This project seeks to reevaluate the importance of Pierre Gassendi (1592-1655) in the constitution of various forms of 17th-century empiricisms in Europe. Gassendi was certainly one of the most important founding fathers of the new science and philosophy of the 17th century. But unfortunately, in comparison to Descartes or Newton, Gassendi is nowadays often viewed as a second-rate author, and a bit of an antiquarian, because of his interest in reconstructing Epicurean philosophy. Rejecting such a retrospective view, this project intends to reassess the role of Gassendi’s philosophy and epistemology in the articulation of early modern philosophy and science. For that purpose, the project will concentrate on Gassendi’s scientific practices and their relation to his commitment to empiricism, as well as on their impact on two privileged areas of 17th-century Europe. What is at stake is first to show that Gassendi’s researches in optics, astronomy, anatomy, and physics were crucial for the constitution of his empiricism, and then to unravel Gassendi’s impact on the development of empiricist approaches to nature in two areas that were especially receptive to it, namely Great Britain and the Low Countries. The first part of this project aims to show the role played by Gassendi’s research in various scientific areas (optics, astronomy, physics, mechanics) in the development of his empiricist theory of knowledge. For Gassendi, experience was not only the source of general knowledge through induction, but also played a crucial role in physically elucidating specific natural phenomena. What is specific to Gassendi’s approach to experience and what makes it particularly relevant from a historical point of view is that it both promotes a theory of knowledge based on the senses and involves a study of optics and observational practices that are crucial for the elaboration of explanations of natural phenomena. What deserves specific inquiry is thus the articulation between Gassendi’s theory of knowledge, his theory of vision, and his experimental practice. In the wake of Kepler’s renovation of optics, Gassendi promoted a new conception of vision based on the articulation of a physics of light, a physiology of vision, and a psychology of vision. The project will explore these three dimensions, in particular through his (partly unpublished) correspondence with Boulliau, Peiresc and Hortensius. It will also show how Gassendi’s empiricism was developed as a polemical tool against Descartes’ philosophy, and influenced his conception of mathematics. In a second part, this project will focus on the dissemination and influence of Gassendi’s thought in two areas which were especially receptive to empiricism, namely the Low Countries and Great Britain. In the Low Countries, Gassendi’s empiricist philosophy served as a tool against Cartesian metaphysics. But Gassendi also had an important network of Dutch correspondents with whom he exchanged observational astronomical reports. This dimension of Gassendi’s influence played a crucial role in the establishment of the new science, and especially in the defense of Copernicanism. In Great Britain, Gassendi’s works were widely disseminated and translated into English, in particular through Charleton’s Physiologia. We will seek to trace the paths of reception of Gassendi’s empiricism in England, paying special attention to their scientific context. Gassendi indeed had a crucial impact on major British figures such as Locke, Newton, Boyle, and Thomas Willis. In so doing, we intend to show that the genesis of various forms of empiricisms in the 17th century cannot be reduced to the influence of Francis Bacon and did not develop in isolation from continental influences. Gassendi indeed played a major role in this process.

The aim of the MATHESIS project is to promote, through an edition and a commentary, the study of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz’s (1646-1716) unpublished mathematical manuscripts and to launch a dynamic of research on a European level. We plan to edit more than 800 printed pages of texts and two volume of translations with commentary. To develop a European collaboration in this respect is not a new idea since it was proposed in 1901, when an edition of Leibniz’s complete works was first planned. First World War unfortunately put a dramatic end to this collaboration. The negative effects of this interruption are now clear: a considerable delay in the work of the Leibniz Archiv and an obvious obstacle to the research. To these days, more than one century after the launching of the enterprise, almost 75 % of Leibniz’s mathematical texts in the period 1677-1716, which will interest us in this project, is still unpublished. It won’t be necessary to insist on the barrier that this situation imposes on the study of one of the most prominent mathematicians and philosophers of his time. According to the prospective drawn by the Leibniz Archiv (located in Hanover as regards the editing of the mathematical texts), one will have to wait, in the best case scenario, until 2022 for this corpus to be reached by the editors and 2053 for the whole enterprise to be achieved. Our main ambition is to initiate a dynamic which would remediate this unfortunate situation. With the help of young researchers recruited in the project and thanks to new research dynamics, we propose to work on an edition and a commentary of Leibniz’s work in geometry – here understood in its various Leibnizian forms: analysis situs, work on perspective and projections, geometry of curves, “universal mathematics”, axiomatization and conceptualization of the continuum. But we also conceive this project as a first step toward the launching of larger-scale projects, in particular at the European level. The project can benefit of a particularly favorable situation due to the development in recent years of the research in the history and philosophy of Leibnizian mathematics. In 2010, two important programs were started: on the one hand, the launching of a research group (head : D. Rabouin and V. Debuiche) gathering the French researchers working on Leibniz mathematics, in the newly created framework of the Centre d’Etudes Leibniziennes ; on the other hand, the launching under the supervision of V. De Risi of the program “Modern Geometry and the concept of Space” program at the Max-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte. Not long before, an international conference organized in Nancy by Ralf Krömer on Leibniz’s scientific reception in the XXth Century had already testified for the renewal of the studies on Leibniz’s mathematics and for the fecundity of a French-German collaboration on these issues. It is naturally toward these various partners that the Leibniz Archiv turned when it was envisaged to attack a corpus for which a scientific expertise was a necessary condition for the advancement of the editorial work. The present project details the modalities of this collaboration, already initiated through many punctual collaborations, and also describes its possible impacts on a larger audience through the creation of a website dedicated to a public presentation of Leibniz’s mathematical manuscripts.

ANTHRAME offers a fundamental research project on 14th-16th century anthropology in Italy that is sorely lacking. Now, although anthropology as a science was not established until the 18th century, we use this term to designate the questioning of the nature and functions of the human being, considered as the object and the finality of his orientations in his worldly experience. The term experience is knowingly assumed because it allows us to situate ourselves in current historiography, while emphasizing our originality. Indeed, our research hypothesis is as follows: the conception of the nature of the human being in Italian culture between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries knows new meanings of "being oneself", which cannot be reduced neither to the medieval “person”, as an individual and rational substance, nor to the “consciousness” of the classical age. Our method is as follows: The project examines the relationship between the powers of the soul or "internal senses" (imagination and memory) and the intellect in order to rethink anthropological reflection in Italy between the 14th and 16th centuries. Our perspective thus reverses the historiographical trend which favors the study of the intellect. On the one hand, we would like to analyze everything that the intellective grasp leaves outside, such as dreams or involuntary memories; on the other hand, to study new disciplines, such as history or poetics, which recognize their own principles in memory and the imagination. Therefore, we believe that the conception of the human being in Italian culture has new meanings of "being oneself". In this regard, “anthropology of experience” means that the universe of significance opened up by the relative autonomy of memory and imagination goes beyond cognitive finality and defines the proper of man. memory In this regard, we have determined four sets of questions which will direct the scientific program of our project and justify its decomposition into four consequent and progressive tasks. These can be summarized as follows: i. What are the powers of the internal senses (imagination and memory)? ii. What are the new modalities of experience and the principles of new knowledge specific to the internal senses? iii. How do you think back then of the experience of being yourself as a human being? iv. How are manifestations of what is called personality disorder seen, including mental illnesses and gender identity disorders? These questions (which can also be expressed as research "themes") have been established because they allow the full measure of the disruptive and alternative power of the "internal senses", imagination and memory, without reducing their scope. disruptive effect on intelligence.

Every day, worldwide, millions of people fight a battle against cancer, undergoing devastating therapies that hugely impact on their Quality of Life. Over the next 2 decades, the number of new cases is expected to rise by about 70% (WHO, 2017). Oncogenetics can contribute to change this future scenario, addressing those people for which prevention is still possible and the disease’s onset avoidable. This medical discipline, in progressive expansion, is focused on understanding and monitoring the genetic predispositions of persons at risk, because of mutations or family histories of cancer. Through guided professional decisions, the implementation of evidence-based prevention strategies will lead to considerable improvements in clinical decisions and outcomes. In order to move towards this predictive system, it is essential to raise awareness of those vulnerable people and to empower them. On this basis, it will be possible to facilitate an appropriate checking and an early detection of prodromes, as well as the modification of harmful habits and behaviours. The focus of the project is to raise awareness on the importance of the existence and expansion of oncogenetics, as a discipline depending on advances in understanding genes associated with inherited susceptibility to common adult malignancies. The objective of oncogenetics is to understand genetic predisposition to cancers and care for persons at risk. Genetic predispositions are often associated with a family history of cancer. However, cancers are very frequent and family histories exist, so a family history of cancer is not synonymous with a genetic predisposition. The purpose of a genetic consultation is to determine the share of family history and possible predisposition. Genetic tests, stills seldom practiced, sometimes confirm a hereditary origin. If an alteration is identified in a family, it can be sought in its relations. This makes it possible to reassure those having no predisposition and following up those at risk. Target groups: - Medical specialists: specialist in oncogenetics, oncogenetics adviser, psychologist, oncologist, gynecologist, epidemiologist, geneticist, surgeon, specialist in molecular biology, bioethics specialist and medical management - Patients and their families at risk of hereditary or familial cancer - Medical institutions - Lecturers in medicine (Medical Universities) - Educational centres - Public at large The project actions and results are the following: - A multidisciplinary consultancy group, of 57 specialists from 11 different medical specialisations, from 4 countries - 4 Mapping researches on situation/strategies/support institutions and specialists/best practices of the genetic consultancy/oncogenetics at Central and East European level - Profiles of the specialists of the multidisciplinary consulting group in oncogenetics (13 profiles) - Training guide for advanced high-specialized intervention in oncogenetics (2 Modules - Module I, including 2 parts (part 1 – 9 chapters; part 2 – 14 chapters), Module II, including 4 parts (11 chapters); 20 experts involved in writing the chapters) - Open Online Course on Oncogenetics ( 3 Online Courses – Module I, EN, 33 lessons, 33 quizzes, 96 participants; Module II, EN, 12 lessons, 1 quiz, 40 participants; Module II, EN, 15 lessons, 1 quiz, 17 participants) - HOPE Mobile APP – predict & keep informed on the risk of cancer (available in 5 languages) - Chart on Oncogenetics standards and procedures for medical institutions (available in 5 languages) + Hereditary predisposition panel analysis - From a past of illness towards a future of health - Guides, informative and multimedia materials to raise awareness of patients and families with a history of hereditary or familiar cancer on the importance of undergoing risk assessment through appropriate procedures (Flyers, Video Animations, Video Testimonial from patients, Stand-up Video material) - Multiplier events: New frontiers in dealing with cancer - HOPE - How Oncogenetics Predicts & Educates - International online trainings with medical specialists on advanced oncogenetics (96 medical specialists enrolled in Module I and 53 medical specialists participated in Module II, versions in EN or FR) Summing up the project activities/products, HOPE project is innovative through the following aspects: - three-dimensional addressability - multidisciplinary consultancy groups of medical specialists, general medical specialists and family doctors, patients and their families at risk of hereditary or familial cancer - training on advanced high-specialized intervention in oncogenetics - creation of open online course in the field of oncogenetics - software and mobile phone applications – for supporting the friendly access of specialists and patients, family members to tools for cancer risk informing and screening