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Romania
Citizenship:
Ph.D. degree award:
1995
Mr.
Vlad
Alexandrescu
Prof. dr. habil.
Professor
-
UNIVERSITATEA BUCURESTI
Researcher | Teaching staff | Scientific reviewer | PhD supervisor
>20
years
Web of Science ResearcherID:
not public
Personal public profile link.
Expertise & keywords
History of ideas
Intellectual history
History of culture
Early modern studies
History of philosophy
History and philosophy of science
Early modern philosophy
Early modern studies
Early modern period
Projects
Publications & Patents
Entrepreneurship
Reviewer section
Prince Dimitrie Cantemir (1675-1723) and the Search for an Eastern Christian Reform of Knowledge
Call name:
P 4 - Proiecte de Cercetare Exploratorie, 2020
PN-III-P4-ID-PCE-2020-0887
2021
-
2023
Role in this project:
Coordinating institution:
UNIVERSITATEA BUCURESTI
Project partners:
UNIVERSITATEA BUCURESTI (RO)
Affiliation:
Project website:
https://cantemirproject.wordpress.com/
Abstract:
Dimitrie or Demetrius Cantemir (1675-1723), scholar and Prince of Moldavia, occupies an important position in the landscape of early Romanian culture. The proposed project seeks to advance the scholarly understanding of Cantemir by positioning him as an important Eastern Christian representative of the 17th century pan-European quest for a new philosophy and a universal reform of knowledge. The project argues that Dimitrie Cantemir dissented from the prevailing neo-Scholasticism of contemporary Eastern Orthodox philosophy, which sought to separate theology from philosophy. Instead, he maintained in his main philosophical work, Sacro-sanctae indepingibilis imago (1700), that Orthodox theology could seamlessly integrate natural philosophy and metaphysics. His view found support in an alternative Western philosophy, that of the Flemish physician Jan Baptist Van Helmont (1579-1644). Cantemir studied Van Helmont for eight months with the Greek cleric Meletios of Ioannina (c.1661-1714). The prince absorbed Van Helmont’s vision of a ‘Christian philosophy’, and employed it to create his own synthesis, which he called ‘sacred science’. The proposed project has four objectives: - to understand the transmission of Van Helmont’s ideas from West to East, to investigate Cantemir’s philosophy in light of Van Helmont’s concepts, to produce a Romanian translation of Sacro-sanctae with critical apparatus, and to provide the digital tools to facilitate the study of Cantemir.
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The Overlooked History of Vegetal Life. From the Vegetative Soul to Metabolism in Early Modern Philosophy and Biomedicine
Call name:
P 1 - SP 1.1 - Proiecte de cercetare Postdoctorală
PN-III-P1-1.1-PD-2016-1496
2018
-
2020
Role in this project:
Partner team leader
Coordinating institution:
UNIVERSITATEA BUCURESTI
Project partners:
UNIVERSITATEA BUCURESTI (RO)
Affiliation:
UNIVERSITATEA BUCURESTI (RO)
Project website:
https://irhunibuc.wordpress.com/2018/11/08/the-overlooked-history-of-vegetal-life-from-the-vegetative-soul-to-metabolism-in-early-modern-philosophy-and-biomedicine/
Abstract:
This research project aims to delve into a mostly overlooked topic of the history of philosophy and the history of sciences, the philosophical role attributed to vegetation for the understanding of life in early modern Europe. During the Renaissance and early modernity the questions concerning living beings became particularly controversial, as life phenomena difficultly matched the Scholastic interpretative programme attributing life to souls and spirits, and substantiating the academic knowledge of the epoch. From mechanical philosophy to alchemical traditions, alternative systems developed different interpretations of life, resulting in fiercest clashes without a clear and definite solution. Life apparently remained an undefinable, though crucial feature of philosophy and biomedicine. An innovative role within this controversial situation was provided by vegetal studies, as plants silently witnessed life in beings. This was not an untraditional claim, as the Scholastic tradition conceived life starting with the vegetative faculties of the soul. However, it is only during the 16th and 17th centuries that vegetal studies acquired a more crucial condition in this respect, as a change from the vegetative soul to metabolism characterized the biomedical revolution concerning life. While plants emerged as compelling items of knowledge – the Botanical Renaissance composed a relevant section of the naturalistic studies of the period through collecting and classifications of natural, vegetal diversities – a philosophical interpretation of plants as representing the minimal level of vitality led studies to important and fascinating attempts to redefine life. This project seeks to reconstruct this section of the history of vegetal life especially focusing on René Descartes’ and the Cartesian’s attempts. Related to the botanical and medical work in the United Provinces, an early modern vegetal philosophy emerges, resulting in a crucial philosophical interpretation of life.
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MODELS OF PRODUCING AND DISSEMINATING KNOWLEDGE IN EARLY MODERN EUROPE: THE CARTESIAN FRAMEWORK
Call name:
Exploratory Research Projects - PCE-2011 call
PN-II-ID-PCE-2011-3-0998
2012
-
2016
Role in this project:
Project coordinator
Coordinating institution:
FUNDATIA NOUA EUROPA
Project partners:
FUNDATIA NOUA EUROPA (RO)
Affiliation:
FUNDATIA NOUA EUROPA (RO)
Project website:
http://descartesfme.wordpress.com/about/
Abstract:
Having investigated other fields of the Republic of Letters, the project aims to conduct a research from an interdisciplinary standpoint on Descartes correspondence, which constitutes a true fountain of theories, ideas and representations, one of the milestones of the intellectual networking of the early modernity. Descartes’ correspondence is first of all a privileged spot of an interdisciplinary study of the way of functioning of the Republic of Letters, in a period when all the instruments, techniques and communication protocols of the early modernity were already in use. In most cases, not only the letters of the French philosopher were preserved, but also the responses of his correspondents, exchanges who are revealing for the making off of some exceptionally philosophical doctrines, who are of highly importance for the evolution of the European society till now. Descartes’ Correspondence offers to the researcher a fascinating field of knowledge, because it facilitates an investigation conducted with interdisciplinary methods of an encounter territory of different and diverse paradigms -philosophical, scientific and political ones-, communicating with one another in the process of making of European modernity. Descartes' philosophical plan, launched in distinct moments trough his major works was tested each time by an exchange of letters with his contemporaries, which submitted his work to multiple tests of validation in the Republic of Letters.
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Science, politics and utopia in the Republic of Letters: early modern models of the production and dissemination of knowledge
Call name:
IDEI-PCE (2008) 2067
2009
-
2011
Role in this project:
Project coordinator
Coordinating institution:
UNIVERSITATEA BUCURESTI
Project partners:
UNIVERSITATEA BUCURESTI ()
Affiliation:
UNIVERSITATEA BUCURESTI ()
Project website:
Abstract:
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The Modern Concept of Law. Metaphysical, Political, Scientifical, Moral and Legal Aspects in the Reformation Projects of the Knowledge in Seventeenth Century
Call name:
CNCSIS A 1355
2002
-
2004
Role in this project:
Project coordinator
Coordinating institution:
UNIVERSITATEA BUCURESTI
Project partners:
UNIVERSITATEA BUCURESTI ()
Affiliation:
UNIVERSITATEA BUCURESTI ()
Project website:
Abstract:
Read more
The Emergence of the Concept of Law in Some Early Modern Programs for the Reformation of Knowledge. An interdisciplinary Approach.
Call name:
CNCSIS T 153
2000
-
2002
Role in this project:
Project coordinator
Coordinating institution:
UNIVERSITATEA BUCURESTI
Project partners:
UNIVERSITATEA BUCURESTI ()
Affiliation:
UNIVERSITATEA BUCURESTI ()
Project website:
Abstract:
Read more
FILE DESCRIPTION
DOCUMENT
List of research grants as project coordinator or partner team leader
Download (41.39 kb) 08/10/2019
Significant R&D projects for enterprises, as project manager
R&D activities in enterprises
Peer-review activity for international programs/projects
Download (32.31 kb) 24/04/2016
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