Descartes, vortices 1644

In particular we aim at identifying cross-fertilization and interaction between diverse areas of research in past and present. Hence our research is interdisciplinary by nature.

A further aim is to break the traditional limits
of the historiography and philosophy of
science as limited to the study of (pre)modern science, and to exploit our expertise in earlier historical periods and in other academic disciplines.

For the future it is our ambition to extend our cooperation with interested parties in other Institutes and Faculties of Leiden University
to formally establish a Centre for the
Philosophy and History of the Sciences and Humanities.




The research unit Philosophy and History of the Sciences and Humanities is an active and dynamical unit with a strong international reputation. We cooperate with, among others, the Descartes Centre for History and Philosophy of Science in Utrecht; the Departments of History and Philosophy of Science in Cambridge and Pittsburgh; the Departments of Philosophy of Duke and Princeton; the Exzellenzcluster Topoi at the Freie Universität Berlin; and the Institut d’Histoire et de Philosophie des Sciences et des Techniques in Paris.

Participants 
Prof.dr. E.P. Bos
Prof.dr. F.A.J. de Haas
Dr. J.W. McAllister (project leader NWO funded research programme)
Dr. M.S. van der Schaar
Prof.dr. B.G. Sundholm
Dr. J. Kuukkanen

PhD Candidates
J. Bouterse, MA 
Q. Hao, MA
Drs. B. Karstens
A. Klev, MSc, MPhil
Q. Wang, MA

NWO funded research project
Philosophical Foundations of the Historiography of Science

Are there general moral principles or values that should govern our actions? If so, which ones, and why, and how are they justified? If not, why not? How should we deal with conflicts regarding these matters? Should we aim to solve all conflicts about moral principles and values, or should we regard conflict as essential to human social life and as valuable and productive? How should we conceive of political life? What is the role of reason in answering questions regarding the most fundamental normative requirements governing moral and political action (including the question of whether there are any such requirements)?

In this research cluster, these questions are brought together. We examine normative moral and political principles and the role of conflict, and we examine these issues in conjunction with the deeper questions regarding the possibility of finding answers to these questions in the first place. More specifically, our research group approaches these themes at two levels: 

1. Conflict, Community, and the Role of Reason 
Research concerning the debates about universalist moral and political principles of various kinds, with an emphasis on philosophical conceptualizations of world citizenship;
Research concerning the notion of human duties as a counterpart to human rights; 
Research concerning democratic values and (agonistic) democratic theory, the conceptualization of conflict in political theory, and the scope and limits of rationality;
Research concerning global distributive justice.

2. Rational Justification of Normative Principles of Human Action
At a deeper level, we examine the presuppositions and conceptual frameworks that underlie the possibility of answering the questions raised at the previous level:  
Research concerning conceptions of practical rationality in relation to the justification of moral and political norms;
Research concerning the philosophical implications of empirical studies of moral agency, as part of the NWO programme, "Morality beyond Illusions: Re-assessing the philosophical implications of empirical studies of moral agency". For more information about this research programme, see .

At both levels of research, we take the history of philosophical debates of these issues into account. The historical research informs our own attempts at answering the philosophical questions; and conversely, the current philosophical discussions prompt new questions of a philosophical-historical nature.

Participants
Dr. T. Fossen
Dr. M.S. Prange
Dr. M. Schlosser
Dr. H.W. Siemens
Dr. B.J.E. Verbeek

PhD Candidates
T.E. Bates, MA
J.S. Pearson, MA
H.C Sauer, MA

NWO funded research projects

Morality Beyond Illusions: Re-assessing the Philosophical Implications of Empirical Studies of Moral Agency

Between Deliberation and Agonism: Rethinking Conflict and its Relation to Law in Political Philosophy

Western philosophy is traditionally biased toward the view that rationality is a human universal that reflects itself in culture. Cultural history on this view is by implication a largely continuous process; by the same token different cultures can ideally be compared in terms of their manner and degree of expressing human nature. A typical example is Hegel’s view of global cultural history as the gradual unfolding, or maturation, of the universal Geist. Conversely, cross-cultural differences too profound to be explained in these terms must be due to mere contingencies; cultural relativism is irrational by definition.

Research in the PMCT section takes issue with the received view on rationality and culture, yet without giving way to a facile form of cultural relativism. This research has three areas of particular interest.

First, we explore how human nature can be said to reflect culture, rather than vice versa. This does not mean that alleged human universals such as rationality are simply exposed as culturally variable products, however. The relationship between man and culture appears to be much more complex. The human mind seems to be contingent upon specific aspects of changing cultural landscapes, including in particular technological systems of communication such as alphabet, writing, printing press and the Internet, each of which is in its turn dependent on human ingenuity. The challenge is to see how this mesh of mutual contingencies can be resolved. Research in this field addresses questions about the nature of past minds (of evolutionary and cultural ancestors) as well as about future developments of the mind that may be expected as a result of rapidly changing technological conditions.

Secondly, we try to chart how modes of self-experience have changed in the course of history, not only by tracking the way in which these changes made themselves manifest in culture (most notably in art), but also by heeding the reactions they elicited from contemporaries. One particular example is the rise of modern experiential rationality, which inclines us to view our life as a project, an ensemble of experiences that can be actively managed by responsible agents. A countermovement is the cry for a spiritual, non-possessive and non-managerial attitude toward one’s life, in which elements of the Lebensphilosophie and of mystical traditions seem to return, such as the notion of Gelassenheit (‘releasement’) familiar from Meister Eckhart and Heidegger.

Finally, we explore how the rational, universalizing bias in Western thought can be brought to its logical conclusion, and what this means for our conception of man and world. Special attention is given to the implications of Darwinism considered as a ‘universal acid’, and to contemporary technological conceptions of rationality as algorithmic manipulation of information, including replication. A most pertinent question in this context is whether the ideas of culture, philosophy and history stand to be dissolved.

Participants 
Dr. T. C.W Oudemans
Dr. J.J.M. Sleutels
Dr. G.T.M. Visser