dupront et l’idéal de l\”honnête homme\”, intervention at the International Colloquy « Alphonse Dupront », Société des amis d\’Alphonse Dupront, Paris. (Bucarest); 1998 (July), Éléments pour une problématique du commencement, at Summer School in Social Sciences, Cluj-Belis, École normale supérieure de Fontenay/St.-Cloud, The “Babes-Bolyai” University at Cluj and the Romanian Association of the Francophone Researchers in Human Sciences (Cluj); 2002 (September), De l’union de l’âme et du corps en général chez Descartes, Summer School « Competing Models in Modern Thought », Research Centre Foundations of Early Modern Thought, University of Bucharest, Romanian Association of the Francophone Researchers in Human Sciences and the New Europe College (Macea Castle); 2004 (April), Cantemiri „Sacrosanctae Scientiae indepingibilis imago”. Remarques sur le Livre II, intervention at the Romanian Society of Classical Studies (Bucharest); 2005 (February), La théologo-physique du Prince Démètre Cantemir, The Warburg Institute (London); 2005 (August), La théologo-physique de Démètre Cantemir, South-East European Seminar in Early Modern Philosophy, Bogaziçi University, Istanbul; 2005 (December), Un écho du Cogito chez le Prince Démètre Cantemir (1675-1723)?, intervention at the Symposium “Les correspondances savantes de Descartes et de ses contemporains” (Rom); 2006 (January), Descartes and Pascal on the Eucharist, lecture at the “Descartes & Pascal Conference”, University of South Florida, Tampa; 2007 (June), Réflexions sur l’Ancien Régime roumain: XVe-XVIIIe siècles, International Colloquium “Quelle(s) culture(s) politique(s) pour l’Europe?”, University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg; 2007 (November), Un exposé roumain de 1667 sur la Présence réelle dans l’Eucharistie, International Colloquium “Le Jansénisme et l’Europe”, University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg; 2008 (March), Définition de la pensée et vie universelle chez le Prince Démètre Cantemir, International Colloquium “Christian Faith and Metaphysical Reason between East and West”, New Europe College, Bucharest; 2009 (May), L’Hexaéméron du Sacro-sanctae scientiae indepingibilis imago (1700) de Démètre Cantemir, Journée d’études « Création, Providence et Mal », Université du Luxembourg, Luxembourg; 2011 (May), Regius and Gassendi on the Human Soul, 11th International Society for Intellectual History Conference “Passionate Minds”, Bucharest; 2011 (October), Gradation ou hiérarchie. Pour une lecture aréopagitique des Pensées, International Colloquium „L’amour de la sagesse et la sagesse de l’amour chez Pascal”, French Institute in Budapest; 2012 (March), Some Sources of Princess Elisabeth\’s Letters to Descartes, International conference “Philosophizing Women in the Affect Theories of the Late 17th and Early 18thCenturies”, Lorand Eötvös University Budapest, Faculty of Arts, Department of Early Modern and Contemporary Philosophy; 2012 (March), De l’usage de l’infini chez R. Descartes et J.B. Morin, 3rdBucharest Colloquium in Early Modern Science, “Creative Experiments: Heuristic & Exploratory Experimentation in Early Modern Science”, organized by the Research Center for Logic, History and Philosophy of Science and the Research Center for the Foundations of Early Modern Thought, University of Bucharest.
PUBLICATIONS
Books:
Vlad Alexandrescu, Le paradoxe chez Blaise Pascal, Peter Lang, Berne, 1996; 
Vlad Alexandrescu (ed.), Pragmatique et Théorie de l’énonciation. Choix de textes, Bucharest University Press, 2002; 
Vlad Alexandrescu (ed.), Branching Off: The Early Moderns in Quest for the Unity of Knowledge, Bucharest, Zeta Books, 2009; 
Vlad Alexandrescu, Croisées de la Modernité. Hypostases de l’esprit et de l’individu au XVIIe siècle, Bucharest, Zeta Books, 2012 (\”P.G. Castex\” Prize, Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques, Paris; \”Nicolae Bălcescu\” Prize, Romanian Academy, Bucharest).
Books co-edited:
Autour de Descartes, Dolores Toma, Anca-Maria Christodorescu, Vlad Alexandrescu (eds.), Bucharest, Crater Publishing House, 1998; 
Esprits modernes. Études sur les modèles de pensée alternatifs aux XVIIe-XVIIIe siècles, Vlad Alexandrescu, Dana Jalobeanu (eds.), Bucharest University Press, „Vasile Goldiş” University Press, Bucharest, Arad, 2003; 
Vlad Alexandrescu and Robert Theis (eds.), Nature et Surnaturel. Philosophies de la nature et métaphysique aux XVIe-XVIIIe siècles, Georg Olms Verlag, Hildesheim, Zürich, New York, 2010; 
Dimitrie Cantemir, L’immagine irrafigurabile della Scienza Sacro-Santa, a cura di Vlad Alexandrescu, traduzione di Igor Agostini e Vlad Alexandrescu, introduzione e note di Vlad Alexandrescu, edizione critica del testo latino di Dan Slușanschi e Liviu Stroia, Firenze, Mondadori, 2012.
René Descartes, Corespondenţa completă, volumul I (1607-1638), Ediţie îngrijită de Vlad Alexandrescu, Introducere de Vlad Alexandrescu, Traducere din franceză, latină şi neerlandeză de Vlad Alexandrescu, Robert Arnăutu, Robert Lazu, Călin Cristian Pop, Mihai-Dragoş Vadana, Grigore Vida, Note, cronologie, note complementare, bibliografie şi indici de Vlad Alexandrescu, Robert Arnăutu, Călin Cristian Pop, Mihai-Dragoş Vadana, Grigore Vida, Iași, București, Editura Polirom, 2014.
René Descartes, Corespondenţa completă, volumul II (1639-1644), ediţie îngrijită de Vlad Alexandrescu, traducere din franceză, latină şi neerlandeză de Vlad Alexandrescu, Robert Arnăutu, Călin Cristian Pop, Mihai‑Dragoş Vadana, Grigore Vida, note, cronologie, note complementare, bibliografie şi indici de Vlad Alexandrescu, Robert Arnăutu, Călin Cristian Pop, Grigore Vida, Iași, București, Editura Polirom, 2015.
Articles
Le paradoxe sceptique chez Pascal, in Christian Plantin, Lieux communs, topoi, stéréotypes, clichés, Paris, Kimé, 1993, p. 423-432; Le doute de Montaigne, in University of Bucharest Yearbook,Foreign Languages and Literatures, XLIV, 1995, p.41-52; Descartes et la théorie de l\’énonciation, in Autour de Descartes, textes réunis par Dolores Toma, Anca-Maria Christodorescu, Vlad Alexandrescu, Bucharest, Crater Publishing House, 1998; Du dualisme en théorie de l\’énonciation,in New Europe College, Yearbook 1995-1996, Bucharest, Humanitas Publishing House, 1999, p. 19-51; L’Europe classique: une quête des valeurs, in Fr. Crouzet, Fr. Furet (eds.), L’Europe dans son histoire. La vision d’Alphonse Dupront, Paris, Presses Universitaires de France, 1998, p. 119-128; Eléments pour une problématique du commencement, in Invention, innovation et créativité dans les sciences sociales, Actes de l’école francophone Cluj-Belis, juillet 1998, édités par Izabella Badiu, Ion Copoeru, Ciprian Mihali, Casa Cartii de Stiinta, Cluj, 1999, p. 69-83; De l’union de l’âme et du corps en général chez Descartes, in Modèles concurrents dans la pensée moderne, Vlad Alexandrescu, Dana Jalobeanu (eds.), Bucharest University Press & Vasile Goldiş University Press, 2003; Un manuscrit inédit et inconnu de Démètre Cantemir. L’Epître dédicatoire du traité Sacro-sanctae scientiae indepingibilis imago, in ARCHAEVS. Etudes d’histoire des religions, VII (2003) 3-4, p. 245-269; J.L. Austin, filosof al limbajului, in J.L. Austin, Cum sa faci lucruri cu vorbe, romanian translation by Sorana Corneanu, introduction by Vlad Alexandrescu, Bucharest, Paralela 45 Publishing House, 2003, p. 3-20; Y a-t-il un principe d’individuation des corps physiques chez Descartes ?, in ARCHES. Revue Internationale des Sciences Humaines, 5, 2003, p. 67-80; Pour une problématique du miracle au XVIIe siècle, in ARCHES. Revue Internationale des Sciences Humaines, 7, 2004, p. 25-33; La Théologo-physique de Démètre Cantemir, Annuario dell’Istituto Romeno di Cultura e Ricerca Umanistica di Venezia, IX, 2007, p. 273-281; Descartes and Pascal on the Eucharist, Perspectives on Science, vol. 15, nr. 4, Winter 2007, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass., p. 434-449; Définition de la pensée et vie universelle chez le Prince Démètre Cantemir, in Mihail Neamţu and Bogdan Tataru-Cazaban (eds.), Memory, Humanity and Meaning. Selected Essays in Honor of Andrei Pleşu’s Sixtieth Anniversary, Bucharest, Zeta Books, 2009, p. 251-262 ; The double question of individuation of physical bodies in Descartes, in Vlad Alexandrescu (ed.), Branching Off: The Early Moderns in Quest for the Unity of Knowledge, Bucharest, Zeta Books, 2009, p. 69-94; L’impact de la question eucharistique sur l’individualité du corps physique chez Descartes, in Vlad Alexandrescu et Robert Theis (éds.), Nature et Surnaturel. Philosophies de la nature et métaphysique aux XVIe-XVIIIe siècles, Georg Olms Verlag, Hildesheim, Zürich, New York, 2010, p. 77-88; Post-Cartesian atomism: the case of François Bernier, in Dana Jalobeanu and Peter R. Anstey (eds.), Vanishing Matter and the Laws of Motion. Descartes and Beyond, Routledge, 2010; Un exposé roumain de 1667 sur la Présence réelle dans l’Eucharistie in vol. Le Jansénisme et l’Europe. Actes du colloque international organisé à l’Université du Luxembourg les 8, 9 et 10 novembre 2007, textes édités avec répertoire bibliographique et index par Raymond Baustert, Narr Verlag, coll « Biblio 17 », Tübingen, 2010, p. 163-169 ; Autour de la Carte de la Moldavie par Démètre Cantemir, in Revue des Etudes Sud-Est Européennes, XLIX, 1-4, p. 139-188; What Someone May Have Whispered in Elisabeth’s Ear, in Daniel Garber, Steven Nadler (eds.), Oxford Studies in Early Modern Philosophy, volume VI, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2012, p. 1-27; Regius and Gassendi on the Human Soul, in Intellectual History Review, 23, 2, June 2013, in print.
Editing work
Tudor Vianu, Opere, vol. 14, Corespondenţă (Correspondence), Bucharest, Minerva Publishing House, 1991 (edited and annotated); Scrisori către Tudor Vianu (Letters to Tudor Vianu), vol. I, 1916-1935, Bucharest, Minerva Publishing House, 1992 (edited by Maria Alexandrescu Vianu and Vlad Alexandrescu, annotated by Vlad Alexandrescu); Scrisori către Tudor Vianu (Letters to Tudor Vianu), vol. II, 1936-1949, Bucharest, Minerva Publishing House, 1994 (edited by Maria Alexandrescu Vianu and Vlad Alexandrescu, annotated by Vlad Alexandrescu); Scrisori către Tudor Vianu (Letters to Tudor Vianu), vol. III, 1950-1964, Bucharest, Minerva Publishing House, 1997 (edited by Maria Alexandrescu Vianu and Vlad Alexandrescu, annotated by de Geo Serban, afterword by Florin Ţurcanu); André Scrima, La Phénoménologie du miracle, edited, annotated and translated in French by Vlad Alexandrescu, in « Res », 44, autumn 2003, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., p. 159-170; Daniela Pălăşan, L’ennui chez Pascal et l’acédie, edited and preface by Vlad Alexandrescu, afterword by Anca Vasiliu, Cluj, Eikon, 2005; André Scrima, Antropologia apofatică (ApophaticalAnthropology), Bucharest, Humanitas Publishing House, 2005 (edited, annotated and foreword); André Scrima, Ortodoxia şi încercarea comunismului (The Orthodoxy and the trial of comunism), Bucharest, Humanitas Publishing House, 2008 (edited, annotated and foreword).
Forewords
Daniela Pălăşan, Le cœur chez Pascal, préface de Vlad Alexandrescu, Bucureşti, Editura Crater, 1999;
J.L. Austin, filosof al limbajului, în J.L. Austin, Cum să faci lucruri cu vorbe, traducere de Sorana Corneanu, prefaţă de Vlad Alexandrescu, Bucureşti, Editura Paralela 45, 2003, p. 3-20;
Daniela Pălăşan, L’ennui chez Pascal et l’acédie, édition et préface par Vlad Alexandrescu, postface par Anca Vasiliu, Cluj, Eikon, 2005.
Reviews of different contributions
Le paradoxe chez Blaise Pascal, Peter Lang, Berne, 1996:
Revue XVIIe siècle, Paris, an. L, nr. 201, n° 4, 1998, p. 744-745 (Gilles Siouffi); Dialogo Filosófico, Madrid, nr. 43, Enero/Abril, 1999 (unsigned); Choisir, Centre national de documentation pédagogique, Paris, nr. 35, Juin 1998, supplément, p. 10 (Hélène Bouchilloux); Bulletin cartésien, XXVIII, in «Archives de philosophie», Paris, tome 63, cahier 1, Janvier-Mars 2000, under 3.1, p. 48 (Vincent Carraud); Zeitschrift für französische Sprache und Literatur, Stuttgart, CX, 1, 2000 (Ekkehard Eggs); Studii și cercetări lingvistice, vol. 50, 1999, nr. 1, București, Editura Academiei Române, p. 202-203 (Mariana Neț).
Autour de Descartes,textes réunis par Dolores Toma, Anca-Maria Christodorescu, Vlad Alexandrescu, Bucureşti, Editura Crater, 1998:
Bulletin cartésien, XXIX, «Archives de philosophie», Paris tome 64 (2001), p. 41 (Giuliano Gasparri).
Esprits modernes. Études sur les modèles de pensée alternatifs aux XVIIe-XVIIIesiècles, Vlad Alexandrescu, Dana Jalobeanu (eds.), Bucharest University Press, „Vasile Goldis” University Press, Bucharest, Arad, 2003:
Bulletin cartésien, XXXV, in «Archives de philosophie», Paris, tome 70, cahier 1, Janvier-Mars 2007, under 3.2.1 (Fabien Chareix);
Nicolas le Spathaire, Enchiridion:
Luxemburger Wort, Luxemburg, 4 martie 2011, p. 14: Première traduction française d\’un ouvrage majeur «Enchiridion sive Stella Orientalis Occidentali splendens» (Raymond Baustert).
Vlad Alexandrescu (ed.), Branching Off: The Early Moderns in Quest for the Unity of Knowledge, Bucharest, Zeta Books, 2009:
Philosophy in Review, University of Victoria (Canada), vol. XXXI (2011), nr. 3, p. 164-167 (Andreea Mihali); Bulletin cartésien, LX, in «Archives de philosophie», cahier 1, tome 74, Printemps 2011, p. 203-207 (Philippe Boulier); British Journal for the History of Philosophy, vol. 19, issue 4, p. 819-822 (Peter R. Anstey); Isis (The History of Science Society, Chicago), Vol. 102, No. 3, September 2011, p. 562-563 (Jane Jenkins).
Vlad Alexandrescu et Robert Theis (éds.), Nature et Surnaturel. Philosophies de la nature et métaphysique aux XVIe-XVIIIe siècles, Georg Olms Verlag, Hildesheim, Zürich, New York, 2010:
Early Science and Medicine, vol. 16 (2011), p. 372-374 (Davide Cellamare)
Studium: Revue d\’Histoire des Sciences et des Universités(Belgian-Dutch Society for the History of Science and Universities, The Hague), vol. 4, nr. 1 (2011), p. 48-49 (Delphine Bellis)
Vlad Alexandrescu, Croisées de la modernité. Hypostases de l’esprit et de l’individu au XVIIe siècle, Bucharest, Zeta Books, 2012:
Lo Sguardo – Rivista di Filosofia, ISSN 2036-6558, 10, 3, (2012), p. 285-287 (Stella Carella).
January 2013

Scientific utopianism

Princeton seminar: Scientific utopianism

20 April-20 May Princeton University


Dana Jalobeanu:

Solomon’s Houses: Reading New Atlantis in seventeenth century

Francis Bacon’s New Atlantis had a very interesting career in the seventeenth century. Widely read and quoted, it had also inaugurating a style of thinking about the proper way of producing and disseminating knowledge. Partisans of the “new philosophy”, members of the Royal Society or the Royal College of Physicians in London, antiquarians and members of formal and informal “academies” on the continent, often took Salomon’s house as an ideal model for shaping out the actual research communities. Various schemes for the advancement of learning are formulated in such a way that they involve a (somehow amended form of) Solomon House for carrying out the project.

Moreover, New Atlantis was not only read and emulated, but was also continued or rewritten during 17th century, in England or in France. Such rewritings, although interesting in themselves, gain weight and depth when read in the proper context: as various shapes/types of a general plan for the reformation of human beings and society, a plan for which Bacon’s college/brotherhood provided the blueprint.

My project aims at studying comparatively such readings and rewritings of New Atlantis, showing in what way the differences between them might be seen as relating to their different agendas: scientific, political or religious. I will focus especially on the impact of Solomon’s House as a model for various intellectual communities of scientists and philosophers, looking for the impact such rewritings have among their potential readers.

The House of Solomon

The House of Solomon, philosopher- kings and the pedagogy of virtue: early modern utopias as pedagogical projects”.

Director of project: Dana Jalobeanu

Research project ID, financed by CNCISIS (2009)

The research project gathers together a team from Western University “Vasile Goldis” (Oana Matei, Cristi Bente) and University of Bucharest (Sorana Coreneanu, Sorin Costreie, Doina Cristina Rusu). The 3 year project will explore several early modern utopias from the perspective of education and the reformation of human beings, in an interdisciplinary context, grouping together well-known texts with a number of unexplored and practically unknown sources of the same period (early modernity).

Projected volume: Solomon’s Houses: the legacy of Bacon’s New Atlantis

The Medicine of the Mind

The Medicine of the Mind and Natural Philosophy in

Early Modern England

A New Way of Interpreting Francis Bacon

ERC Grant 2009-2014


Principal investigator: Guido Giglioni (The Warburg Institute)

Co-investigators: Dana Jalobeanu, Sorana Corneanu (University of Bucharest)

Host institutions: The Warburg Institute, School of Advanced Study, University of London

New Europe College – Institute of Advanced Studies, Bucharest


Our project aims to provide a reappraisal of Bacon’s work and his legacy in the seventeenth century by focusing on a set of interrelated disciplinary contexts that, for reasons of interpretative and heuristic convenience, we have decided to call the early modern ‘medicine of the mind’. In doing so, we will be able to make sense of many aspects of Bacon’s work that still remain obscure and, as an added bonus, to clarify a number of long debated questions concerning seventeenth-century science and natural philosophy.

‘Medicine of the mind’ was commonly used by early modern philosophers, theologians, rhetoricians and physicians to refer to a set of practices for training and improving the powers of the mind. Disciplines dealing with the medicine of the mind devised methods to train the soul and the body to collaborate towards the attainment of forms of practical wisdom. Such disciplines provided regimens of life, cures for the passions and methods to discipline one’s own thought, as in the writings of John Woolton, John Abernethy, Thomas Rogers, Thomas Wright and Robert Burton, or in the translations of continental Protestant Neostoics (e.g. Pierre de la Primaudaye, Phillippe Du Plessis Mornay, Simon Goulart).

Our project aims at recovering a body of knowledge that, precisely because of the elusive nature of its disciplinary collocation, seems not to have filled any specific institutional niche or disciplinary pigeonhole in the early modern system of knowledge and has therefore escaped the attention of scholars working in the field of the history of early modern natural philosophy. The recovery of this background will make possible a new and fruitful reading of Bacon’s programme for the reformation of knowledge. We will also explore the way in which in the second half of the seventeenth century, under its Baconian definition, the notion of medicina mentis became part of the language of experimental philosophy.

We expect this project to have a significant impact upon the field of early modern intellectual history. By opening new exegetical horizons in the area of Bacon studies and allied subjects, it will promote a reconsideration of the development of seventeenth-century English natural philosophy and science. It will stimulate a reconsideration of the meaning of method in early modern culture. It will bring to the fore aspects that have previously been considered less relevant, such as Bacon’s theory of living matter and his theological views. It will also throw light on the meanings of ‘Baconianism’ in the seventeenth century.

Stages of research

  • The Stoic and Protestant Connection
  • Medicine of the Mind and Francis Bacon’s Theology
  • The French Connection and Varieties of Baconianism
  • ‘Priests of nature’: Baconianism in the Seventeenth Century

Planned workshops and colloquia

  • Francis Bacon and the medicine of the mind: Stoic Protestantism in Late Renaissance England
  • Seneca and Bacon on Studying Nature: The Reception of Seneca’s Naturales Quaestiones in the English Renaissance
  • Early Modern Sources of Sylva Sylvarum
  • Francis Bacon and the Materiality of the Appetites: Stoicism, Medicine and Politics
  • The Theological Background of Baconian Science
  • Theology, ‘Spiritual Physicke’ and Experimental Life in Francis Bacon
  • Stoicism and Experimental Philosophy

Science, Politics and Utopia in the Republic of Letters

Science, Politics and Utopia in the Republic of Letters: Models of Producing and Disseminating Knowledge in Early Modern Europe

Project Manager: Vlad Alexandrescu

Financed by The National Autority for Scientific Research, through The Council of Scientific Research in Higher Studies in Romania, within the grant nr. 758/2009

In the last 20 years, a wide range of authors have started to question the cannonical view of a scientific revolution of the 17th century, have emphasized the historiographical gap existing between the historians of science and the historians of philosophy working on the same authors (and sometimes on the very same texts) of the early modernity. A dramatic process of revaluation, started more than 20 years ago, has changed considerably the field of early modern studies and the iconic image of the actors involved in the scientific revolution.

Science emerged as a creation of European modernity, as a model of European integration. Early modern science shaped European culture, imposing a standard model of research and validation, and a standard model of intellectual, international (European) and integrated community. A number of authors have gone further in claiming that the very modernity has been shaped by the emergence of early modern science in its most popular form, the Newtonian paradigm.

The recent scholarship in the field of the origins of modern science agrees upon placing at the origins of early modern science two basic pillars: the new natural philosophy (of the 16th and 17th centuries) and a certain model for the communal production, validation and dissemination of knowledge. The latter has gained European recognition under the older and traditional name invented by the Humanists: the Republic of Letters.

A fair amount of recent research has shaped an entire field investigating the communitarian dimensions of the early modern philosophy and science, showing unexpected but meanigful similarities between distinct and various intellectual and scientific communities.

Our project has two main objectives:

  1. Developing and harmonizing the contributions of the experimented researchers, members of the project, in the framework of developing international research directions, together with encouraging and stimulating the PhD students involved in the project in pursuing the same directions
  2. Imposing at an international level a connected research theme: the way in which the republic of letters is functioning on a peripheral level, in Eastern Europe. Through a series of key case studies we will try to show that a series of intellectuals from Transylvania or Romania have been put in the situation of negotiating their acceding to the republic of letters, and thus have used various intellectual recognizing techniques which were accepted in that age and sometimes have imposed themselves and have succeeded in creating “kernels” in the knowledge communication network.

Results:

2009: Publication of the volume: Vlad Alexandrescu (ed), Branching off: The Early Moderns in the Quest for the Unity of Knowledge (http://www.zetabooks.com/forthcoming-publications/vlad-alexandrescu-branching-off-the-early-moderns-in-quest-of-the-unity-of-know-2.html)


Dana Jalobeanu

Curriculum vitae
Dana Jalobeanu
dana.jalobeanu@celfis.ro
Lecturer
Faculty of Philosophy
University of Bucharest
Splaiul Independentei 204, sector 6
060024, Bucuresti,
ROMANIA
Education
PhD, Philosophy of Science
University of Bucharest, 1997-2000
University of Oxford, Balliol College (Soros-Chevening Scholarship) 1997-1998
Dissertation (magna cum laude): Space, time and laws of nature in early modern cosmology (Descartes to Newton)
BA in Philosophy
Faculty of Philosophy, 1993- 1997
Babes Bolyai University, Cluj
Thesis: The emergence of the modern concept of “laws of nature”
BS, MSc in Theoretical Physics
Faculty of Physics 1988-1993
Babes Bolyai University, Cluj
Thesis: The BRST-BV cohomology and its applications
1992-1993 specialization in Solid State Physics
Areas of specialization
Early modern philosophy (Bacon, the experimental tradition, Descartes, Newton)
History of science (especially 16th to 18th century)
Areas of competence
History of philosophy, Intellectual history
Philosophy of science
Positions held
2009- Lecturer, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Bucharest
2006 – to the present, Associate professor, Western University “Vasile Goldis”, Arad
2002 – 2006 Reader in Philosophy , Western University “Vasile Goldis”, Arad
2001-2002, Assistant Professor, Western University “Vasile Goldis”, Arad
2000-2001, Assistant Professor, University Aurel Vlaicu, Arad
1999-2001, Associate Professor, University of Bucharest
1998-1999, Visiting Associate Professor, Babes Bolyai University, Cluj
2001- 2008 Science editor at the BBC World Service, Romanian Section
Fellowships, grants:
2009-2012 ERC Starting Grant “The medicine of the mind and natural philosophy in early modern England: A new way of interpreting Francis Bacon” (Principal investigator: Guido Giglioni, participant institutions Warburg Institute/School of Advanced Studies, University of London, New Europe College, Bucharest). Grant agreement no.: 241125.
2009 (April-May): Visiting scholar at Princeton University, Department of Philosophy (Project: Scientific Utopianism in early modern philosophy)
2009-2011 Research grant “Ideas” awarded by the national council of research (CNCSIS) for the coordination of the team project The House of Solomon, king philosophers and the pedagogy of virtue: the pedagogy of early modern utopias
2008-2009 NEC Link Grant for the project Beyond Kuhnian paradigms: philosophy of science in historical context
2007-2008 CDC grant awarded by the Curricullum Resource Center, CEU Budapest for the development and introduction of a new course on the Foundations of Early Modernity in 5 Romanian universities (University of Bucharest, Faculty of Philosophy, Faculty of Political Sciences, MA in British Cultural Studies, Babes Bolyai University, Faculty of European Studies, Western University Vasile Goldis, Arad, Faculty of Humanist and Political Studies).
2006 (March-July, August-October) Mellon Fellowship at Warburg Institute London
2006 NEC-Link Grant awarded by New Europe College, Bucharest
2002, (May-July), Visiting scholar, Wolfson College, Oxford,
As a part of a CNCSIS Grant (2000-2002, The formation of modern concept of “law”)
2000-2001, HESP Grant, OSI, Budapest
Spaces of freedom in modern thought
1999-2002 member of a CNCSIS grant for young researchers
Research center Foundations of Early Modern Thought,
University of Bucharest (director of grant, Vlad Alexandrescu)
1999, (January-March) Visiting student, Balliol College, Oxford
1998-1999, New Europe College Fellowship, New Europe College, Bucharest
1997-1998, Chevening –Soros Scholarship, Oxford University, Balliol College
(Horia Georgescu Scholarship)
Professional affiliation
Member in the editorial board of Intellectual History Review
Member of the board and director of projects at the Research Center Foundations of Modern Thought, University of Bucharest
Alumnus New Europe College
Member of the European History of Science Society
Member of the International Society for Intellectual history
Member of HOPOS
Publications
Books
Dana Jalobeanu, Peter Anstey, eds., Vanishing matter and the laws of nature, Routledge: London, (2011)
Inventarea modernităţii : Filosofie naturală şi teologie în secolul al XVII-lea,(The invention of modernity: natural philosophy, science and theology in 17th century) Editura Napoca Star, 2006
Esprits modernes. Etudes sur la formation de pensee scientifique aux XVIIeme et XVIII eme siecles, co-edited with Vlad Alexandrescu, « Vasile Goldis » University Press, Editura Universitatii Bucuresti, 2002
Revolutions in science/Revolutions in thought, co-edited with Brandusa Palade, a special number of KRISIS, 8, 1999
Editions
Francis Bacon, Noua Atlantida, (translation, with introduction and notes) Editura Nemira, Bucuresti, 2007
translations
Roger Penrose, Shadows of the Mind, Editura Stiintifica, 1999
Articles
  1. “The fascination of Solomon’s House in seventeenth century England”, in Vlad Alexandrescu, Branching off: The Early Moderns in quest of the unity of knowledge, Zeta Books, Bucharest, 2009
  2. “Bacon’s Brotherhood and its classical sources”, in Francis Bacon and the birth of technology, edited by Claus Zittel, Gisela Engel, Romano Nanni, Intersections 11/(2008), Brill, vol I, 197-231
  3. “Space, bodies and geometry: Some sources of Newton’s metaphysics”, in Notions of Space and Time edited by Frank Linhardt, Zeitsprunge, Forschungen zur Fruher Neuzeit Frankfurt, 11 (2007)
  4. “The politics of science and the origins of modernity: Building consensus in Early Royal Society”, in Zeitsprunge, Forschungen zur Fruher Neuzeit, Frankfurt am Main, 10 (2006) 386-400
  5. “Natural philosophy and natural theology in the seventeenth century”, (in Romanian), Noua reprezentare a lumii, nr, 5, 2006
  6. “The reformation of knowledge and the thesis of the “origins of modern science””(in Romanian), Revista de filosofie, LIII, 1-2, 2006
  7. “Two models of the individual. Mechanical philosophy, experimental philosophy and the problem of individual freedom”, (in Romanian), Revista de filosofie, LIII, 3-4, 2006
  8. “Solidifying Cartesian shapes: Newton on abolute space and the creation of matter”, in Revue roumaine de philosophie, 50, 1-2, 2006, 85-113
  9. „Philosophy, sectarianism and the reformation of knowledge in seventeenth century: Some ideas for rewriting the history of the Scienfitif Revolution”, in Revue roumaine de philosophie, 49, 1-2, 2005, 163-181
  10. „The reformation of knowledge and the „origins of modern science”: rewriting the Scientific Revolution”, (in Romanian), in Alin Tat, Cirpian Vâlcan, ed. Fragilitatea spiritului, Editura Napoca Star, Cluj, 2005, pg. 80-100
  11. “The missing part of a definition: Clarke, Newton’s sect and another way of saving the miracles in seventeenth century”, ARCHES, 7, 2004.
  12. “Knowledge, law and social reformation: Francis Bacon’s Great Instauration” (in Romanian), in M. Iovan, Ioan Trifa, Ştiinţa şi filosofia dreptului, Editura Gutenberg Univers, 2004, pg. 185-201
  13. “Le modele mathematique de l’individuation chez Descartes », ARCHES, 5, 2003, 81-111
  14. « A vorbi despre Dumnezeu din cauze secunde : teologie naturala si cosmologie » (Speaking about God from second causes: natural theology and cosmology), in Tentatiile ideii, eds. Ciprian Valcan, Alin Tat, Gaudeamus, 2003
  15. “The two cosmologies of Rene Descartes”, in Esprits modernes, eds. Dana Jalobeanu, Vlad Alexandrescu, “Vasile Goldis” University Press, 2002
  16. Newton’s absolute space and the mathematical structure of the world (in Romanian), in Lost in space, edited by Augustin Ioan, New Europe College, 2002
  17. “Forms, laws and active principles: What happened to the laws of nature in the Scientific Revolution?”, in Analele Universitatii Timisoara, Seria filosofie, XIII, 2001
  18. “The place of the laws of nature in the conceptual structure of the Scientific Revolution”, in New Europe College Yearbook, 2000
  19. Scientific Revolution: the rise and fall of a concept (in Romanian) in KRISIS, 8, 1999
  20. Mathematical formalism in Cartesian philosophy (in Romanian) in Descartes. Leibniz. Ascensiunea si posteritatea rationalismului clasic, ed. Mircea Flonta, Editura Universal Dalsi, Bucuresti, 198
  21. Imaginary and imagination in the Renaissance. Possible contributions at a history of censorship, (in Romanian), KRISIS, 5, 1997
  22. “Boundary conditions in modern cosmology” in the Proceedings of the 4th national conference on gravitation and cosmology, Bistrita, Romania, 1996.
  23. “The BRST-BV symmetry in classical mechanics”, with Prof. Liviu Tataru, Studia Universitatis Babeş-Bolyai Cluj, Physics, 38, 1, 1993, pg. 63-67
Papers accepted for publication
  • „Experimental philosophy and the tradition of spiritual exercises: a study of seventeenth century Baconianism”, Modern Intellectual History, 2010
  • „The nature of body”, in Peter Anstey, ed. The Oxford Handbook of British Philosophy in the Seventeenth Century, Oxford University Press, 2011
  • “The Cartesians of the Royal Society: the debate over collisions and the nature of bodies of 1669-1670”, in Jalobeanu, Anstey, Vanishing matter and the laws of nature, Routledge (in progress)
Work in progress
Editions
Francis Bacon: philosophical works, the first Romanian edition of Francis Bacon, to be published by Humanitas, Bucuresti. The first volume of this scholarly edition, The Advancement of learning (translation: Dana Jalobeanu) will appear in October 2009, the second, a collection of histories and “lives” of Francis Bacon by a number of seventeenth and eighteenth century scholars (edited by Dana Jalobeanu) will come out at the beginning of 2010.
RESEARCH SEMINARS, CONFERENCE AND COLLOQUIA ORGANISED
The Bucharest Princeton Seminar in Early Modern Philosophy, 2001-to the present: 1 week research seminar held in different locations in Romania, highly international gathering where experienced and young researchers are presenting work in progress
The Bucharest Colloquium in Early Modern Philosophy, June 2008, organized by the Research Centre Foundation of Modern Thought, Princeton University and University of Otago, New Zeeland, at New Europe College, Bucharest. Invited speakers: Daniel Garber (Princeton University), Roger Ariew (University of Southern Florida), Peter Anstey (University of Otago, New Zeeland), Christoph Luethy (University of Nijmegen), William Harper (University of Western Ontario), John Bell (University of Western Ontario), Katherine Brading (University of Notre Dame).
Bucharest Colloquium in Early Modern Philosophy: “Beyond Kuhnian Paradigms: Was there a scientific revolution, after all?”, 25- 27 March, 2009, hosted by New Europe College and the University of Bucharest (Department of Philosophy). Invited speakers: Stephen Gaukroger (University of Sydney), Daniel Garber (Princeton University), Peter Harrison (University of Oxford), Eric Schliesser (University of Leiden)
Invited Courses
  1. From natural philosophy to Newtonian physics, MA in history and philosophy of science, University of Bucharest, 2008-2009
  2. Beyond Kuhnian paradigms: philosophy of science in historical context, (with prof. Ilie Parvu), graduate optional course, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Bucharest 2008-2009
  3. Origins of modern mind, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Bucharest (optional), 2007-2008
  4. Origins of Modernity, invited course at MA in the study of Image and imaginary, Centre of Excellence for the Study of Image, University of Bucharest, 2006-2007, 2007-2008
  5. Foundamentals of Early Modern Thought: Science, Religion and the British Scientific Revolution, invited course at the MA of British Cultural Studies, University of Bucharest, 2005-2008 (in English)
  6. Polite culture: History of British Moral Thought, with Catalin Avramescu, NEC-LINK course February-June 2006, at the MA of British Cultural Studies, University of Bucharest (in English)
  7. Invited Visiting Scholar at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, Department of Philosophy, August-November, 2005, for a joint- course on Individuation in Early Modern Philosophy, with Katherine Brading.
  8. Invited advanced seminar on seveteenth century thought, God and Space in seventeenth century philosophy, University of Bucharest, Faculty of Philosophy, 2000-2001
  9. Invited course on History of Cosmology, at University Babes Bolyai, Cluj, 1998-1999, with a seminar on Medieval Cosmology (Advanced interdisciplinary course, with students from the Faculty of Philosophy and the Faculty of Physics)
Papers/talks:
1. „Baconian reformation: towards a redefinition of philosophy in seventeenth century”, in Bucharest colloquium in early modern philosophy, 24-27 March 2009
2. “Francis Bacon’s “circle learning”: the origins of physico-theology, Three societies congress (BJHS, HSS, CSHS), Oxford, 2-4 July 2008
3. „Baconian experiments and spiritual exercises: the therapeutic value of experimental philosophy”, The Persona of the Philosopher, 3rd symposium: Subject, Persona, Office: Methodological and Historiographical issues, organised by the University of Queensland, Australia in Prato, at Monash University, 16-17 May 2008
4. „Experimental philosophy as therapy: Stoic versus Epicurean themes in 17th century”, The first North Sea Seminar in Early Modern Philosophy: Epicurean and anti-Epicurean tendencies in 17th century, Leiden, 12-14 aprilie, 2008
5. „Newton and Charleton on space and God’s presence”, Space and time in early modern philosophy, Bruxelles, 7-9 aprilie, 2008
6. „The influence of Justus Lipsius upon English Natural Philosophy”, at the conference Lipsius and Natural Philosophy, organized by the Royal Academy of Belgium, Bruxelles, 30 November, 2007
7. „Newton on space and bodies: some sources”, at the conference Newton and philosophy, organized by the University of Leyden, June, 2007
8. “Bacon’s projects for a reformation of knowledge and their readers”, la conferinţa Models of Intellectual History, ISIH Conference, London, 17-20 April 2007
9. “Cartesian causation”, la primul congres european al Asociaţiei Europene de Istoria Filosofiei, ESEMP Conference, Essen, 27-30 March 2007
10. “Communicating knowledge in early seventeenth century: Bacon’s classical sources”, la Princeton-Bucharest seminar in Early Modern Philosophy, 30 July- 4th August, 2006
11. “Francis Bacon’s Brotherhood: Yates thesis revisited”, International Conference Francis Bacon and the Birth of Technology, Frankfurt am Main, July, 2006
12. “The Cartesians of Royal Society: Seventeenth century debates over the nature of collisions”, International Congress of the History and Philosophy of Science, HOPOS 2006, Paris
13. “Bacon’s Brotherhood and its Classical Sources”, at the Director’s seminar, Warburg Institute, London, 3 May, 2006
14. The Politics of Science and the Origins of Modernity: Learned Societies, Reformation Projects and the ‘Scientific Revolution’ of the Seventeenth Century, International Colloquium, The Lures and Ruses of Modernity/Leurres et ruses de la modernité, New Europe College, November, 2005
15. “Philosophy, sectarianism and the reformation of knowledge in the seventeenth century philosophy”, at EWHUM international seminar, University of Bucharest, October, 2005
16. “Bacon’s Masques”, (with Sorana Corneanu) at the Princeton-Bucharest seminar in Early Modern Philosophy, Bran, 2-7 July, 2005
17. „Newton’s Absolute Space and the Problem of Individuation”, la International Symposium “The Scientific Terminology of Space and Time in the Academic Disciplines of the 17th and 18th Century”, Johan Wolfgang Goethe Universität, Frankfurt am Main, 27-28 September, 2004
18. „From «New Atlantis» to Royal Society: what kind of scientific network for Europe”, European conference Science in Europe, Maastricht, 3-5 November, 2004
19. „Bodies, laws and the problem of secondary causation in Descartes’ natural philosophy”, Oxford seminar in modern philosophy, Oxford University, 22-23 October, 2004
20. „Rarefaction, condensation and the problem of phyiscal bodies in seventeenth century”, Arad/Princeton seminar in modern philosophy, Arad, 6-12 septembrie 2004
21. “Newton’s sect”, Arad, Summer School, 2003
22. „Bodies, laws and secondary causation in Descartes’ natural philosophy”, New Europe College Seminar in Modern Philosophy, January 2003
23. „The case of missing matter theory: Newton’s cosmological thought”, Arad Summer School, September, 2002
24. „All alone in the Universe: Descartes, Newton and the birth of isolated systems”, HESP Summer School, Tescani, September, 2001
25. „All alone in the Universe: Descartes, Newton and the birth of isolated systems”, (with Katherine Branding), 11th International Congress of Logic, Mehtodology and Philosophy of Science, 1999 Cracow, Poland,
26. „Bodies, laws and isolated systems in seventeenth century philosophy”, Cambridge, Department for the History and Philosophy of Science, February, 1999
27. „Solidifying Cartesian Shapes: Newton’ s Conception of Physical Body in De Gravitatione”, LSE , Philosophy of science seminar, February, 1999
28. „Representing the invisible: Descartes’ and Newton’s Theories of Everything”, Oxford graduate seminar of Philosophy of Physics, May, 1998
29. „Representing the invisible: Descartes’ and Newton’s Theories of Everything”, presented at the Philosophy weekly seminar, Warwick University, April, 1998
30. „Popper’s criterion of demarcation and some implications for contemporary cosmological theories”, Popper Workshop, CEU, Budapest, 1996
Courses taught (sample of courses taught during the years)
Lower division
Introduction to philosophy: Plato’s dialogues
Modern philosophy: Descartes to Kant
Political philosophy (Early modern utopian thought, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Natural right theories in classical political thought, Plato’s Republic)
History of political ideas
Epistemology
Upper division (fourth year, graduates)
Medieval cosmology
The evolution of modern cosmology: Newton to Einstein
Scientific Revolution
Early modern philosophy
Foundations of modern thought
Utopia in seventeenth century
Graduate seminars and courses
Medieval cosmology
Early modern philosophy: Bacon, Descartes and seventeenth century philosophy
The problem of individuation in seventeenth century
Foundations of modern thought, Science, religion and the British Scientific Revolution– in English, for the MA British Cultural Studies, University of Bucharest
The Christian Virtuoso: natural philosophy and moral philosophy in the seventeenth century Britain, MA course (in English)

Languages:
English, French, Latin (intermediate), Italian (basic).

Bucharest-Princeton Seminar – 2010

BUCHAREST-PRINCETON SEMINAR

IN EARLY MODERN PHILOSOPHY

10th 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

30 June – 6 July 2010, Bran, Transylvania

Programme | Reading Texts

Download Programme | Download Poster | Download Texts

We are happy to announce the 10th edition of the annual *Bucharest-Princeton Seminar in Early Modern Philosophy*. This year, the Seminar will also benefit from the support of the Nanovic Institute in European Studies, University of Notre Dame. The Seminar gathers together scholars interested in various aspects of early modern thought. Its aim is to create a stimulating environment for discussing papers and ideas. Traditionally, the seminar has two components: morning reading groups and afternoon discussions of work-in-progress. The languages of the seminar are English and French. This year, we invited contributions on the topic:

Non-Mechanical Philosophies in the Seventeenth Century

Invited speakers include: Peter Anstey (Otago, New Zealand), Daniel Garber (Princeton), Theo Verbeek (Utrecht), Koen Vermeir (CNRS, Paris).

There will also be a number of invited students from the Bucharest and Notre Dame Universities.

The Seminar will take place in Bran, a small 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 70 EUR for students (covering accommodation with breakfast).

Call for papers closed.



CV Grigore Vida

CURRICULUM VITÆ


GRIGORE VIDA


grigore.vida@gmail.com


EDUCATION

2007: BA in Philosophy, Faculty of Philosophy (University of Bucharest)

2008: MA in Philosophy, Faculty of Philosophy (University of Bucharest)

2008–: PhD Student in Philosophy, Doctoral School of Philosophy (University of Bucharest); Thesis: “Between philosophia naturalis and Naturphilosophie” (with prof. I. Pârvu)


LANGUAGES

English, German, French

RESEARCH INTERESTS

History of philosophy and history of science in the 17th and 18th century; natural philosophy and metaphysics/philosophy of nature; scientifically minded philosophers (Descartes, Leibniz, Kant); Newton’s metaphysics, theology and alchemy


SCHOLARSHIPS

2008–2011: POSDRU scholarship for doctoral studies (University of Bucharest)

2009: CEEPUS scholarship at Institut für Philosophie (University of Vienna)


AFFILIATION

2010: Member of the Research Centre “Foundations of Modern Thought” (University of Bucharest)


ARTICLES

“The Problem of Esotericism in Bacon’s Science” in Studii de ştiinţă şi cultură 4 (2010), pp. 133-143


PAPERS & TALKS

2005, December: “Who is afraid of Analytic Philosophy?” at the workshop One Philosophy, two Perspectives (“Babeş-Bolyai” University, Cluj)

2009, February: “The Force of Gravity in the Context of Mechanical Philosophy” at the seminar of the Research Centre “Foundations of Modern Thought” (New Europe College, Bucharest)

March: “Mechanical Philosophy and the Science of Mechanics in Descartes” at the Bucharest Colloquium in Early Modern Philosophy: Beyond Kuhnian Paradigms (New Europe College/ University of Bucharest)

December: “Newton on Matter Theory and the «Vanishing Bodies»” at the CELFIS seminar (Faculty of Philosophy, University of Bucharest)

2010, May: “Isaac Newton on the Ether” at the Bucharest Graduate Conference (Faculty of Philosophy, University of Bucharest)

July: “Newton’s Theory of Matter” at the Bucharest-Princeton Seminar in Early Modern Philosophy, 10th edition (Bran)

December: “The Problem of Esotericism in Bacon’s Science” at the conference Knowledge and Action (North University, Baia Mare) and also at the seminar of the Department for Theoretical Philosophy (Faculty of Philosophy, University of Bucharest)

CELFIS Seminars 2009-2010

CELFIS Seminars in Early Modern Philosophy

The Research Centre in Logic, History and Philosophy of Science is a relatively young and active research division involving faculty, graduate students and associated researchers working with a large number of research programmes. It is hosted by the Department of Philosophy, University of Bucharest. This year, CELFIS is organising a special Seminar in History and Philosophy of Science, Thursdays, from 5 pm.

The CELFIS seminar in early modern philosophy will have this year three types of activities:

1. invited talks: Invited speakers will give formal or informal talks based mainly on work in progress. There will be ample time for discussions. Student participation is warmly encouraged.
2. reading groups: organised by Dana Jalobeanu and Mihnea Dobre. If you wish to attend, write to dana.jalobeanu@gmail.com, and/or mihneadobre@yahoo.com to get the reading materials. Each meeting will be organised as a presentation of the subject followed by discussions on the required reading.
3. courses: some of the invited speakers will give lectures as well, mostly for the MA students in history and philosophy of science. Participation of all students, however, is warmly encouraged.

Atoms, corpuscles and active principles: Theories of matter in the history of science



21 October – 17.00 (CELFIS)

Reading group

Dana Jalobeanu (University of Bucharest): Teoria materiei la Francis Bacon

Texts : Cogitationes de natura rerum, Sylva Sylvarum (fragments)

5 November – 16.00-20.00 (CRM)

Lecture (in the MA Course : From natural philosophy to Newtonian Physics): Francis Bacon in the history & philosophy of science: the history of a character assassination

Dana Jalobeanu (University of Bucharest), Guido Giglioni (Warburg Institute, London)

Readings for the seminar: Preface to the Great Instauration, Novum Organum, part I (fragments), part II (fragments)

6 November – 18.00, MF

Guido Giglioni (Warburg Institute, University of London): How did Bacon become a Baconian?

13 November – 18.00, MF

Eric Schliesser (University of Ghent), Isaac Newton’s Challenge to philosophy

19 November – 17.00

Reading group

Doina Rusu (PhD Student, University of Bucharest): Bacon and alchemy

Texts: Sylva Sylvarum (fragments), Thema coeli

25 November – 17.00

Reading group

Mihnea Dobre (University of Bucharest): Natural history and the nature of bodies in Bacon’s Historia densi et rari

Texts: Bacon, Historia densi et rari, fragments

3 December – 18.00, MF

Silvia Manzo (Max Plank Institute, Berlin): Mythology and Holy Write in Bacon\’s natural philosophy

9 December – 17.00

Reading group

Grigore Vida (University of Bucharest): Isaac Newton on matter theory and the “vanishing bodies”

Texts : De gravitatione et equipondio fluidorum, and other fragments (TBA