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INDIVIDUAL COURSES

Course 1

Shaping the \”Republic of Letters\”: The origins of modern ethos

Course proponents: Dana Jalobeanu, Sorana Corneanu
Course venue: Center for British Studies, Faculty of English, University of Bucharest

Every Wednesday, 17-20

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENTS:
The first meeting will take place Wednesday, 10 October.

SYLLABUS

COURSE MATERIALS

ASSIGNMENTS

week 2, 17 October: New Atlantis
week 3, 21 October: New Atlantis (contd.)
The first book of The Advancement of Learning
week 4: The Advancement of Learning, Bk I
week 5: Research seminar: The sects of the English Reformation

  • Calvinism
  • Lutheranism
  • Arminianism
  • Latitudinarians
  • Puritans

Materials worth seeing:

The article of Dictionary of the History of Ideas on Reformation

Very good materials on an excellent page on English and other reformations

Week 6 Bacon, The Advancement of learning II

Week 7: The theory of idols

Week 8: deadline for the abstracts

Week 9: Boyle, The Christian Virtuoso

Week 10: Science, religion and Royal Society

Week 11: Newton and the new science

Course 2

Philosophy, Science and Religion in the \”Republic of Letters: The origins of modern mind\”

Course proponent: Dana Jalobeanu
Course venue: Faculty of Philosophy, University of Bucharest

Every Thursday, 18-20

Discussion group:
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/evt=42879/*http://groups.yahoo.com/group/modernthought2007

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENTS

Vă rog să vă alegeţi o temă de lucrare şi să discutaţi cu mine bibliografia de pornire. Pe pagina care conţine sylabusul cursului aveti exemple de teme, prezentarea sistemului de evaluare etc.

Termen limită: 1 noiembrie

SYLLABUS

COURSE MATERIALS

ASSIGNMENTS

week 2: Kant, Ce este luminarea?
week 3: Joseph Glanvill, Plus Utra – see the following reading notes (seminar_glanvill)
week 4: Bacon, The Advancement of Learning, Bk I, Bacon, Noua Atlantida
Întrebări:
a. Care sunt, în viziunea lui Bacon, principalele impedimente în calea progresului cunoaşterii? (De ce nu ştim mai mult decât ştim?)
b. Care sunt posibilităţile şi limitările minţii umane?
c. Ce relaţie există între cunoaştere (învăţătură) şi mintea umană?
d. De ce scrie Bacon această carte? (întrebare valabilă pentru ambele cărţi 🙂 )

week 5: Bacon, The Advancement of Learning, Bk II

Întrebări:
a. Care sunt bolile de care suferă cunoaşterea şi cum pot fi ele vindecate?
b. Care sunt elementele unui program practic de reformă a cunoaşterii?
c. Care sunt domeniile deficitare ale cunoaşterii? De ce?
d. Care este imaginea despre universitate care se desprinde din The Advancement of Learning? Care sunt elementele unei critici a universităţilor?
e. Ce este filosofia?

week 6: Bacon, Ce este filosofia?

  • Bacon, The Advancement of learning, Cartea I si partea din cartea a II-a atasata mai jos.
  • Vedeti sumarul atasat la capatul acestei pagini

Week 7: Descartes, Discurs asupra metodei, Bacon, The Advancement of Learning (review)

a. Ce este filosofia?
b. Ce este filosofia naturală?
c. Ce relaţie există între domeniile filosofiei?

week 7: Bacon, Noul Organon, cartea I, Descartes, Meditaţii metafizice, 1-3

PRESENTATIONS (ppt)

curs1.ppt

Seminar_glanvill.doc

curs2.ppt

Aici gasiti niste notite de curs la materialul parcurs pana acum:

curs1.doc

curs2.doc

curs3.doc

curs4.doc

curs5.doc

curs6.doc

Readings:

Bacon, The Advancement of Learning, London, 1605

Bacon%20Adv05.pdf

Bacon, Progresul cunoaşterii, Cartea I, traducere şi note de Dana Jalobeanu (draft)

Advancement_cartea%20I.doc

Bacon, Progresul cunoaşterii, Cartea II, fragment (traducere şi note de Dana Jalobeanu, draft)


Advancement%20cartea%20II.doc

Bacon, Advancement, OUTLINE

Advancement_outline.doc

COURSE MATERIALS

PRIMARY SOURCES

The CDC courses have as their main aim to encourage and facilitate the acess to primary sources. All courses will discuss literature that is less discussed or less available or even completely unknown in Romania.

Even when we will discuss the well known philosophical treatises, we will place them in the intellectual context of early modern debates. Moreover, we encourage the students to look at the 17th and 18th century books in paralel with more modern editions. This page was designed to facilitate your access to less common bibliographical sources and a number of useful research tools. It will be regularly updated and the posted materials will be removed and changed, so download what you need as soon as you can.

Not all the materials provided here are for your own specific course. However, we have decided to put all the course materials on one page in order to give you an idea about the whole domain. You can also see what other students are doing. And we can change the page according to specific needs or proposals, so feel free to ask, react and comment on it.
This is an informative list of bibliographical sources and materials, as well as internet sites that might be of some help. It is designed to supplement the bibliography you will receive at course. Students are kindly encouraged to ask for the materials they need. Most of the materials indicated in the bibliographies can be found at the library of FME centre, or at New Europe College library.

IMPORTANT SITES:

Dictionary of the history of ideas
Gallica: bibliotheque nationale de la France
The Electronic Enlightenment
Schoenberg centre for electronic texts and images
The Archimede project
Electronic texts in philosophy (getting better and better every week)
Renascence Editions
Seventeenth century net.net
Catalogue of the scientific community in 16th and 17th centuries
CERES – Cambridge English Renaissance Electronic Service
Early Modern Resources

COURSES ON RELATED SUBJECTS

prof. Robert A. Hatch course on history of science and many interesting materials here
prof. Michael Mahoney course on the origins of modern science (Princeton)
A course on history and philosophy of science at Kyoto University, centered upon Leibniz-Clarke correspondence here

IMPORTANT LINKS:

History of philosophy
Francis Bacon: an interesting page with informations, primary texts and secondary literature (not always 100% creditable)
http://www.luminarium.org/
Some of Bacon\’s major texts here.
See the bibliography on Bacon on the page Individual Courses.

Descartes: texts in english and the Meditations in original and translation.

Leibniz: an interesting page with some primary texts here, Leibniziana (including CFP, who is who and interesting secondary references)

Isaac Newton:
Newton Project – a large and very successful project of digitizing Newton\’s manuscripts from Cambridge University Library. Its focus is upon theological manuscripts, but contains a large section of scientific manuscripts, books about Newton\’s philosophy written by his contemporaries. The volume of the digitized materials is growing every week.
Newton\’s Alchemy – a very interesting site with primary and secondary materials, including course materials and chemical experiences

Robert Boyle
Robert Boyle – a very good page containing primary and secondary materials, bibliography, CFP and what\’s new in Boyle\’s studies

History of Science

History of Science Society
History of Science – Internet resources
Internet History of Science Sourcebook

Cosmology, the new and the old world picture:
An interesting site with plenty of images here

Theology and history of religion

English Literature and Religion

A good starting point, comprehensive informations, some primary sources as well.

Fire and Ice: Puritan and Reformed Writings

An extremely good resources of primary texts on all aspects of Protestantism and the English.

King James\’ Bible

You might need to have a look in order to understand better quotations or debate within 17th century philosophy.

History of Political Thought

Most of the primary sources you need at the Online library of liberty
An interesting bibliography, primary and secondary sources of utopian thought here

A very large library of utopian thought on Gallica, Dosier Utopie.


COURSE READINGS:

See the bibliography indicated for each of the four courses. This section will list some of the materials that can be found online or the more rare materials students can only find in our electronic library. As a general rule, if you need some book or another, don\’t hesitate to ask!

Some course materials to download (check this section because it will change from one week to another)

VOLTAIRE, Lettres philosophiques, XII, XIV, XV, XVI

DIDEROT, De l\’interpretation de la nature, 1754 (Oeuvres, T.2)

Condorcet,
Exquisse d’un tableau historique des progres de l’esprit humain, 1795

See here, or here, or on Gallica.


Joseph GLANVILL, Plus Ultra, London, 1661

Glanvil_plus_ultra.pdf


Francis BACON, The Advancement of Learning, traducerea cărţii I (draft, traducere şi note de Dana Jalobeanu)

Advancement_cartea%20I.doc

Methods and Evaluation

METHODS

  • Teaching methods:

The course presents the subject in a thematic and original manner, focusing upon some of the most important philosophical debates of the seventeenth century and attempting to reconstruct the central questions behind such debates.

We have labelled our meetings “lecture-workshops” as an indication of their double nature: we do value the importance of the clear, substantial exposition of the lecture format, just as we appreciate the gains of interactive and student-led or student-tutor forms of class activity. Therefore, each meeting will generally consist of an expository part (usually ppt-based) punctuated by short feedback requests (approx. 1h) sandwiched in between an opening and an ending part devoted to interaction and debate (together approx. 1h). In the early stages of the course, we prefer short introductory brainstorming sessions, and questions and discussions at the end. As the course advances (starting with the 3rd or 4th meeting), we move into the workshop format proper, which will mainly consist in the organization of debates, since we consider this form of interaction crucial for the assimilation of the subject-matter of this course:

In this interactive or practical part of the course, the students will be required to imagine the way in which typical 17th-century debates took place, take stand on them and argue for or against a famous point of view in order to understand why it was so important to talk about issues like the powers of the mind, the limits of reason, the laws of nature or the relation between God and His creation in seventeenth-century thought. In such a way, the students will also understand that the key concepts and themes of debate in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were not restricted to disciplinary fields (our disciplinary fields) or specific currents of thought.

  • Assessment methods:

Since student participation in class debate is crucial for the success of this course, involvement in such critical discussion will figure prominently in the assessment percentage. This component will take the form of several types of task: preparation of conceptual stance established with tutor and defended in open debate; two short written essays on questions that emerge from class discussion; one group research project on topic of debate introduced in class. However, each of the five courses will propose specific methods of assessment, according to the background of the students, their level and the agreement between the professor(s) and the students.

AIMS AND TEACHING OBJECTIVES

  • The aim of this course is to enable students to develop competence in a particular thematic area, a specific historiographical approach, and a general way of thinking. That is to say, students taking this course are expected to become gradually conversant with the general problematic as well as the particular concepts relating to the origins of modern mind as bearing on the intersections of philosophy, religion, science and moral thought. They will also be expected to become competent in the highly contextual and historically sensitive way of doing intellectual history that is proposed by this course. And they will be expected to develop argumentative and critical skills as a result of the practice of debate proposed as a way of understanding the polemical context in which the issues discussed took shape.


  • In terms of more specific objectives, we expect students to be able to:
    • define and evaluate the main historiographical theses presented in the course (e.g. Koyre, Kuhn), as well as the major models for understanding the 17th-century frame of mind presented (e.g. Weber, Merton, Harrison, Shapin, Shapiro, Popkin, Oakley, Funkenstein);
    • give examples of issues in 17th-century thought which resist disciplinary separation and to justify the use of contextual intellectual history for dealing with such issues, by comparison with other available approaches;
    • synthesize most of the ways/senses in which the 17th century can be seen as a period of ‘crisis’ and ‘reform’ and as the ‘origin of modernity’, as well as be aware of other senses of such terms in other historical periods;
    • identify the various aspects and discuss the implications, of the relationship between science, philosophy and religion as it was formed in the 17th century, and judge the possibility of recuperating for today’s reflection some common ground between them;
    • recognise and develop the details of the relationship between moral and natural philosophy in the 17th century and be able to place it in the relevant historical and philosophical traditions;
    • define and place in relevant polemical context the major concepts discussed: e.g. belief, testimony, experiment, laws of nature, freedom, toleration, and consider the career of such concepts in subsequent periods up to today (their persistence/disappearance/migration from one domain of discourse to another);
    • identify major features of the persona of the philosopher and of the intellectual community as they were formed in the 17th century, and compare it with other such images, in the past or today;
    • develop communicative and critical thinking skills: a capacity to understand the various sides of one question, as well as to perceive what is at stake in a debate, and an ability to argue and persuade, both in oral and in written form, are objectives crucial for the subject matter, the teaching strategies and the general format of this course.

The Course

Course CDC 2007

Shaping the Republic of Letters:

Philosophy, Science and Religion

in early Modern Europe



General description of the project

This project envisages the introduction of a new course on the Foundations of Early Modern Thought into the curricula of several faculties and universities around Romania. The course will offer a new perspective upon traditional and completely new material will be research-oriented and context-related, will use new methods of teaching, problematizing and dialogue with the students. Most of the courses will be taught by two proponents, working as a team. The basic material and themes of the courses were established in common with the team of professors, but the individual syllabi will differ according to the level of the students involved.

Director of the project: Dana Jalobeanu

Members of the project: Sorana Corneanu, Catalin Avramescu, Sorin Costreie, Gheorghe Stratan

Universities involved: University of Bucharest, Western University “Vasile Goldis”, Arad, Babes Bolyai University, Cluj


The course

The course takes a highly interdisciplinary approach to the origins of modernity, conceived as a philosophical phenomenon with many implications in all areas of reflection, and hence essentially intertwined with the spheres of scientific, theological, and political thought, as well as with the formation and legitimation of lettered communities in what has come to be known as the early modern Republic of Letters. We take this Republic of Letters as one of the templates of modern Europe and through this course we endeavour to investigate, and invite academic reflection on, some of the fundamental concepts that have shaped European modernity, such as the notion of cultural crisis, the idea of reform, the strategies of epistemic scepticism and tolerance, the protocols of testimony and belief, the formation of scientific or intellectual communities, the ideal of religious and political toleration, the public image of the philosopher/intellectual.

The course we offer will differ substantially from the existing ones in conception, methods of teaching and general approach. What we want is to address primary texts, less known or completely unknown in Romania, in a problem-based fashion, pointing towards the formation of the intellectual community and its values, like freedom, tolerance, critical thinking, and constant communication. The course will focus primarily on some of the famous debates of the seventeenth century, looking at the way important ideas were shaped during such debates and emerged from correspondence, critique and various “battles of the books”. Its main purpose is to shift the attention from the history of philosophy understood as a list of authors and systems, to the history of philosophy understood as a battleground between ideas and values, an open confrontation of intellects having as an outcome what has been recently labelled “the origin of modern mind”. We hope to contribute in this way to the formation of a general attitude towards studying academic subjects in a more open, problem-based and argumentative way, using the history of ideas as an exercise of intellectual freedom.

COURSE JUSTIFICATION

In the last decade, the public space in Romania has hosted numerous debates concerning various issues loosely connected with ‘modernity’ and ‘post-modernity’ as well as questions as to whether there was such a thing as an Eastern European (or even Romanian) modernity. Yet, despite the wide interest inside or outside the academia, the question of the origins of modernity has not entered the regular academic curriculum. An equally debated topic, and one equally absent from the curricula, has been the relationship between science and religion, or, more broadly, science and the humanities: their overlapping areas, the possibility of dialogue between them, the idea of a common culture.

As students of early modern thought know, the two topics mentioned above are related in a substantial way, and they form one of the subject matters of a field of research long established in the West: intellectual history (a dynamic interdisciplinary field that combines the history and sociology of science, the history of philosophy, the cultural history of the circulation of ideas, and the social and material history of objects, practices and institutions). It is rather striking that in Romania one cannot hold a degree in, say, history of science, or that the history of philosophy is often taught without any background information or relation to a wider field like the history of ideas.

During the last 10 years, several attempts to institutionalize such a field have been done, some of them by the Research Centre Foundations of Early Modern Thought developed at the University of Bucharest. As a result, some new elective courses have been introduced (see my list of courses above). However, the field is still at the beginning and many things are necessary in order to develop it in a coherent way. Our proposal is to introduce a coherent package of courses developed around a common core of themes and methods and to offer such courses to several departments around the country, in the hope of making the first necessary steps towards the institutionalization of the discipline.

Our team is itself an interdisciplinary group, as it comprises a philosopher (Dr. Dana Jalobeanu), a historian of science (Prof. Gheorghe Stratan), a specialist in political philosophy (Dr. Catalin Avramescu) and a specialist in cultural studies and the history of ideas (doctoral candidate Sorana Corneanu), who are all specialised in early modern thought and who have a 5-year history of working together for projects, seminars and summer schools. We will offer this course in a number of different departments, for students coming from various backgrounds: history of philosophy and science, political philosophy, cultural studies. The course outline we present below is a master course we intend to adapt to the interests of each department by highlighting the relevant themes and discussions. Building on this common core, we will develop several variants of addressing the same questions. Common to all will be the corpus of texts to be studied and a common conception of the way in which the most important questions of modernity were shaped through debates and discussions between philosophers engaged in a common quest.

Beside the current lack of institutional support for such a discipline, the existing academic courses related to the field face their own shortcomings. One of the main problems in the Romanian curriculum is the way in which most of the courses on modern philosophy remain at the level of discussing secondary literature. There are rarely discussions of primary texts and even if these are sometimes discussed, they are taken out of the context and reconstructed in the crudest manner; in such a way that it is impossible for the students to understand what was really at stake in the construction of modernity, the modern mind or the modern frame of the world. This course addresses a widely discussed subject from a fresh perspective: focusing on debates and primary texts within contexts, it tries to problematize concepts, themes and some of the major questions that gave rise to modern thought. In addition, the course brings to the attention of students authors who are now rarely or never studied in Romania, some of whom were also never translated, despite their influence in the formation of modern mind.

Therefore, we think that the course is needed for the following main reasons:

  1. It introduces an interdisciplinary area of research which is currently lacking from Romanian academic curricula and can thus attune the latter with some of the latest Western developments in the area of intellectual history.
  2. In virtue of its network format, it can foster further collaboration among the departments where it will be taught and thus help enhance the future institutionalisation of this area of research across departments and disciplines in the Romanian academe.
  3. It offers an important conceptual gateway towards a historical understanding of topical issues in today’s debates: discussions of the shape and values of modern mind, or of the relationship between science, religion and philosophy, can be enriched by an awareness of their historical origins.
  4. By its approach and method, which proposes interdisciplinary investigation as well as critical thinking and debate, it will enable students to take a fresh and creative perspective on issues which, they will come to realise, are vital to their own insertion in the history of their world.
  5. Thanks to the same interdisciplinary and innovative character, it can form habits of thinking and lines of research that may impact on the way the traditional disciplines it relates to (philosophy, science, political science, theology, literary and cultural studies) are conceived and taught in the Romanian academe.
  6. Since it is a course that aims to compete in both content and method with similar lines of research and teaching at European universities at the moment, and since it will be taught in English, it may be taken to other centres outside Romania, in view of international networking.

Course CDC 2007

Shaping the Republic of Letters:

Philosophy, Science and Religion in early Modern Europe


Grant
financed by the Curriculum development programme of the Central European University Budapest.

The CDC grant envisages the introduction of a new course on the Foundations of Early Modern Thought into the curricula of several faculties and universities around Romania. The course will offer a new perspective upon traditional and completely new material, will be research-oriented and context-related, will use new methods of teaching and dialogue with the students. The basic material and themes of the courses were established by the team members but the individual syllabi will differ according to the level of the students involved.

Director of the grant: Dana Jalobeanu

Course 1: Shaping the Republic of Letters: Origins of modern ethos
MA in British Cultural Studies, Department of English, University of Bucharest
Proponents: Dana Jalobeanu, Sorana Corneanu
Language: English

Course 2: Philosophy, science and religion in the Republic of Letters: The origins of the modern mind
Faculty of Philosophy, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Bucharest
Proponents: Dana Jalobeanu
Language: Romanian

Course 3: Shaping the Republic of Letters: images, representations and metaphors of knowledge in Early Modern Europe
MA in the study of theory and practice of image, CESI, University of Bucharest
Proponent: Dana Jalobeanu
Language: Romanian

Course 4: Shaping the Republic of letters: ideas and ideals of Early Modern Europe
MA in European Ethnology, Western University “Vasile Goldis”, Arad
Proponent: Dana Jalobeanu
Language: Romanian

Course 5: Political Philosophy: Foundations of European Modernity
Faculty of Political Sciences, University of Bucharest
Proponent: Catalin Avramescu
Language: English

SECOND SEMESTER

Course 6: History of Scientific Ideas: Foundations of Early Modern Science

Doctoral School, Faculty of European Studies, Doctoral School of European Studies, Babes Bolyai University, Cluj Proponent: prof. Gheorghe Stratan Language: Romanian

Course 7: Getting the Mind Right: A History of the Passions in Early Modern England


Elective course offered to 3rd- and 4th-year students, English Major and Minor,
School of Foreign Languages and Literatures
University of Bucharest

Language: English

Proponent: Sorana Corneanu

Course 8: Foundations of Early Modernity: Shaping the modern mind

Elective course offered to 3rd year BA in International Relations and European Studies, Faculty of Humanist and Political Sciences, Western University \”Vasile Goldis\”, Arad

Language: Romanian

Proponent: Dana Jalobeanu

CURS OPTIONAL FILOSOFIE

Curs CDC 2007

UNIVERSITATEA BUCURESTI

Filosofie, ştiinţă şi religie în “Republica literelor”:
originile minţii moderne
Joi, 18-20

Curs optional, parte a grantului internaţional
Shaping the Republic of Letters: Science, philosophy and theology in Early Modern Europe

Cursul face parte dintr-un proiect dezvoltat de Dana Jalobeanu la centrul de cercetare Fundamentele modernităţii europene, Universitatea Bucureşti, proiect care a câştigat grantul Curriculum Development Center al Central European University. In cadrul acestui grant, se implementează un număr de şase cursuri pilot, în şase facultăţi din trei centre universitare diferite (Universitatea Bucureşti, Universitatea Babeş Bolyai, Universitatea de Vest « Vasile Goldiş » din Arad). Fiecare din aceste cursuri va explora originile modernităţii, dintr-o perspectivă contextuală şi interdisciplinară, cu o importantă componentă de cercetare centrată pe studiul textelor originale în contextul intelectual în care au fost scrise. Cursurile oferă elementele de bază cu ajutorul cărora studentul poate porni într-o explorare a fundamentelor modernităţii europene, recuperând texte, autori sau întrebări constitutive pentru formarea modului nostru de a gândi. Cursul propune, de asemenea, un mod de predare interactiv, axat pe problematizare, oferă un sylabus flexibil, care poate varia în funcţie de interesele studenţilor, şi propune ca evaluare organizarea simulată a unei sesiuni de comunicări unde să fie prezentate rezultatele originale ale cercetării întreprinse de studenţi pe parcursul unui semestru.

Obiective :

Scopul principal al acestui curs este încurajarea citirii textelor originale în contextul în care au fost scrise. Pentru aceasta, vom porni de la texte filosofice majore presupuse a fi parţial cunoscute şi le vom citi şi discuta împreună în contextul intelectual format din tratate, scrisori, texte filosofice contemporane cu ele, astăzi complet sau aproape necunoscute. Vom vedea astfel cum a început să se constituie ceea ce numim astăzi « filosofie modernă » dintr-o continuă şi fertilă interacţiune a minţilor, dintr-o permanentă colaborare intelectuală într-o lume în care graniţele disciplinare erau mult mai fluide decât astăzi.

Tematică şi bibliografie

Cursul este construit pe baza experienţei de cercetare a directorului de proiect şi a specialiştilor implicaţi în proiect. Foloseşte bibliografie mai puţin cunoscută în România, multe scrieri de ultimă oră, articole de cercetare apărute în jurnale de top, respectiv, în măsura posibilului, ediţiile originale ale scrierilor discutate.

Temele şi materialele de curs, inclusiv o parte din bibliografia primară vor fi accesibile on-line pe pagina de internet a cursului, la http://www.modernthought.unibuc.ro/. Tot acolo studenţii pot consulta variantele de programă analitică şi sylabus oferite studenţilor de la alte specializări (masteratul de Studii culturale britanice, Universitatea Bucureşti, masteratul de istoria ştiinţei, Universitatea Babeş Bolyai, Cluj, masteratul de studii europene, Universitatea de Vest Vasile Goldiş) şi pot alege să intre în legătură cu grupuri de studenţi care lucrează la proiecte similare. Studenţii sunt, desigur, invitaţi să participe şi la celelalte cursuri ale acestui proiect care se desfăşoară în Bucureşti.

Bibliografia secundară se găseşte fie la biblioteca New Europe College fie la biblioteca centrului de cercetare Fundamentele Modernităţii Europene. Multe materiale sunt disponibile în format electronic, aşa că nu ezitaţi să le cereţi profesorului după curs !

Teme de curs :

  1. « Noua filosofie », filosofie modernă, modernitate : cum se constituie un canon şi ce putem găsi dincolo de el (2-4 ore, în funcţie de interesul studenţilor)
  • Kant, « Ce este luminarea ? » şi ce era înainte
  • Voltaire şi « la saine philosophie »

    Bibliografie :

Bibliografie primara:

Kant, « Răspuns la întrebarea : « Ce este luminarea », în M. Flonta, ed. Filosofia practică a lui Kant, Editura Polirom, 2000, 118-127
Voltaire, « Lettres philosophiques » (fragmente), versiune engleza aici, versiunea franceza pe gallica.fr, scrisorile XII, XIII, XIV, XV, XVI, XVII

Voltaire, « Le siecle de Louis XIV », cap. 1 şi 29
Bacon, « Noul Organon », cartea I
Bacon, The Advancement of Learning, book I, Valerius Terminus, bk I (volumele III, IV din ediţia Speding a operelor complete, disponibilă la NEC, ambele texte sunt disponibile şi online la
www.luminarium.org, link la Bacon). Pe site-ul cursului se găseşte ediţia cu care vom lucra, Wats, On the dignity and advancement of learning, London, 1670, o traducere a variantei latine a The advancement of learning, urmată de o variantă rezumată şi interesant editată a Noului Organon).

Bibliografie secundară:

Roy Porter, The English Enlightenment, Cap 1
Stephen Gaukroger, Francis Bacon and the transformation of early modern philosophy, CUP, 2002

Bibliografie suplimentară:

Manuale de filosofie şi constituirea unui canon:
Secolul XVII
Rene Rapin, Reflections upon ancient and modern philosophy, London,1678
Gideon Harvey, Archeologia philosophica or New Principles of Philosophy, London, 1663

Secolul XVIII
Oliver Goldsmith, A Survey of Experimental Philosophy considered in its present state of improvement, London, 1776
Robert Gibson, A course of Experimental philosophy; being an introduction to the true philosophy of Sir Isaac Newton, containing mechanics, hydrostatics, pneumatics, opticks and astronomy, Dublin, 1755
J.T. Desaguliers, A Course of Experimental Philosophy, London, 1745 (the second edition corrected)

2. Disoluţia lumii, “criza conştiinţei europene” şi “revoluţia ştiinţifică” : cadrul contextual şi istoriografic al discuţiei despre « originile minţii moderne » (4 ore, 2 ore seminar)

  • Un curs de filosofie la 1600 : Ratio studiorum şi importanţa filosofiei naturale
  • Cum arată lumea la 1700 : cartezieni, newtonieni şi « sectele filosofilor »

    Bibliografie primară

    Ratio studiorum, 1599 (textul pe CD)
    Voltaire, Lettres philosophiques (fragmente)
    Sorbiere, La relation d’un voyage en Engleterre, Paris, 1664 (fragmente)
    Scrisorile care declanşează corespondenţa Leibniz Clarke (Leibniz to Caroline, Conti to Caroline, publicate de A. Robinet, 1996)

    Bibliografie secundară :

    Alexandre Koyre, De la lumea închisă la universul infinit, Ch. 1-3
    Christoph Luthy. “What to do with seventeenth-century philosophy: a taxonomical problem”. Perspectives on Science, 8.2, 2000, 164-195
    Stephen Menn, „The Intellectual setting“ in Cambridge History of Seventeenth Century Philosophy, CUP, 1998, v.1, 33-86
    Lorraine Daston, “The Nature of nature in Early Modern Europe”, Configurations, 6, (1998) 149-172

    Bibliografie suplimentară:

    William Petty, The advice of W.P. to Mr. Samuel Hartlib, London 1648
    Sorbiere, A Voyage to England, containing Many things relating to the State of Learning, Religion and Other Curiosities of that Kingdom, London 1709 (răspunsul lui Thomas Sprat şi o variantă rescrisă a textului 3 cu eliminarea pasajelor controversate)
    John Evelyn, The Diary and Correspondence of John Evelyn, ed. W. Bray, 3 vols, London, 1852
    Birch, The History of Royal Society, London, 1890.
    Peter Dear, Discipline and Experience: The Mathematical Way in the Scientific Revolution, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1995
    Peter Dear, “What is the History of Science the History Of? Early Modern Roots of the Ideology of Modern Science”, ISIS, 2005, 390-406
    Cursul online despre revoluţia ştiinţifică al lui Robert A. Hatch (Columbia)
    Paul Hazard, Criza conştiinţei europene, Humanitas, 2007, Cap. V, « Psihologia neliniştii »
    Roger Ariew, Descartes and the last Scholastics, CUP, 1999

3. Disputele şi « sectele filosofilor » : corespondenţa savantă, « Republica literelor » şi « noua filosofie » (4 ore)

· Voltaire, Lettres Philosophiques
· Corespondenţa Leibniz Clarke : text şi context
· Păstrarea şi transmiterea manuscriselor baconiene : rolul corespondenţei savante în punerea în aplicare a proiectului baconian de reformă a a cunoaşterii


Bibliografie primară :

Voltaire, Lettres philosophiques (vezi varianta electronică pe : gallica.fr) – scrisorile despre Descartes şi Newton
Corespondenţa Leibniz Clarke, Humanitas, 2002

Bibliografie secundară

Dana Jalobeanu, Inventarea modernităţii, Napoca Star, 2006, Cap. Noua filosofie şi noii filosofi
Alexandre Koyre, De la lumea închisă la universul infinit, Cap. 7
Graham Rees, Francis Bacon’s Philosophical Writings, 1611-13, The Oxford Francis Bacon, XIV, Introducere

Bibliografie suplimentară:

Peter Dear, “Totius in verba: Rhetoric and Authority in the Early Royal Society”, ISIS 76 (1985) 145-161
Enzio Vailati, Leibniz şi Clarke, Editura Tehnică, 2004
Dana Jalobeanu, “The missing part of a definition: Clarke, Newton’s sect and another way of saving the miracles in seventeenth century”, ARCHES, 7, 2004 (online la http://www.modernthought.unibuc.ro/ )
Dana Jalobeanu, “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) 386-400P. Miller, Peiresc’s Europe, CUP, 200

4. Ce este « noua filosofie » ? (I) : Descartes şi proiectul Meditaţiilor metafizice (6 ore şi două întâlniri de seminar)


· De la proiectul Discursului la proiectul Meditaţiilor
· Rolul corespondenţei savante în elaborarea unui proiect filosofic
· Descartes versus Gassendi : ce putem învăţa dintr-o dispută
· Este « noua filosofie » un proiect colectiv ?

Bibliografie :

Descartes, Discurs asupra metodei, 1-2, 6, vezi o varianta electronica la http://www.mala.bc.ca/~johnstoi/descartes/Discours.htm
Descartes, Meditaţii metafizice (răspunsuri şi obiecţii), un foarte bun site pentru explorarea meditatiilor gasiti aici
Ariew, Descartes’ Meditations : Background source materials

Bibliografie secundară :

Garber, Descartes’ Metaphysical Physics, Chicago, 1992
Gaukroger, Descartes. An Intellectual Biography, 1995
Garber, Perspectives on Science, 1992 (număr special consacrat disputei între Descartes şi Gassendi)
Dana Jalobeanu, Inventarea modernităţii, Cap. 6

5. Ce este “noua filosofie” (II): Există o criză sceptică în secolul al XVII-lea ? (2-4 ore, în funcţie de interes)

  • Problema limitelor intelectului şi rolul terapeutic al filosofiei
  • Provocarea sceptică şi « teza Popkin »

    Bibliografie :

Descartes, Meditaţii, II
Bacon, Noul Organon, I, vezi varianta de la http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/bacon/bib.php
Newton, General Scholium, concluzia publicată la ediţia a doua a Principiilor matematice ale filosofiei naturale (ediţia românească, Editura Stiinţifică, 1957, traducere V. Marian). Variante şi drafturi successive în Hall, Hall, Unpublished papers of sir Isaac Newton, CUP, 1962. Merita explorate si manuscrisele aditionale de pe pagina Newton Project
Bacon, Noua Atlantidă, traducere şi studiu introductive de Dana Jalobeanu, Nemira, 2007

Bibliografie secundară :
Popkin, The History of Scepticism from Savonarola to Bayle, OUP, 2003
Mathew Jones, The Good life in the Scientific Revolution, Chicago University Press, 2006, partea I
Dana Jalobeanu, Inventarea modernităţii, cap. 7
Dana Jalobeanu, studiu introductiv la Noua Atlantidă

Bibliografie suplimentară (pentru proiecte de cercetare)

Bibliografie primară :
Francis Bacon, Valerius Terminus, în Speding, The Collected Works of Francis Bacon, vol III, online la www.luminarium.org (link la Francis Bacon)
Robert Hooke, A philosophical algebra, în Posthumous Works of Robert Hooke, London, 1705
Robert Hooke, prefaţă la Micrographia
Robert Boyle, A free inquiry into the vulgarly received notion of nature, ed. Hunter, CUP 1998
Secundară:
Condren, Gaukroger, Hunter, eds. The Philosopher in Early Modern Europe, Cambridge, CUP, 2006
Stephen Gaukroger, Francis Bacon and the Transformation of Early Modern Philosophy, CUP, 2001
Daniel Garber, Roger Ariew, The Cambridge History of Seventeenth Century Philosophy, v. 1, CUP, 1998 Margaret Osler, Divine will and mechanical philosophy, CUP, 1994

6. Ce este « noua filosofie » ? (III) : Modelul baconian şi naşterea filosofiei experimentale (4 ore şi două întâlniri de seminar)

· Cine este « noul filosof » ?
· Logică, fizică, teologie şi eliminarea metafizicii
· Proiecte utopice de comunitate savantă : de ce este secolul al XVII-lea « Baconian » ?

Bibliografie :

Bacon, Noua Atlantidă, traducere şi studiu introductiv de Dana Jalobeanu, Nemira, 2007
Thomas Sprat, History of the Royal Society, III
Bacon, The Advancement of Learning, Bk II, http://www.luminarium.org/
Joseph Glanvill, Plus ultra, London, 1668
Corespondenţa Hartlib-Dury (variantă electronică pe CD)

Bibliografie secundară:

William T. Lynch, Solomon’s Child: Method in Early Royal Society London, Stanford University Press, 2001, Introduction, Chap. I
Dan Garber, \”Experiment, Community, and the Constitution of Nature in the 17th Century.\” Perspectives on Science: Historical, Philosophical, Social 3 (1995), 173-205.

Bibliografie suplimentară:

Primară:
Abraham Cowley, A proposal for the advancement of learning, London, 1661
Samuel Harlib, Macaria, London, 1668
Pierre Amboise, La philosophie naturelle de M. Bacon, Paris, 1631

Secundară:
Charles Webster, The Great Instauration: Science, Medicine, and Reform, 1626-1660. chap. 6: \’The Puritan World View and the Rise of Modern Science.\’ London, Duckworth, 1975.
Richard Foster-Jones, Ancients and Moderns: A Study of the Rise of the Scientific Movement in 17th century England, Dover Publications, Dover, 1982
Lorraine Daston, “Baconian Facts, Academic Civility and the Prehistory of Objectivity”, 1991
Dana Jalobeanu, “Bacon’s Brotherhood and its classical sources”, in Francis Bacon and the birth of technology, edited by Gisela Engels and Claus Zittel, Interractions (2008) forthcoming

7. « Noua filosofie » şi noua religie ? Boyle, Newton şi proiectul Christian Virtuoso (2 ore)

  • Filosofie naturală, teologie naturală, hermeneutică
  • “Persona” filosofului


    Bibliografie primară

    Robert Boyle, Christian Virtuoso, London 1691 (vezi şi http://www.modernthought.unibuc.ro/ )
    Robert Boyle, A discourse of things above reason (ambele în variantă electronică pe CD)
    Isaac Newton, De Gravitatione, General Scholium, corespondenţa cu Bentley
    Thomas Sprat, The History of Royal Society, III

    Bibliografie secundară:

    Conal Condren, “The persona of the philosopher and the rhetorics of office in 16th and 17th century England”, in Condren, Gaukroger, Hunter, eds. The Philosopher in Early Modern Europe, Cambridge, CUP, 2006
    Peter Harisson, “The natural philosopher and the virtues”, in Condren, Gaukroger, Hunter, eds. The Philosopher in Early Modern Europe, Cambridge, CUP, 2006
    Stephen Gaukroger, “The persona of the natural philosopher in the early to mid seventeenth century, in Condren, Gaukroger, Hunter, eds. The Philosopher in Early Modern Europe, Cambridge, CUP, 2006
    Peter Anstey, The Philosophy of Robert Boyle, CUP, 2001
    Ben-Chaim, Michael. Experimental Philosophy and the Birth of Empirical Science. Boyle, Locke, and Newton. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004
    Dana Jalobeanu, Inventarea modernităţii, cap. 7

Evaluare :

Propunem pentru acest curs o metodă de evaluare « pe parcurs » în care studenţii vor învăţa să pregătească, să redacteze şi să susţină un proiect de cercetare. In prima fază a evaluării, studenţii vor alege o temă din cele oferite şi vor alcătui o bibliografie adnotată (20 % din notă), apoi un proiect de cercetare (20 % din notă). O primă formă a lucrării va fi susţinută în cadrul unui seminar şi discutată cu profesorul şi cu colegii (20 %). Ultima fază a evaluării va fi organizarea unei sesiuni de comunicări în care studenţii vor susţine, pe rând, lucrările de cercetare pregătite, în aceleaşi condiţii ca la orice conferinţă de specialitate (20 de minute timp de prezentare, 20 de minute timp pentru întrebări). In funcţie de interesul studenţilor, această sesiune s-ar putea organiza în comun, cu studenţii de la celelalte specializări care urmează variante ale acestui curs. Cele mai bune dintre lucrările prezentate vor fi postate pe site-ul cursului, iar autorii lor vor fi încurajaţi să le prezinte la seminarul anual internaţional de la Bran organizat de centrul Fundamentele Modernităţii Europene, New Europe College şi Princeton University.

Teme de cercetare :

1. Traducere şi editare de texte (Propuneri)

a. Gassendi, obiecţii la meditaţiile metafizice, răspunsurile lui Descartes şi pasajele corespunzătoare din Disquisitio Metaphysica. Ar fi vorba de o nouă traducere în limba română, cea existentă (C. Noica) fiind insuficient de acurată şi fără aparat critic. Prin punerea împreună a mai multe texte pe această temă, prin clarificarea termenilor şi plasarea disputei în context s-ar putea realiza un adevărat proiect de cercetare.
Limba originală : latina
Dificultate : medie
Interes filosofic : remarcabil

b. Scrisorile lui Descartes către Mersenne din anul 1630 – este vorba de două celebre scrisori în care găsim primele referinţe carteziene la un tratat de metafizică în curs de elaborare. In ele, Descartes expune o doctrină esenţială pentru elaborarea ulterioară a sistemului său, doctrina creaţiei « adevărurilor eterne ». Sunt texte de un considerabil interes filosofic care nu continuă să-i uimească pe cercetători.
Limba originală : franceza
Interes filosofic : mare

c. Francis Bacon, Valerius Terminus – unul dintre cele mai misterioase texte baconiene, rămas în manuscris şi redescoperit abia în secolul al XIX-lea. A circulat mult în epocă, există încă o serie de copii manuscrise. Nu a fost niciodată tradus în limba română.
Limba originală : engleză.
Dificultate : mare (în special de limbă).
Interes filosofic : remarcabil

2. Reconstrucţie conceptuală (temele de mai jos sunt doar orientative)

a. Rolul şi importanţa spaţiului absolut în filosofia naturală newtoniană
b. Cum şi uinde se aplică metoda carteziană în scrierile lui Descartes ?
c. Criticile newtoniene la adresa teoriei carteziene a materiei
d. Criticile aduse de Spinoza Principiilor filosofiei
e. Noţiunea de corp fizic la Descartes, Spinoza şi Leibniz
f. Problema acţiunii : cauzalitate secundă şi forţe fizice la Descartes şi Leibniz
g. Rolul cogito-ului în construirea sistemului cartezian

3. Arheologie conceptuală (exemple de teme posibile)


a. Sensorium Dei înainte de Newton
b. Principii active şi forţe fizice în prima parte a secolului al XVII-lea
c. Originile antice ale folosirii terapeutice a filosofiei şi transmiterea « exerciţiilor spirituale » în filosofia modernă
d. Conceptul de « forţă rezistentă » şi sursele lui
e. Newton, More, Cudworth : posibile influenţe asupra teoriei newtoniene a spaţiului absolute

4. Istorie intelectuală (exemple de teme posibile)

a. Originile renascentiste ale temei « reformei cunoaşterii »
b. « Filosofie naturală » şi « teologie » sau « ştiinţă » şi « religie » : evoluţia unei relaţii în secolele XVII-XVIII
c. Ce este « Baconianismul » secolului al XVII –lea ?
d. Societatea Regală Britanică şi Academie de Sciences : evoluţia unor relaţii intelectuale
e. Modele de corespondenţă intelectuală şi modele de reţele ale cunoaşterii în secolele XVII-XVIII
f. Naşterea primelor jurnale ştiinţifice : privire comparativă
g. Cartea ca obiect în secolul al XVII-lea : cititori, tipografi, difuzare
h. Cercul lui Samuel Hartlib şi « revoluţia ştiinţifică »

Bucharest Princeton Seminar 2008

Bucharest-Princeton Seminar in

Early Modern Philosophy

8th edition

Mălâncrav Manor, in Transylvania

28th of July – 3rd of August 2008

Organized by the Research Centre for the Foundations of Modern Thought, University of Bucharest, with the support of the Romanian Cultural Institute, Princeton University Department of Philosophy and New Europe College, Bucharest.

Participants: Prof. Vlad Alexandrescu (Bucharest), Dr. Zvi Biener (Western Michigan), Dr. Sorana Corneanu (Bucharest), Dr. Sorin Costreie (Bucharest), Dr. Márcio Augusto Damin Custódio (Brasil), Mihnea Dobre (Bucharest), Raphaele Fruet (Cambridge), Prof. Daniel Garber (Princeton), Adrian Haret (Bucharest), Prof. Dana Jalobeanu (Arad and Bucharest), Dr. Hylarie Kochiras (North Carolina), Christophe Marinhero (Luxembourg), Horia Patapievici (Bucharest), Ville Paukkonen (Helsinki), Lucian Petrescu (Bucharest), Ana Sandoiu (Bucharest), Prof. Geert Vanpaemel (Leuven), Dr. Koen Vermeir (Leuven), Rahel Villinger (Princeton).

The Bucharest-Princeton Seminar in Early Modern Philosophy is an international annual meeting of scholars interested in various aspects of early modern thought, held by a joined team from the University of Bucharest and Princeton University. The aim of the seminar is to create an interesting environment for discussing papers and ideas.

The Seminar will take place in a beautiful manor house in deep Transylvania; informal activities are a part of the seminars. The structure of the seminar is aiming at encouraging collaboration work: the morning seminars are proposed by a team of scholars on a given common theme, while the individual conferences present work in progress.

Schedule: link.

MORNING SEMINARS – Theories of matter in the Seventeenth Century. Variations.

There are 5 morning seminars scheduled. Please refer to the texts indicated below.


1. Leibniz Seminar:

Système nouveau de la nature et de la communication des substances, 1695.
English translation of the above.
Specimen dynamicum…, 1695.
English translation of the above Specimen.

2. Spinoza & Hobbes Seminar

Extract from the Ethics, the \”physical treatise\” following E2P13.
English translation of the above.
French translation.
De corpore, an extract containing ch. VIII and XV.
English translation.

3. Bacon Seminar

De principiis atque originibus... (The Fable of Cupid) : Latin text English text

4. Cartesians Seminar

Malebranche, De la recherche de la vérité, Livre III, chap. VIII, 1688 edition
English translation of the same.
Malebranche, Eclaircissement XV: French text English text (larger files)
Cordemoy, Discernement, the Préface and the first two discourses.

5. Newton Seminar

De Gravitatione et æquipondio fluidorum (latin text)
English translation.

« Quelle(s) culture(s) politique(s) pour l’Europe ? »

Colloque international, Luxembuourg, le 29-30 juin 2007

Le 29 et 30 juin 2007, le Laboratoire d’Histoire des idées de l’Université du Luxembourg et le Centre de Recherche Fondements sur la modernité européenne de l’Université de Bucarest organisent, avec le soutien de l’Ambassade de Roumanie au Luxembourg et du Fonds national de la recherche scientifique du Luxembourg le Colloque international « Quelle(s) culture(s) politique(s) pour l’Europe ? » au Amphithéâtre Tavenas,Campus Limpertsberg, 102 avenue Pasteur, Luxembourg-Ville.
Depuis deux décennies, le concept de « culture politique » est au cœur des débats sur le devenir de la citoyenneté démocratique. Ces débats visent à comprendre comment, dans un contexte profondément et durablement marqué par le « fait du pluralisme », il est possible de fonder un accord public autour de normes et de principes d’organisation politique et/ou autour de valeurs partagées par l’ensemble des membres de la communauté politique. Comment, en effet, s’entendre sur une « culture politique » conçue comme la base commune de la délibération et de la participation démocratiques, alors même que les citoyens entretiennent des désaccords axiologiques très profonds et même indépassables ? Une telle question prend une acuité et une ampleur nouvelles lorsqu’elle se trouve appliquée au contexte européen et, plus spécifiquement, à l’Union européenne.

Au colloque participeront des chercheurs de l’Université du Luxembourg, de l’Universite Paris IV – Sorbonne, de l’Université Libre de Bruxelles, de l’Université de Liège, de l’Université de Metz, de l’Université de Nancy 2 et de l’Université de Bucarest.
Les roumains qui présenteront leur travail scientifique au cours du colloque :
Alexandra Ionescu (Vice-doyen de la Faculté des Sciences Politiques, Université de Bucarest) « Roumanie : Culture politique et confection institutionnelle » ;
Raluca Alexandrescu (Faculté des sciences politiques, Université de Bucarest) « Culture politique européenne et modernité roumaine » ;
Dana Jalobeanu (Centre de recherches Fondements de la Modernité européenne, Université de Bucarest) “Protestant Ethic or Stoic Ethic? The roots of European Modernity”;
Lucian Petrescu (Centre de recherches Fondements de la modernité européenne, Université de Bucarest) « L\’éthique du politique: Francisco Suarez et les conditions théologiques de l\’essor de la pensée politique moderne ».

PROGRAMME DU COLLOQUE.