- University of Bucharest
Department of Philosophy
Splaiul Independentei 204
Bucuresti
Dana Jalobeanu
University of Bucharest, Philosophy, Faculty Member
- Early Modern Philosophy, Newton, Isaac, Bacon, Francis, Science Policy, History of Science, Philosophy of Science, and 26 morePhilosophy, 17th Century & Early Modern Philosophy, History, Theology, Religious Studies, Early Modern History, Renaissance Studies, Science and Religion, Stoicism, History of Education, Renaissance Humanism, History of Cartography, Reformation Studies, History of scientific instruments, Early Modern Science and Philosophy, Francis Bacon, Justus Lipsius, Matter theory, Education, Social Sciences, Natural History, Early Modern Science, Early Modern Intellectual History, Philosophy and history of science, Early Modern Britain, and History of Mathematicsedit
- Dana Jalobeanu is Associate Professor in Philosophy at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Bucharest, member of ... moreDana Jalobeanu is Associate Professor in Philosophy at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Bucharest, member of the research centre for Logic and Philosophy of Science CELFIS (www.celfis.ro), co- founder and director of programs at the Research Center Foundations of Early Modern Thought (FEM), University of Bucharest (www.modernthought.unibuc.ro). Since 2014 she is Director of the Institute for Research in the Humanities, University of Bucharest.Research area: history and philosophy of science, early modern thoughtResearch interests: early modern philosophy and science (natural philosophy) from Bacon to Newton.Other interests: historical epistemology, history of mathematics, philosophy of physics, new modes of scientific knowledge, science policy.Co-editor of the Journal of Early Modern Studies, Executive editor of Society and Politics, co-director of the Bucharest-Princeton Seminar in Early Modern Philosophy.Selected recent publications:BooksDana Jalobeanu, The Art of Experimental Natural History. Francis Bacon in context, Zeta Books, Bucharest, 2015.Dana Jalobeanu, Peter Anstey eds. Vanishing matter and the laws of nature: Descartes and beyond, Routledge: London, 2011edit
The sixth edition of the Bucharest Colloquium in Early Modern Science aims to bring together an interdisciplinary group of historians and philosophers interested in the interplay between theory and experimental practices in the 16 th –18... more
The sixth edition of the Bucharest Colloquium in Early Modern Science aims to bring together an interdisciplinary group of historians and philosophers interested in the interplay between theory and experimental practices in the 16 th –18 th centuries, with a special focus on the emergence of experimental philosophy. We invite papers on the history of natural history, early modern experimental practices and forms of experimental methodology, as well as papers investigating the philosophical and methodological discussions surrounding the emergence of experimental philosophy. Bucharest Colloquium in Early Modern Science is organized by Dana Jalobeanu and the team of the project From natural history to science: the emergence of experimental philosophy (http://blogs.ub-filosofie.ro/pce/) and will represent the final conference of this five-year project. Abstracts no longer than 500 words should be sent by 15 July to Doina-Cristina Rusu (dc.rusu@yahoo.com).
Institute for Research in the Humanities (IRH-ICUB) offers each year a number of postdoctoral fellowships for young researchers (5 years from their PhD). These fellowships are awarded for a period which can vary from 3 to 12 months to... more
Institute for Research in the Humanities (IRH-ICUB) offers each year a number of postdoctoral fellowships for young researchers (5 years from their PhD). These fellowships are awarded for a period which can vary from 3 to 12 months to young researchers with an excellent track-record. During the time of their stay in Bucharest, fellows will be full-time members of the academic community of IRH-ICUB. There is no deadline, the applications can be submitted throughout the entire academic year. The evaluation procedure can last up to three months.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
ntroduction I. Cartesian Matter 1. The Vanishing Nature of Body in Descartes' Natural Philosophy Mihnea Dobre 2. The New Matter Theory and Its Epistemology: Descartes (and late Scholastics) on Hypotheses and Moral Certainty Roger Ariew... more
ntroduction I. Cartesian Matter 1. The Vanishing Nature of Body in Descartes' Natural Philosophy Mihnea Dobre 2. The New Matter Theory and Its Epistemology: Descartes (and late Scholastics) on Hypotheses and Moral Certainty Roger Ariew II. Matter, Mechanism, and Medicine 3. Post-Cartesian Atomism: The Case of Francois Bernier Vlad Alexandrescu 4. The Matter of Medicine: New Medical Matter Theories in Mid-Seventeenth-Century England Peter Anstey 5. Without God: Gravity as a Relational Quality of Matter in Newton's Treatise Eric Schliesser III. Matter and the Laws of Motion 6. The Cartesians of the Royal Society: The Debate Over the Nature of collisions (1668-1671) Dana Jalobeanu 7. On Composite Systems: Descartes, Newton, and the Law-Constitutive Approach Katherine Brading 8. Huygens, Wren, Wallis, and Newton on Rules of Impact and Reflection Jemma Murray, William Harper, and Curtis Wilson IV. Leibniz and Hume 9. Leibniz, Body and Monads Daniel Garber 10. Leibniz on Void and Matter Sorin Costreie 11. Hume on the Distinction Between Primary and Secondary Qualities Jani Hakkarainen
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Research Interests:
This is a special issue dedicated to the role of early modern experiments in the emergence of science. It features articles by Cesare Pastorino, Benedino Gemelli, Claudio Buccolini etc. It is a special issue of the Journal of Early Modern... more
This is a special issue dedicated to the role of early modern experiments in the emergence of science. It features articles by Cesare Pastorino, Benedino Gemelli, Claudio Buccolini etc. It is a special issue of the Journal of Early Modern Studies (2013)
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This paper aims to explore some possible sources of Francis Bacon's peculiar way of relating idolatry, natural history and the medicine of the mind. In the first section, I argue that Bacon's strategy of internalizing idolatry is not... more
This paper aims to explore some possible sources of Francis Bacon's peculiar way of relating idolatry, natural history and the medicine of the mind. In the first section, I argue that Bacon's strategy of internalizing idolatry is not unlike that of some of the leading Calvinist reformers. If in using natural history as a therapy against the idolatrous mind Bacon departed from Calvin, this departure, I claim, was not unlike the road taken earlier by another important reformer, Pierre Viret (1511–1571). In elaborating a form of spiritual medicine, Pierre Viret gave prominence to the empirical and the “anatomical” study of nature. In the second part of my paper, I focus on a particular kind of Calvinist writings against idolatry: the French “Neo-Stoic” Calvinism of the late sixteenth century. I discuss the ways in which the Neo-Stoic Huguenots (and their English followers) used an empirical, anti-dogmatic and “literal” study of the Book of Nature—under the name of “natural history”—as a weapon in the war against the idols of the mind. In particular, I compare Bacon's form of natural historical “therapy” with the one advocated by Pierre de la Primaudaye (1546–1619).
Research Interests: Philosophy of Science, Experimental philosophy, 17th Century & Early Modern Philosophy, History of Science, Early Modern Europe, and 5 moreFrancis Bacon, Early Modern Science and Philosophy, Philosophy of Scientific Experimentation, History of Philosophy, and History, Philosophy and Sociology of Science (HPS)
This article is an investigation into the rationale and the structure of order of Francis Bacon's natural and experimental histories. My aim is to show that these natural histories are mainly composed of experimental series, ie... more
This article is an investigation into the rationale and the structure of order of Francis Bacon's
natural and experimental histories. My aim is to show that these natural histories are mainly
composed of experimental series, ie methodologically organized recordings of experimental
inquiries. Bacon's experimental series have a double purpose: heuristic and pedagogical.
They direct and encode the “good” experimental practices, while also teaching the neophyte
how to become a Baconian experimenter.
natural and experimental histories. My aim is to show that these natural histories are mainly
composed of experimental series, ie methodologically organized recordings of experimental
inquiries. Bacon's experimental series have a double purpose: heuristic and pedagogical.
They direct and encode the “good” experimental practices, while also teaching the neophyte
how to become a Baconian experimenter.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
This paper investigates some examples of Baconian experimentation, coming from Bacon’s ‘scientific’ works, i.e. his Latin natural histories and the posthumous Sylva Sylvarum. I show that these experiments fulfill a variety of epistemic... more
This paper investigates some examples of Baconian experimentation, coming from Bacon’s ‘scientific’ works, i.e. his Latin natural histories and the posthumous Sylva Sylvarum. I show that these experiments fulfill a variety of epistemic functions. They have a classificatory function, being explicitly used to delimitate and define new fields of investigation. They also play an important role in concept formation. Some of the examples discussed in this paper show how Francis Bacon developed instruments and technologies for the production of new phenomena, using them subsequently to define new concepts. In some other cases, experiments can also play and important role in modeling natural phenomena. In examining the role and functions of Baconian experimentation, this paper uses common topics in philosophy of the scientific experiment. With this, it attempts to bridge the gap between the more historical Baconian studies and the contemporary philosophy of science. My examples are chosen with two purposes. On the one hand I intend to show that Bacon was fully aware of the diversity of epistemic functions experiments can play in the process of discovery. On the other hand, these examples are also chosen with the purpose of illustrating a somewhat more general claim, namely that a thorough investigation of Bacon’s natural and experimental histories can unveil a more complex picture of the relations between theory and experiment than it has been usually assumed.
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Research Interests:
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Francis Bacon’s anti-Copernicanism was, for a long time, one of the embarrassing stories of the history of science. The major promoter of the new science denied the movement of the earth, promoted a semi-Paracelsian and vitalistic... more
Francis Bacon’s anti-Copernicanism was, for a long time, one of the embarrassing stories of the history of science. The major promoter of the new science denied the movement of the earth, promoted a semi-Paracelsian and vitalistic cosmology, and argued against the use of mathematics in cosmology.
Meanwhile, as has repeatedly been shown, Francis Bacon was not ignorant when it came to the novelties and discoveries of the New Astronomy. Quite the contrary: he tried to integrate all the new astronomical discoveries into a properly constructed and properly organised natural history of the heavens. This
paper proposes a clarification of the seemingly paradoxical situation described above. In the first part of the paper I discuss the major criticisms formulated by Bacon with respect to astronomy in general and Copernican astronomy in particular. I show that they are motivated by more general concerns regarding the relation between disciplines and by a challenging and quite novel view regarding the role of mathematics in physics. In the second part of the paper
I discuss Bacon’s proposal for a new natural history of the heavens suitable to ground a ‘proper’ theory of the heavens.
Meanwhile, as has repeatedly been shown, Francis Bacon was not ignorant when it came to the novelties and discoveries of the New Astronomy. Quite the contrary: he tried to integrate all the new astronomical discoveries into a properly constructed and properly organised natural history of the heavens. This
paper proposes a clarification of the seemingly paradoxical situation described above. In the first part of the paper I discuss the major criticisms formulated by Bacon with respect to astronomy in general and Copernican astronomy in particular. I show that they are motivated by more general concerns regarding the relation between disciplines and by a challenging and quite novel view regarding the role of mathematics in physics. In the second part of the paper
I discuss Bacon’s proposal for a new natural history of the heavens suitable to ground a ‘proper’ theory of the heavens.
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In the fi rst years after its formation, the Royal Society was engaged in a complex process of shaping and presenting a public image of natural phi-losophy established upon Baconian foundations. Although inside the Royal Society there... more
In the fi rst years after its formation, the Royal Society was engaged in a complex process of shaping and presenting a public image of natural phi-losophy established upon Baconian foundations. Although inside the Royal Society there were different interpretations concerning the exact meaning of "Baconianism," 1 in the public statements there was a considerable agree-ment upon what the new philosophy of the virtuosi was supposed to be: a gathering of "uncorrupted eyes" and industrious hands (Sprat 1667: 72), 2 a communal enterprise for gathering together natural histories, witnessing and classifying the results of experiments. 3 Such was the experimental and Baconian make-up of the Society that some members insisted on placing a formal ban upon owning hypotheses or, worse, doctrines. 4 In many ways the ban on hypotheses is refl ected in the structure and methodology of the Royal Society: producing science is seen as a bot-tom-up process, starting with a careful ...
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Research Interests:
My paper proposes a new contextual interpretation of Francis Bacon’s New Atlantis as an exemplar of natural history. The context in question is provided by Bacon’s late writings: his Latin natural histories published under the title... more
My paper proposes a new contextual interpretation of Francis Bacon’s New Atlantis as an exemplar of natural history. The context in question is provided by Bacon’s late writings: his Latin
natural histories published under the title Historia naturalis et experimentalis or left in manuscript, together with other fragmentary re-writings of earlier works. I will claim that in the last five years of his life Francis Bacon was actively engaged into a process of re-writing and re-organizing his earlier ideas regarding natural history, natural philosophy and the relation between the two. I attempt to show that in this process, Bacon elaborated a research program for doing natural history and that most of his posthumous works, New Atlantis included, have a place in this research program. My reading provides, I propose, an interesting and fruitful interpretative framework not only for New Atlantis but for a handful of very diverse seventeenth–century writings belonging to authors who claimed to be Baconians and to provide ‘continuations’ and ‘interpretations’ of New
Atlantis.
natural histories published under the title Historia naturalis et experimentalis or left in manuscript, together with other fragmentary re-writings of earlier works. I will claim that in the last five years of his life Francis Bacon was actively engaged into a process of re-writing and re-organizing his earlier ideas regarding natural history, natural philosophy and the relation between the two. I attempt to show that in this process, Bacon elaborated a research program for doing natural history and that most of his posthumous works, New Atlantis included, have a place in this research program. My reading provides, I propose, an interesting and fruitful interpretative framework not only for New Atlantis but for a handful of very diverse seventeenth–century writings belonging to authors who claimed to be Baconians and to provide ‘continuations’ and ‘interpretations’ of New
Atlantis.
We develop a path-integral formulation of classical mechanics using BV- version of the BRST-symmetry. This is achieved by starting with a special quantum version of BV-action and by taking the classical limit as h→0.
The emphasis upon seeing experiments as open ended questions addressed to nature, prior to any particular theory, is one of the most distinctive Baconian features of the Early Royal Society. The natural philosopher – so the story goes –... more
The emphasis upon seeing experiments as open ended questions addressed to nature, prior to any particular theory, is one of the most distinctive Baconian features of the Early Royal Society. The natural philosopher – so the story goes – is supposed to observe and interrogate Nature without dogmatic theorizing or framing hypotheses. In such a way he gathers facts, draws natural histories and only afterwards, and as a separate step in the inquiry, he will use the inductive method to infer axioms, laws or general statements about phenomenal domain. Much attention has been devoted recently to the various ways in which this Baconian and apologetic discourse on experimental philosophy did not really fit the experimental practices of the virtuosi. However, even when not faithful to the Baconian method, the members of the Early Royal Society openly argued in favour of the importance and usefulness of Baconian experiments. One of such uses is rather striking to our modern eye, since it emphasizes the moral value of studying nature and the practical use of experimentation for cultivating the moral self. Statements as such run from the more general and possibly “externalist” to more specific and relating with the newly reconstructed persona of the philosopher and even to precise and concrete statements comparing the power of experimental practices in constructing the true and moral kind of life with that of the ancient spiritual exercises. To my knowledge, little attention has been devoted to the thorough study of such statements and their “Baconian” model. In my paper I will investigate this relation, showing that at the very core of the experimental program lies an interesting connection with a much older discipline traditionally belonging to moral philosophy: the culture of the mind.
In the first part of the paper I will try to clarify the meaning of Bacon’s experimental study of nature within his larger and ambitious program of reforming the powers of human intellect. The second part of my paper is devoted to a reconstruction of Bacon’s theory of idols from the perspective of such a moral/practical use of the experimental study of nature. In the last part of my paper I will draw attention to some historical sources of such a construction, showing that, in framing this therapeutic side of natural philosophy, Bacon drew upon a body of Renaissance literature: the “anatomies of the mind”.
In the first part of the paper I will try to clarify the meaning of Bacon’s experimental study of nature within his larger and ambitious program of reforming the powers of human intellect. The second part of my paper is devoted to a reconstruction of Bacon’s theory of idols from the perspective of such a moral/practical use of the experimental study of nature. In the last part of my paper I will draw attention to some historical sources of such a construction, showing that, in framing this therapeutic side of natural philosophy, Bacon drew upon a body of Renaissance literature: the “anatomies of the mind”.
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Abstract. The purpose of this introductory essay is to situate some of the major questions relating to Bacon’s legacy and various forms of early modern Baconianism(s) in the wider context of Bacon studies, especially in view of recent... more
Abstract. The purpose of this introductory essay is to situate some of the major questions relating to Bacon’s legacy and various forms of early modern Baconianism(s) in the wider context of Bacon studies, especially in view of recent developments in this field. I claim that one can see in the troubled historical reception of Francis Bacon interesting historiographical and philosophical problems, as well as a fascinating case-study of intellectual history. I offer a way of dealing with the complexity of the field by identifying four “idols” of Baconian scholarship. I show in what ways such “idols” can be held responsible for the conflicting reception of Bacon’s works and projects and for some related issues in the investigation of Bacon’s legacy and “followers.” I am also using these “idols” to chart a relatively little explored territory and to point towards new and recently developed directions of research. In the last part of this introductory essay I attempt a survey of themes and research questions relating to Bacon’s legacy and early modern Baconianism(s) as seen from the perspective of recent developments in the field. In this way, I aim to place in a wider context the studies contained in this special issue.
My paper explores the context and sources of Bacon's model of a "scientific" society depicted posthumously in the "New Atlantis" or years earlier in "The Advancement of Learning". I show that one of the main features of the projected... more
My paper explores the context and sources of Bacon's model of a "scientific" society depicted posthumously in the "New Atlantis" or years earlier in "The Advancement of Learning". I show that one of the main features of the projected society regards its role in a larger theory of communicating knowledge. I show how, if we read the projected baconian model society in this appropriate context, its classical intellectual roots and sources become obvious.
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This is a review of Collin Pask' s Magnificent Principia
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Experiment, as a new form of knowledge, was a Baconian creation. It was in Bacon’s project of Great Instauration and in Bacon’s reformed natural history that experiment and experimentation ceased to be illustrations of theories and become... more
Experiment, as a new form of knowledge, was a Baconian creation. It was in Bacon’s project of Great Instauration and in Bacon’s reformed natural history that experiment and experimentation ceased to be illustrations of theories and become relatively autonomous devices for the production of knowledge and for setting the mind straight in its attempts to gain knowledge. This paper explores the way in which Bacon’s Latin natural history transformed experiment and experimentation in such devices. More precisely, I investigate the way in which Bacon’s Latin natural histories were put together from a limited number of significant experiments listed in the Novum Organum under the general title “instances of special power” or “instances of the lamp.” Contrary to the received view, my claim is that Bacon’s natural histories are based on a limited number of ‘core experiments’ and are generated through a specific methodological procedure known under the name of experientia literata. This paper is an attempt to reconstruct the procedure of putting such natural histories together and a more in-depth exploration of their epistemological and therapeutic character.
Book Reviews: Thomas Hobbes, <i>Leviathan</i>, ed. by Noel Malcolm, Clarendon Edition of the Works of Thomas Hobbes, 3 vols., Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2012, 1832 pp. (Adrian Blau); Rhodri Lewis, <i>William Petty on the Order of Nature: An Unpublished Manuscript Treatise</i>, Tempe, Arizona: Arizo...more
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The extent and shape of Bacon’s influence and popularity in seventeenth century was long-time subject of heated debates. The matter gained weight recently, especially after Graham Rees and others have shown that the most read of Bacon’s... more
The extent and shape of Bacon’s influence and popularity in seventeenth century was long-time subject of heated debates. The matter gained weight recently, especially after Graham Rees and others have shown that the most read of Bacon’s works in seventeenth century were his natural histories and especially the posthumous collections of “facts” and “experiments”, Sylva Sylvarum. My paper addresses the same question: Why was Sylva so popular among such a wide variety of natural philosophers of reformers of the seventeenth century thought? By looking into a number of different readings of Bacon’s Sylva and New Atlantis I will try to show that a possible reason for their popularity is connected with the appeal exercised by Bacon’s theory of communicating knowledge. In my paper I show how we can relate Bacon’s late works with his theory of teaching and learning and shows how one can read Sylva and New Atlantis as an “application” of the theory. Then, I will briefly sketch some of the readers’ answers to what I claim it was a vast project of rewriting the Instauratio Magna for a different public. At the core of such a project lies Bacon’s imaginative answer to a very important question: why would be the appropriate way to practice the new philosophy? Why would such a product as the new science be interesting, doable and socially desirable? The persuasive answer to these questions, I would argue, represents Bacon’s lasting legacy for his seventeenth century readers.
This is a 3-years research grant awarded by the Romanian national agency for scientific research (CNCS) to a team of 7 researchers and students coordinated by Dana Jalobeanu at CELFIS (Center for Logic, History and Philosophy of Science,... more
This is a 3-years research grant awarded by the Romanian national agency for scientific research (CNCS) to a team of 7 researchers and students coordinated by Dana Jalobeanu at CELFIS (Center for Logic, History and Philosophy of Science, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Bucharest) for a project aiming to explore the ways in which observation and experiment featured in various forms of natural history of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, in view of reassessing the role and function played by natural historical explorations (ranging from cosmography to medical natural histories and from diverse collections of ‘individuals’ to topical investigations of natural phenomena) in the development of experimental philosophy and ultimately of the early modern science.
The project aims, on the one hand, to disentangle the discussion on the nature and function of early modern experimentation from its age-long association with questions of testimony, credibility and evidence. Without questioning the role of experimentation in the assessment of scientific theories, we intend to show on particular cases that experiments have played an equally essential role in the context of (scientific) discovery: as problem-solving devices, tools for triggering creative analogies or devices for generating or ordering works of natural history.
On the other hand, our purpose is to reconstruct a series of particular case studies and discuss them comparatively in order to show how rich and how relatively unexplored is the field of what has been labeled as ‘natural history.’ We also aim to extend the field and the label ‘natural history’ into relatively unexplored writings that defy disciplinary boundaries. Works classified as cosmographies, geographies, travel literature, medical literature, spiritual medicine etc. will be the subject of our investigation, in so far that they can be shown to contain interesting and sophisticated observations and ingenious experiments. Last but not least we aim to trace the ways in which some of these observations and experiments ‘migrated’ from works of natural history into treatises of natural (and experimental) philosophy or ‘early modern science.’
The project aims, on the one hand, to disentangle the discussion on the nature and function of early modern experimentation from its age-long association with questions of testimony, credibility and evidence. Without questioning the role of experimentation in the assessment of scientific theories, we intend to show on particular cases that experiments have played an equally essential role in the context of (scientific) discovery: as problem-solving devices, tools for triggering creative analogies or devices for generating or ordering works of natural history.
On the other hand, our purpose is to reconstruct a series of particular case studies and discuss them comparatively in order to show how rich and how relatively unexplored is the field of what has been labeled as ‘natural history.’ We also aim to extend the field and the label ‘natural history’ into relatively unexplored writings that defy disciplinary boundaries. Works classified as cosmographies, geographies, travel literature, medical literature, spiritual medicine etc. will be the subject of our investigation, in so far that they can be shown to contain interesting and sophisticated observations and ingenious experiments. Last but not least we aim to trace the ways in which some of these observations and experiments ‘migrated’ from works of natural history into treatises of natural (and experimental) philosophy or ‘early modern science.’
Book Reviews: Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan , ed. by Noel Malcolm, Clarendon Edition of the Works of Thomas Hobbes, 3 vols., Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2012, 1832 pp. (Adrian Blau); Rhodri Lewis, William Petty on the Order of Nature: An Unpublished Manuscript Treatise , Tempe, Arizona: Arizona Center fo...more
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The Institute for Research in the Humanities (IRH-ICUB) is announcing a new type of fellowship, the ICUB Fellowships for Young Researchers (5 years from the PhD). We receive application in all fields of the Humanities. There is no... more
The Institute for Research in the Humanities (IRH-ICUB) is announcing a new type of fellowship, the ICUB Fellowships for Young Researchers (5 years from the PhD). We receive application in all fields of the Humanities. There is no application deadline, applications can be send at any time: the selection procedure will take approx. 3 months. IRH-ICUB is ready to receive its first fellows for 2016 by the end of May. For details see: https://irhunibuc.wordpress.com/icub-fellowship-for-young-researchers/
