Mihnea Dobre
mihneadobre[at]yahoo.com
Education
Since Nov. 2003 – Ph.D. student in Philosophy, Cotutelle between Radboud University Nijmegen (The Netherlands) and Bucharest University (Romania). Dissertation title: Experiment and Laws of Nature in Seventeenth Century Natural Philosophy: The Possibility of Founding of Natural Philosophy on Rationalism.
2003 – M.A. in Philosophy at the Faculty of Philosophy, Bucharest University.
2002 – B.A. in Philosophy at the Faculty of Philosophy, Bucharest University.
Employment
2007- Research Assistant in “The Research Center of Logic and the Philosophy and the History of Science” (University of Bucharest).
Scholarships and research grants
2008-2009: NEC-link grant for teaching the course on “Beyond Kuhnian paradigms: philosophy of science within historical context” (Faculty of Philosophy, University of Bucharest). Director of grant: Dana Jalobeanu. Course offered in co-teaching system together with Dana Jalobeanu and Prof. Ilie Parvu. Grant offered by New Europe College.
2008: Research grant (PICNIC) for Ph.D. candidates at Radboud University Nijmegen (The Netherlands).
2007-2008: Young Doctoral Students Grant (TD), Offered by The National Research Council (Romania). Contract no. 402/ 10.2007.
2005-2006: Huygens scholarship for research at the Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands – a 10 month scholarship offered by Nuffic, starting 1st October 2005.
Affiliations
Since 2007 – Member of the Research Center of Logic and the Philosophy and the History of Science, University of Bucharest.
Since 2006 – Visiting member of the Center for the History of Philosophy and Science, Radboud University Nijmegen (The Netherlands)
Since 2002 – Member of the Research Center Foundations of Modern Thought, University of Bucharest.
Areas of competence
Descartes’s philosophy, Cartesianism
History of science and history of philosophy, especially in the early modern period.
Participation in conferences, seminars, papers presented at professional meetings
26-27.03.2009: Participation in the Bucharest Colloquium in Early Modern Philosophy, Beyond Kuhnian paradigms: was there a scientific revolution in 17th century, after all? Presentation of a paper with the title Cartesian Revolution: Descartes and early Cartesians on the foundations of physics.
12.12.2008: Presentation of a paper on The Cartesian Philosophy of Géraud de Cordemoy, in the seminars of the Research Center for the Foundations of Modern Thought (New Europe College, Bucharest)
10.-12.09.2008: Participation in the 3rd International Conference of the European Society for the History of Science (Vienna), Styles of Thinking in Science and Technology. Presentation of a paper with the title: The Foundations of Physics: Descartes’s style of thinking and its Cartesian followers.
27.07.-03.08.2008: Participation in the Bucharest-Princeton Seminar on Early Modern Philosophy (Malancrav, Romania). Contribution of a paper on A Tree without Roots? Descartes’s tree of knowledge and the early Cartesianism.
13.07.-20.07.2008: Participation in the European Science Foundation’s Summer School, The Soul: from Aristotelian ‘scientia de anima’ to early modern psychology. Presentation of a lecture with the title: Figuring the Man Mechanism: Descartes and the Early Cartesians on the Structure of the Mind-Body Union.
30.06.-02.07.2008: Participation in the Bucharest colloquium in Early Modern Philosophy, Vanishing bodies and the birth of modern physics: experimental philosophy, speculative philosophy and the missing matter theory of the seventeenth century. Presentation of a lecture on The invisible nature of body in Descartes’s natural philosophy.
12.-13.06.2008: Participation in the workshop “Institutions and Networks”, Leuven (Belgium), part of the larger research program Circulating Knowledge in Early Modern Science. I have presented a paper under the title Early Cartesianism in the Scientific Journals of the Seventeenth Century.
11.-12.04.2008: Participation in the Epicurean and Anti-Epicurean themes in Early Modern Philosophy, Leiden (The Netherlands). I have presented a paper under the title Shaping the Body: the Epicurean Temptation of the Early Cartesianism.
11.01.2008: Presentation of a paper at The New Europe College, Bucharest: “Relatia dintre metafizica si fizica in lucrarile Cartezienilor” (“The Relation between Metaphysics and Physics in the Works of Cartesians”). This is a part of the research project The Seminars of The Foundations of Early Modern Thought.
29.07.-03.08.2007: Participation in the Seminar on Early Modern Philosophy “Experiments, Reason, and Revelation: the moral value of studying nature in the seventeenth century” (Bran) organised by the Center of Research “Foundations of Modern Thought”, Bucharest University. Presentation of a lecture on The Quest for Certainty in Cartesian Natural Philosophy.
22.-25.04.2007: Participation in the workshop “Thought Experiments” (Athens) organised by the European Science Foundation program “From Natural Philosophy to Science”.
08.-11.11.2006: Participation in the workshop “The Machine as Model and Metaphor” (Berlin) organised by the European Science Foundation program “From Natural Philosophy to Science”.
30.07.-04.08.2006: Participation in the Seminar on Early Modern Philosophy „Disseminating Knowledge in the Seventeenth Century: Centres and Peripheries in the Republic of Letters” (Bran) organised by Center of Research „Foundations of Modern Thought”, Bucharest University. Presentation of a lecture on Scientific Journals of the Seventeenth Century.
24 February 2006: Presentation of a paper at Radboud University Nijmegen: “Descartes’s Matter Theory”.
25.-27.11.2004: Participation in the workshop “Mechanics and Cosmology” (Florence) organised by the European Science Foundation program “From Natural Philosophy to Science”.
06.–12.09.2004: Participation in the Princeton/Arad Seminar: “Theories of Matter and Mind in the Seventeenth Century” (Arad) organised by Center of Research “Foundations of Modern Thought”, Bucharest University; West University “Vasile Goldiş” Arad, and Association Roumaine des Chercheurs Francophones en Sciences Humaines. Presentation of a lecture on A Critique of the Cartesian Theory of Matter: Gérauld de Cordemoy.
10.06.–15.06.2004: Participation in the Summer School „The Impact of the Humanities on the Developement of European Science” (Venice) organised by the Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti and the Galileo Chair of History of Science of the University of Padua.
29.01.–02.02.2004: Participation in the workshop “Mechanics and Natural Philosophy: Accommodation and Conflict” (Tenerife) organised by the European Science Foundation program “From Natural Philosophy to Science”.
September 2003: Participation in the Summer School „Souls, Clocks, Atoms and Forces: Competing Models of Individuals in Early Modern Thought” (Macea) organised by Center of Research “Foundations of Modern Thought”, Bucharest University; West University “Vasile Goldiş” Arad, and Association Roumaine des Chercheurs Francophones en Sciences Humaines. Contribution of a paper on A Soul Making Experiments: The Individualistic Approach to Experiment in Cartesian Natural Philosophy.
September 2002: Participation in the Summer School „Teaching History of Ideas as a Practice of Freedom” (Macea) organised by Center of Research “Foundations of Modern Thought”, Bucharest University; West University “Vasile Goldiş” Arad, Association Roumaine des Chercheurs Francophones en Sciences Humaines, and New Europe College Bucharest. Presented of a lecture entitled Discourse on Descartes’ Method.
September 2001: Participation in the Summer School „Spaces of Freedom in Modern Thought. Individuals, Reformation Projects, Multiple Societies” (Tescani) organised by Center of Research “Foundations of Modern Thought”, Bucharest University, Association Roumaine des Chercheurs Francophones en Sciences Humaines, and New Europe College Bucharest. Leader of a debate on Eternal Truths and the Problem of Possible Worlds in Descartes' Philosophy (together with Ciprian Tudor of the Politechnical Institute, Bucharest).
2000-2002: Participation in the workshop “Philosophy of Physics” at the Faculty of Philosophy, Bucharest University.
Articles
- “The Scientific Journals of the Seventeenth-Century: Cartesianism in Journal des Sçavans and Philosophical Transactions, 1665-1670” in Alexandrescu, Vlad (ed.), Branching off: The Early Moderns in Quest of the Unity of Knowledge, Zeta Books, forthcomming, 2009. (http://www.zetabooks.com/forthcoming-publications/vlad-alexandrescu-branching-off-the-early-moderns-in-quest-of-the-unity-of-know.html)
- Review of Fred Ablondi, Gerauld de Cordemoy: Atomist, Occasionalist, Cartesian (Milwaukee, 2005), in Early Science and Medicine 11 (2006), 365-67.
(http://brill.publisher.ingentaconnect.com/content/brill/esm/2006/00000011/00000003/art00005)
- „Rolul experimentului în filosofia carteziană: o abordare individuală a ştiinţei”, Analele Universităţii "Dunarea de Jos" din Galati, fascicula XVIII (5), Filosofie, anul III, 2005, pp. 36-43. („The Role of Experiment in the Cartesian Natural Philosophy: An Individual Approach to Science”.)
(http://www.filosofie.ugal.ro/ANALE%205/cuprinsanale5.htm)
- "Revoluţie ştiinţifică în secolul al XVII-lea. O analiză a conceptului de revoluţie ştiinţifică în contextul schimbărilor din secolul al XVII-lea", Analele Universităţii "Dunarea de Jos" din Galati, fascicula XVIII (3), Filosofie, anul II 2004, pp. 139 – 161. (“The Scientific Revolution in the Seventeenth Century. An analysis of the concept of scientific revolution in the context of the seventeenth century natural philosophy.”)
(http://www.filosofie.ugal.ro/ANALE%203/Anale%203%20cuprins.htm)
- „Discourse on Descartes’ Method”, in Alexandrescu, Vlad and Jalobeanu, Dana (eds.), Esprits modernes: études sur les modèles de pensée alternatifs, Bucharest: Editura Universităţii Bucureşti; Arad: „Vasile Goldiş” University Press, 2003.
(http://modernthought.unibuc.ro/docs/Esprits_Modernes.pdf)
Translations
- „Explicaţia succesului ştiinţei” („Explaining the success of science”) by James Robert Brown, in Flonta, Mircea & Nagât, Gabriel & Stefanov, Gheorghe (ed.), Introducere în teoria cunoasterii stiintifice : prezentare tematica, texte, literatura, Bucuresti: Editura Universitatii din Bucuresti, 2004.
Research projects
- 2009-2011, Science, Politics, and Utopia in the Republic of Letters: Models of Producing and Disseminating Knowledge in Early Modern Europe. Director of grant: Vlad Alexandrescu.
- 2008-2009, The Seminars of The Foundations of Early Modern Thought
Organised by: Research Centre Foundations of Modern Thought, University of Bucharest, New Europe College.
- 2007-2012, The Bacon Edition: Romanian translation and edition of Francis Bacon’s philosophical works, Humanitas Publishing House.
- 2007-2008, The Seminars of The Foundations of Early Modern Thought
Organised by: Research Centre Foundations of Modern Thought, University of Bucharest, New Europe College.
- 2004-2007, Mechanics, machines, and natural philosophy in the Program “From Natural Philosophy to Science”
Organised by: The European Science Foundation.
- 2006-2007, The Seventeenth Century Passion Treatises
Organised by: Research Centre Foundations of Modern Thought, University of Bucharest, New Europe College.
- 2004-2005, Foundations of Early Modern Thought – FEM Talks
Organized by: Research Centre Foundations of Modern Thought, New Europe College, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Bucharest.
- 2003-2005, Theories of Matter and Mind in the Seventeenth Century
Organized by: Research Centre Foundations of Modern Thought, Western University “Vasile Goldis” Arad, New Europe College.
- 2002-2003, Models of Individuals in Early Modern Thought
Organized by: Research Centre Foundations of Modern Thought, Western University “Vasile Goldis” Arad, New Europe College, Bucharest, ARCHES, Bucharest.
- 2001-2002, Laws and Miracles in the Seventeenth Century
Organized by: Research Centre Foundations of Modern Thought, Western University “Vasile Goldis” Arad, New Europe College Bucharest.
Last update: May 10, 2009.
