How It All Started
In the spring of 2015, the Steering Committee (SC) of the European Philosophy of Science Association (EPSA) announced for the first time 13 fellowships for junior scholars from Central and Eastern Europe. The fellowships were intended to support one-month visits to leading centers for philosophy of science
in Western Europe. During the EPSA conference held in Düsseldorf that year (23–26 September 2015), two of the awarded fellows – Daniel Kostić and Richard David-Rus – approached me (then member of the SC of EPSA). After introducing themselves, Richard said something that I still remember vividly:
“EPSA has done something very important for us. We, in turn, would like to do something important for the philosophy of science in Central and Eastern Europe.” I was truly moved by these words and so, without hesitation, I decided to be part of this "something important", whatever it was. After a brief discussion on where to start, we agreed that as a beginning, Daniel should write to the other EPSA fellows asking if they would support the idea of creating a network of philosophers of science from Central and (South-) Eastern Europe, similar e.g. to the network of Scandinavian philosophers of science.
Daniel sent his letter to the group of the EPSA fellows on October 4, 2015. About half of them responded positively. Thus, eight people – Lukáš Bielik, Richard David-Rus, Monika Foltyn-Zarichta, Lilia Gurova, Daniel Kostić, Borut Trpin, Elena Trufanova, and Özlem Yilmaz – started what we later named
the East European Network for Philosophy of Science (EENPS). Our first task was to organize the network’s inaugural conference and to attract new members to it.
The Inaugural conference of EENPS was held in Sofia on 24–26 June 2016. Its success exceeded the best of our expectations, drawing about 70 participants from 22 different countries. This, however, could not be possible without the important engagement of our invited speakers – Roman Frigg, Stathis Psillos,
and Stefan Hartmann (then President of EPSA), whose presence at the conference was appreciated a lot. Roman, Stathis, and Stefan rearranged their personal schedules to make possible their travel to Sofia, even if only for a day or two, to support the cause of EENPS. They also took part in an interview, where they shared thoughts on the relevance of philosophy of science in the contemporary world, the role of EPSA and of networking in general for the integration of the community of philosophers of science in Europe. (The interview was later published in the Balkan Journal of Philosophy and can be accessed here: - Philosophy Documentation Center).
By the end of the year of its Inaugural conference, EENPS had already 52 members. Today, that number has grown to 247, which many of us see as a testimony for the importance and timeliness of the network, and for a sustained interest in its activities.
There are few things in my life that I am truly proud of, being part of the beginning of EENPS is certainly one of them.
Lilia Gurova
In the spring of 2015, the Steering Committee (SC) of the European Philosophy of Science Association (EPSA) announced for the first time 13 fellowships for junior scholars from Central and Eastern Europe. The fellowships were intended to support one-month visits to leading centers for philosophy of science
in Western Europe. During the EPSA conference held in Düsseldorf that year (23–26 September 2015), two of the awarded fellows – Daniel Kostić and Richard David-Rus – approached me (then member of the SC of EPSA). After introducing themselves, Richard said something that I still remember vividly:
“EPSA has done something very important for us. We, in turn, would like to do something important for the philosophy of science in Central and Eastern Europe.” I was truly moved by these words and so, without hesitation, I decided to be part of this "something important", whatever it was. After a brief discussion on where to start, we agreed that as a beginning, Daniel should write to the other EPSA fellows asking if they would support the idea of creating a network of philosophers of science from Central and (South-) Eastern Europe, similar e.g. to the network of Scandinavian philosophers of science.
Daniel sent his letter to the group of the EPSA fellows on October 4, 2015. About half of them responded positively. Thus, eight people – Lukáš Bielik, Richard David-Rus, Monika Foltyn-Zarichta, Lilia Gurova, Daniel Kostić, Borut Trpin, Elena Trufanova, and Özlem Yilmaz – started what we later named
the East European Network for Philosophy of Science (EENPS). Our first task was to organize the network’s inaugural conference and to attract new members to it.
The Inaugural conference of EENPS was held in Sofia on 24–26 June 2016. Its success exceeded the best of our expectations, drawing about 70 participants from 22 different countries. This, however, could not be possible without the important engagement of our invited speakers – Roman Frigg, Stathis Psillos,
and Stefan Hartmann (then President of EPSA), whose presence at the conference was appreciated a lot. Roman, Stathis, and Stefan rearranged their personal schedules to make possible their travel to Sofia, even if only for a day or two, to support the cause of EENPS. They also took part in an interview, where they shared thoughts on the relevance of philosophy of science in the contemporary world, the role of EPSA and of networking in general for the integration of the community of philosophers of science in Europe. (The interview was later published in the Balkan Journal of Philosophy and can be accessed here: - Philosophy Documentation Center).
By the end of the year of its Inaugural conference, EENPS had already 52 members. Today, that number has grown to 247, which many of us see as a testimony for the importance and timeliness of the network, and for a sustained interest in its activities.
There are few things in my life that I am truly proud of, being part of the beginning of EENPS is certainly one of them.
Lilia Gurova
EENPS – the beginnings 10 years later
In recalling the beginnings from my point of view I think it is also necessary to put the event into a proper context drawing on the circumstances at the time and of course what I was experiencing myself regarding the events that influenced what happened.
Together with Lilia Gurova and Daniel Kostic, we had a small exchange of opinions after Lilia’s first text and it was clear that we cannot remember the exact words and precise ideas that were flying around in our first meeting in Dusseldorf – the meeting that can be said to be the defining moment. In my view there are three major moments that lead to the birth of our network.
The first one is connected to the EPSA initiative to support the young researchers from Eastern Europe. I think Stephan Hartmann, the president of EPSA at the time, had a special role. Although my PhD defense in Munich preceded Stephan coming, in December 2014 I was visiting MCMP again (after returning from my US stay, Munich was the preferred place to restart my reintegration). During my time in Munich, I met Stephan as usual and advanced the cause of the Easterners. I was especially concerned with the high EPSA membership fees that we could not afford in Eastern countries. Stephan was open and ready to address the issue and to propose it to the Steering Committee.
I cannot remember exactly what we discussed at the time but the situation of the field in my region was a recurring theme as he was usually interested in this subject when meeting me. After my return as a researcher in a Romanian research institute I was clearly experiencing frustration, especially regarding the connection with the scientific communities abroad. Although between 2012-13 there was a slight improvement due to an EU project (POSDRU), the overall situation was bad and continued on this negative trend until today. Research funding in Romania is the lowest in the EU and remains sporadic, insufficient and many times misdirected. On another side I was also struck by the lack of connections to the peers from other Eastern countries. Though some contacts existed even from the ‘90s (as the one we had with the Bulgarian community in the field of cognitive sciences – Lilia being involved too) these were local, limited and reduced in their scope. More generally, it seems that the researcher from Eastern Europe is rather looking to the fellows from Western countries seeking recognition and building a reputation at home on such connections, a situation that is partially understandable. Yet this is a blind spot since there is a lot of good research going on in Eastern European countries (and there are also initiatives at least among some institutions as the national academies to promote such connections).
There was another quite distinct thing happening at the time that appeared to influence us, at least indirectly. A new very successful regional network was attracting our attention (as Daniel, Lilia and I mentioned in our last discussion) – the Nordic Network. It had yearly meetings (in Spring) and seemed to be quite well organized. Unfortunately, attending these meetings was very difficult for the researchers from Eastern Europe, since the conferences took place in expensive destinations and so beyond our reach (though at some point they offered me financial support). Unfortunately, the network proved to have a meteoric existence, disappearing after a few years.
The context was also ripe from my point of view given what I’ve experienced in Romania the previous year. The ECAP conference took place in Bucharest in 2014 when Mircea Dumitru was the president and I was working together with Dana Jalobeanu in organizing the philosophy of science section. Though I cannot remember a consistent presence of researchers from Eastern Europe, the event helped in drawing the attention of analytic philosophers on Eastern Europe.
The second major moment is the one in which I met Lilia and Daniel at EPSA2015 in Dusseldorf. I think it was after meeting and discussing again with Stephan at the registration desk and thanking him for the fee reduction that had been implemented. But I was also surprised and overwhelmed by other things he did for us especially the initiative of opening the call of fellowships for philosophers from Eastern Europe. This is why when I saw Lilia (who I knew indirectly) and Daniel (whom I hadn’t met before) talking during a break, I approached them enthusiastically proposing to get some more consistent steps towards a regional network. As mentioned, we cannot remember exactly what were the first suggestions that we exchanged in order to do this, but it seems that the main issue was how to get in touch with the people that might be interested. I think I had something in my mind such as contacting the departments and philosophers from different countries to form an action group for our initiative while Lilia was suggesting organizing a first conference. And here came the third defining moment, at the beginning of October 2015, when Daniel sent the email to the 14 young researchers that received the EPSA fellowships. Though not all responded, we could form a first core group and begin to organize.
Such is a piece of the pre-history of our network as I experienced it.
Richard David-Rus (with many thanks to Elena Popa for corrections and suggestions)
In recalling the beginnings from my point of view I think it is also necessary to put the event into a proper context drawing on the circumstances at the time and of course what I was experiencing myself regarding the events that influenced what happened.
Together with Lilia Gurova and Daniel Kostic, we had a small exchange of opinions after Lilia’s first text and it was clear that we cannot remember the exact words and precise ideas that were flying around in our first meeting in Dusseldorf – the meeting that can be said to be the defining moment. In my view there are three major moments that lead to the birth of our network.
The first one is connected to the EPSA initiative to support the young researchers from Eastern Europe. I think Stephan Hartmann, the president of EPSA at the time, had a special role. Although my PhD defense in Munich preceded Stephan coming, in December 2014 I was visiting MCMP again (after returning from my US stay, Munich was the preferred place to restart my reintegration). During my time in Munich, I met Stephan as usual and advanced the cause of the Easterners. I was especially concerned with the high EPSA membership fees that we could not afford in Eastern countries. Stephan was open and ready to address the issue and to propose it to the Steering Committee.
I cannot remember exactly what we discussed at the time but the situation of the field in my region was a recurring theme as he was usually interested in this subject when meeting me. After my return as a researcher in a Romanian research institute I was clearly experiencing frustration, especially regarding the connection with the scientific communities abroad. Although between 2012-13 there was a slight improvement due to an EU project (POSDRU), the overall situation was bad and continued on this negative trend until today. Research funding in Romania is the lowest in the EU and remains sporadic, insufficient and many times misdirected. On another side I was also struck by the lack of connections to the peers from other Eastern countries. Though some contacts existed even from the ‘90s (as the one we had with the Bulgarian community in the field of cognitive sciences – Lilia being involved too) these were local, limited and reduced in their scope. More generally, it seems that the researcher from Eastern Europe is rather looking to the fellows from Western countries seeking recognition and building a reputation at home on such connections, a situation that is partially understandable. Yet this is a blind spot since there is a lot of good research going on in Eastern European countries (and there are also initiatives at least among some institutions as the national academies to promote such connections).
There was another quite distinct thing happening at the time that appeared to influence us, at least indirectly. A new very successful regional network was attracting our attention (as Daniel, Lilia and I mentioned in our last discussion) – the Nordic Network. It had yearly meetings (in Spring) and seemed to be quite well organized. Unfortunately, attending these meetings was very difficult for the researchers from Eastern Europe, since the conferences took place in expensive destinations and so beyond our reach (though at some point they offered me financial support). Unfortunately, the network proved to have a meteoric existence, disappearing after a few years.
The context was also ripe from my point of view given what I’ve experienced in Romania the previous year. The ECAP conference took place in Bucharest in 2014 when Mircea Dumitru was the president and I was working together with Dana Jalobeanu in organizing the philosophy of science section. Though I cannot remember a consistent presence of researchers from Eastern Europe, the event helped in drawing the attention of analytic philosophers on Eastern Europe.
The second major moment is the one in which I met Lilia and Daniel at EPSA2015 in Dusseldorf. I think it was after meeting and discussing again with Stephan at the registration desk and thanking him for the fee reduction that had been implemented. But I was also surprised and overwhelmed by other things he did for us especially the initiative of opening the call of fellowships for philosophers from Eastern Europe. This is why when I saw Lilia (who I knew indirectly) and Daniel (whom I hadn’t met before) talking during a break, I approached them enthusiastically proposing to get some more consistent steps towards a regional network. As mentioned, we cannot remember exactly what were the first suggestions that we exchanged in order to do this, but it seems that the main issue was how to get in touch with the people that might be interested. I think I had something in my mind such as contacting the departments and philosophers from different countries to form an action group for our initiative while Lilia was suggesting organizing a first conference. And here came the third defining moment, at the beginning of October 2015, when Daniel sent the email to the 14 young researchers that received the EPSA fellowships. Though not all responded, we could form a first core group and begin to organize.
Such is a piece of the pre-history of our network as I experienced it.
Richard David-Rus (with many thanks to Elena Popa for corrections and suggestions)
