Workshop ‘Idols, Methods and the Organisation of knowledge: A Seminar on the De augmentis scientiarum’

6 & 7 November 2025
Maison Française d'Oxford

 

Portrait of Francis Bacon

Portrait of Francis Bacon by Paul Van Somer, 1617

The event organised by Dana Jalobeanu (Technische Universität Nürnberg), Daniel Garber (Princeton University), Mogens Laerke (CNRS, IHRIM/MFO) and Alan Stewart (Columbia University). The workshop focuses on key-questions relating to the idols of the mind, Bacon's new sciences, the organization of knowledge and the new methods of inquiry proposed in the De augmentis scientiarum.

 

November 6

11.00-11.30. Introduction: Stéphane van Damme, Dana Jalobeanu, Mogens Lærke

11.30-13.00. Richard Serjeantson (Cambridge), Francis Bacon and John Case on defending, supporting, and reforming universities

Chair: Niall Dilucia (CNRS, MFO)

13.00-14.00. Lunch

14.00-16.00. Alan Stewart (Columbia), On translating De augmentis scientiarum: Challenges and discoveries

Chair : Miklos Redei (UTN, Nuremberg/ LSE, London)

16.00-16.30. Coffee

16.30-18.00. Round-table discussion moderated by Claudia Dumitru (Yale), De augmentis scientiarum and the ‘world of sciences’

 

 

November 7

9.30-11.00. Dana Jalobeanu (UTN, Nuremberg/University of Bucharest), Poetics, mythography and philosophy according to the parables in De augmentis scientiarum

Chair: Robert Illife (Linacre, Oxford)

11.00-11.30. Coffee

11.30-12.30. Louis Rouquayrol (CNRS, IHRIM), Bacon, Descartes, and the Duty to Know

Chair : Michael Jaworcyn (CNRS, MFO)

12.30-14.00. Lunch

14.00-16.00. Daniel Garber (Princeton), De augmentis scientiarum, method and historia literata

Chair: Susan Paul (Princeton)

16.00-16.30. Coffee

16.30-18.00. Round-table discussion moderated by Mogens Laerke (CNRS, IHRIM/MFO).

 

Contact: mogens.laerke@cnrs.fr

 

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The event is funded by the European Research Council (NOTCOM, ERC AdG no. 101052433, 2023-2027). Views and opinions expressed are however those of the participants only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the ERC. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.