Project Code: PN-III-P4-ID-PCE-2016-0273
Contract nr.: 21 ⁄ 2017
Principal Investigator: Dr. Cristian Ciocan
Abstract: This project aims to analyze the problem of violence, starting from the structural articulation of five sets of constitutive phenomena: intersubjectivity, affectivity, embodiment, spatiality, and temporality. The premise of our research is that phenomenology, by virtue of its focus on the concrete experience of subjectivity, of its specific conceptual endeavor, as well as of its descriptive approach, has a remarkable theoretical potential to uncover the interwoven meanings of violence, but also to elaborate a unitary view of this phenomenon. The purpose of our project is to explore the phenomenon of violence in its structural genesis crossing the totality of its constitutive layers, in order to understand the articulated variations of this phenomenon and its possible concretizations. Our project aims to show that an integrative phenomenology of violence can be developed only in the interstices linking the phenomenology of intersubjectivity (the problem of the hostile other, understood in its adversity, as conflicting alterity), the phenomenology of affectivity (the emergence of irritation and anger as condition of the conflict) and the problem of embodiment (the question of pain and vulnerability targeted by each of the poles involved in the factical situation of violence, having as its limit the murder, the ultimate violence), as well as in relation to the way in which the structure of the phenomenon modalizes itself depending on the essential possibilities of spatiality and temporality. The innovative character of our project is that it aims to investigate the phenomenon of violence in a radial way, in relation to the entire network of issues opened by the five essential structures (intersubjectivity, affectivity, embodiment, spatiality and temporality), aiming to lay the grounds for an integrative phenomenological theory of violence, able to explain the articulation of different types of violence in relation to the variation of its constitutive dimensions.
Research Team
Principal Investigator: 
Dr. Cristian Ciocan has a PhD from the University of Bucharest (2006) and a PhD from the University of Paris IV – Sorbonne (2009). He is currently Assistant Professor at the University of Bucharest, Center of Excellence in Image Study (CESI), President of the Romanian Society for Phenomenology (founded in 2000), and Editor-in-Chief of the journal Studia Phaenomenologica. He was Postdoctoral Research Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation at the University “Albert-Ludwig” in Freiburg im Breisgau (2007-2008) and of the New Europe College (2009-2010). He is editor of the Newsletter of Phenomenology, and of the Newsletter of Romanian Philosophy. In 2009, he received the prize In hoc signo vinces for research excellence, awarded by CNCSIS (National University Research Council). Recent works: Heidegger et le problème de la mort: existentialité, authenticité, temporalité (Springer, “Phaenomenologica”, 2014); Lectures de Jean-Luc Marion (Cerf, 2016, in collaboration with Anca Vasiliu); Phénoménologie de la vie animale (Zeta Books, 2016, in collaboration with Florence Burgat). For the publications list, click here.
Experienced Researcher:
Dr. Ion Copoeru
Postdoctoral researchers:
Dr. Ileana Borțun
Dr. Ciprian Jeler is a doctor in philosophy from the universities “Charles de Gaulle – Lille 3” and “Al. I. Cuza” (Iaşi),
with a thesis bearing on Henri Bergson’s theory of action.He is a researcher at the Interdisciplinary Research Department – Human and Social Sciences of the “Al. I. Cuza” University. His philosophical interests are spread between contemporary French philosophy (from Bergson to Meillassoux) and philosophy of evolutionary biology (and especially multi-level selection theory). Some recent publications: “« Résister à la résistance »: l’implacable et la ressource”, in Annales bergsoniennes, t. VI, Shin Abiko, Arnaud François, Camille Riquier (éds.) PUF, Paris, 2013, pp. 297-220 ; “Is There Such a Thing as ‘Group Selection’ in the Contextual Analysis Framework?”, History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences, vol. 36, issue 4, 2015, pp. 484-502; “Multi-level selection and the issue of environmental homogeneity”, Biology & Philosophy, doi: 10.1007/s10539-017-9578-y, 2017.
Dr. Paul Marinescu has a PhD at the University of Bucharest and the University Lyon 3 (2011), with a thesis on “The Universality of Hermeneutics”. He worked as postdoctoral researcher at the Alexandru Dragomir – Institute for Philosophy, Romania (2011–2013). He was Postdoctoral Research Fellow of the French Government (2015) and the Romanian Academy (2014–2015). He published several articles in international journals such as Ricoeur Studies, International Journal of Philosophy and Theology, Archivio di Filosofia. He co-edited two volumes of collected studies: Timp, memorie si traditie. Studii de fenomenologia istoriei (2012); Figuri ale vulnerabilitatii existentiale. De la uitarea de sine la uitarea fiintei (2013). He also co-edited Studia Phaenomenologica volume: “On the Proper Use of Phenomenology. Paul Ricoeur Centenary” (2013). He translated into Romanian several works by Paul Ricoeur, Eric de Rus, et al. His main areas of research are: Hermeneutics, Phenomenology and Historiography.
Doctoral Students:
- 2 open positions
Project development
July 2017
- 2 open positions (part time) for doctoral students starting with the 1st of October.
