FEM-NEC Seminars in Early Modern Philosophy

Now in their 10th year of existence, the FEM-NEC Seminars gather together an interdisciplinary and international group of scholars interested in various aspects of early modernity. It is a lively forum of debate dedicated to discussion of work in progress. Each year, presentations are generally circumscribed to a (loosely defined) thematic. For the current year, the proposed theme will be:

Natural Philosophy Among the Disciplines:
science, education and medicine of the mind in early modern Europe

    In parallel with the history of the emergence of science in the early modern world, one can imagine another: the story of the rise and fall of natural philosophy; written from the perspective of the loosing parties of the “scientific revolution”. Natural philosophy was not just a name used for what we would nowadays call “science”. It was a specific discipline with a relatively long and troubled history. Its object, status, methods were subject of heated debates involving conceptual, epistemological, metaphysical and theological questions. It underwent a remarkable series of transformations during the 16th and 17th century. In part, those were the result of philosophical and methodological discussions concerning the very status of natural philosophy itself and its position among other disciplines, in the “tree of knowledge”.

In focusing upon such methodological and meta-philosophical questions and tracing their history, we aim to grasp and illuminate the evolution of natural philosophy from what can be seen as a more traditional/practical picture (having mainly ethical and religious goals) to a more theoretical/systematic picture (where the goals were mainly epistemic).


The FEM-NEC Seminars in Early Modern Philosophy take place on Fridays at 4 pm. Tea and coffee is provided by the organisers. Traditionally, speakers are kindly asked to bring cookies or biscuits to supplement the free drinks. The event is open to anyone interested, on condition that participation is announced in advance (email to: dana.jalobeanu@gmail.com). Student participation is warmly encouraged.



16 October
Natural history among the disciplines: Francis Bacon on the tree of knowledge
Dana Jalobeanu (University of Bucharest)


30 October
Francis Bacon and the Art of Examination
Sorana Corneanu (University of Bucharest)


3 November
Workshop
Medicine of the mind and the disciplines of early modern world
Guido Giglioni (Warburg Institute, London)
Dana Jalobeanu (University of Bucharest)
Sorana Corneanu (University of Bucharest)



12 November
Spinoza’s Critiques of Mathematical Science
Eric Schliesser (University of Ghent)



4 December
Probability and certainty in Francis Bacon: the case of law.
Silvia Manzo (Max Plank Institute, Berlin)