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From
the early nineties on I could contribute in Romania by way
of a TEMPUS project of the European Commission to
found and to build up the Department of Engineering
Sciences
of the collaborating Universities of Bucharest. |
| The
Romanian Higher Education system resembles much the French
one with the Grandes Ecoles and their competitive
entrance-examinations. Of all who passed the examinations
only the top students were selected to populate this
Department of Engineering Sciences - D.E.S. |
| In the
D.E.S. they would enjoy an engineering education either in English, French
or German, so that they could integrate easier in (Western) Europe and in
the international scientific community during or after their studies
without that many cultural- and language barriers they might have had
otherwise. Furthermore, a substantial attention to humanities would
form part of the education. |
| The
D.E.S.
has been successfully realized. At this moment already many of its
graduates perform very well as a Ph.D. student or as a researcher in
advanced technology research centers in the U.S.A. and in Europe. |
| Within the
scheme of the project I was also detached to the University 'Politehnica'
of Bucharest to give lectures. |
| In the
first year I did an Introduction to Analytic Philosophy that included a
short elementary course in Logic, either to fresh up already existent
knowledge by earlier mathematical- or informatics lectures in the
programme of the D.E.S. or to emphasize (again) its role in argumentation.
This elementary course dealt with Definitions, Syllogisms, Sentential
Logic and Predicate Logic. Also the philosophy of G.E. Moore
(analysis,
language and common sense) and the philosophy of Bertrand Russell (logical
atomism) was introduced. The introduction to the First Phase of Analytic Philosophy in
Cambridge was concluded so to say with the Tractatus Logico - Philosophicus
of Ludwig Wittgenstein (Wittgenstein I ). |
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The very
first day I came to Bucharest to work with the D.E.S. students I visited also
the little book-stalls on the
streets. What 'coincidence'... The very same day came available a Romanian
translation of the Tractatus. |
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| Although I
had prepared already copies of 'the' English translation of the Tractatus
it was a pleasure to advertise this booklet that was available for a prize
less than a bottle of Coca-Cola, one of the common standard of values of
the Romanian students those days. |
| We read the
book the way I like it best, not immediately from page one till the last ,
but the structural way; in this, starting from the overview of the main theses. |
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The
students were good and very enthusiastic, especially about the course I
did on 'Freedom' next to the above mentioned. But this was more by reason
of they felt to enjoy it itself, than because of they were engineering
students. And also from the informal
contacts with them I learned a lot about the revolution and how it
happened out of their own experiences. And some of them were soldiers
those days. |
| The
next year I tried to involve the students closer in the different views on
epistemology and science. So next to the 'regular' course to conclude the
introduction to analytic philosophy by dealing with Logical
Positivism ( Vienna Circle and further developments -a.o. K. Popper-) I
did a working group in which the students had to team up in groups up to
four to prepare a point of view that was established in a current article
from a philosophical magazine. |
| Out of the
nine different articles I had selected and prepared we did five after a
short general (historical-thematically) introduction to the philosophy of
science. It had to be observed that even very excellent engineering students had
great problems with presenting in a clear and short summary the central topic
or the main view of a non-plain text. So some time had to be spent to introduce a
few helpful techniques in this and to practice them. |
| It's
just constructive thinking -besides some lateral
creativity-, and that's all |
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