The team

Our project features an interdisciplinary team of philosophers and historians of science working together and following what is essentially an integrated HPS approach.

Dana Jalobeanu, philosopher and historian of science, associate professor in the Department of Theoretical Philosophy at the University of Bucharest, will work on the reception of Francis Bacon’s Sylva Sylvarum in the second part of the seventeenth century and on the English reception of Giovanni Battista Della Porta’s Magia naturalis. Her investigation will focus on the ways in which recipes and technologies recorded by Della Porta have been enacted and recorded in the works of English naturalists and philosophers, such as Hugh Platt and Francis Bacon.

Oana Matei is researcher at IRH-ICUB, University of Bucharest, and lecturer in political sciences at the Vasile Goldis Western University of Arad. In the past years, as part of several research projects, she worked on the reception of Baconianism in the mid-seventeenth century England. Her research covers various aspects of the early modern methodology of experimentation, particularly in the field of experiments with plants and their contribution to the rise of modern science. In the “Recipes, Technologies, Experiments: Enactment and the Emergence of Modern Science” Oana Matei works on defining the concepts of enactment and technology, illustrating them through different case studies particularly dealing with the vegetal world.

Grigore Vida is a historian of the philosophy and science of the early modern period, interested mainly in Descartes, Newton, and their reception. He has worked within a team on a Romanian edition of Descartes’ complete correspondence, and has also contributed to translations from the works of Francis Bacon. In the past years he was involved in research-projects devoted to various types of Cartesianisms, both on the Continent and in England. In this project, Vida’s role is to investigate and transcribe two important manuscripts of Henry Power (1621-1668), the BL Sloane 1334 and 1346. He will also investigate the connection between Cartesianism and experimental philosophy.

Alexandru Liciu is PhD student at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Bucharest, writing a thesis on Robert Hooke’s use of practical mathematics. Liciu’s interest for the persona of Hooke derived from his earlier work on Francis Bacon and the 17^th century experimental philosophy. He also holds and MPhil in Political Though and Intellectual History from the University of Cambridge. In the “Recipes, Technologies, Experiments” research project, Liciu investigated how enactment and technologies played a role in the building of a scientia of petrification at the early Royal Society more broadly and in the thought of Robert Hooke, more particularly. He also charted the transmission of a series of experiments on fossilia between the Royal Society and other learned societies.

Costel Cristian is MA student at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Bucharest. He wrote an undergraduate dissertation on Thomas Kuhn’s notion of incommensurability, with a case study on Robert Boyle’s experimental (chemical) philosophy. He is interested more broadly in methodological debates, especially those stemming from the history of ideas approach. His MA Dissertation discusses the Lucretian influences on Francis Bacon’s philosophy. His role in the project is that of a research assistant, taking part in the bibliographical investigations and the regular seminar of the team. He is also helping with the organization of conferences and colloquia.

Anita Drella is an architect with a bachelor’s degree in Philosophy and a 2nd year MA student at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Bucharest. Anita’s main interests lie at the intersection between phenomenology and the history of science, and how they might be integrated. Her role in the project is that of a research assistant, helping with bibliographical searches, and taking active part in the seminar discussions. She is also responsible for several aspects of events organization: poster-design, updating the website, contributing towards the dissemination of results. T