PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE

The Philosophy of Science department is the leading scientific unit in Bulgaria in the field of philosophy of of science. Its focuses include general philosophy of science, philosophy of artificial intelligence, philosophy of medicine, philosophy of biology, philosophy of mathematics, philosophy of physics, and philosophy of space and time. 

The team of the department is distinguished by high professionalism, recognized both in Bulgaria and internationally through publications, specializations, participation in international forums, and scientific projects. 

Scientists from the department hold doctoral degrees from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, the University of Tokyo, Central European University, and Sofia University. Members of the department have significant international experience in both scientific research and PhD education. They offer doctoral programs that meet the European standards, including doctoral programs in English, leading to dissertations written and defended in English.

The department takes pride in numerous publications in prestigious international journals and successful partnerships with leading academic institutions worldwide. Scientists from the section have worked at the University of Oxford and the University of Pittsburgh and have specialized at universities such as the University of Toronto, the University of Tokyo, and the Central European University.

In 2023, scientists from the department published a collection on the problems of Rationality and Ethics in Artificial Intelligence (“Rationality and Ethics in Artificial Intelligence”), Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

In 2019, the collection “Non-classical Science and Non-classical Logics. Philosophical Methodological Analysis and Assessments” was published by “Paradigma” publishing house, presenting the results from the first stage of the project funded by the Fund for Scientific Research.

In 2021, the department published a collection of reports from a conference held within the same project, led by corresponding member Prof. Angel Stefanov.

The department hosts the annual national conferences “Popper Seminar” and “The Philosophy as a Vocation”. Among the scientific projects of the section are “The Structure of Artificial Rationality”, “Contemporary Debates in the Philosophy of Science,” led by corresponding member Prof. Angel Stefanov, and “Contemporary Problems and Discussions in Philosophy and Sociology of Medicine”, led by Assoc. Prof. Y. Vaseva-Dikova.

Since 2021, the section has been operating a problem group on “Philosophy and Sociology of Medicine” led by Assoc. Prof. Yulia Vaseva-Dikova.

Staff

Head of Department

PHILOSOPHY AND SOCIOLOGY OF MEDICINE WORKING GROUP

Philosophy and Sociology of Medicine Working Group is an interdisciplinary network of researchers interested in the philosophical and sociological aspects of evidence-based and patient-oriented medicine; specifically, in medical reasoning, medical decision making and doctor-patient relationship. The group was founded by some representatives of different departments at the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology (Bulgarian Academy of Sciences), as well as different academic institutions such as Sofia University, Medical University of Varna (MU-Varna). The WG’s primary objective is to delineate the field of some not so well-known topics within the philosophical and sociological discourses in Bulgaria.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

  • Philosophy of medicine
  • Evidence-based medicine,
  • Patient-oriented medicine,
  • Sociology of medicine,
  • Neursociology
  • Philosophy of disability
  • Sociology of disability
  • Politics of disability
  • History of disability
  • Values-based medicine,
  • Neuroscience of ethics
  • Ethics of neuroscience
  • Machine medical ethics.

 

The PhilSocMed working group aims at filling-in the gaps between philosophy and sociology of medicine and medicine by serving as an initiator of ideas for research collaboration in the aforementioned fields, as well as developing strategies for applying the outcomes of research collaboration in practice.

The PhilSocMed working group’s goal is to encourage the establishment of a broad, inclusive research community with a diverse interdisciplinary background. The objective is for this community to necessitate:

  • The conduction of collaborative inquiry into philosophy and sociology of medicine’s contributions to medicine
  • The implementation of some outcomes reached by the philosophy and sociology of medicine in the process of policy-making
  • The expansion of the public debates about the role of philosophy and sociology of medicine

 

Working group members:

Associate Professor, PhD Julia Vasseva-Dikova (Chair)
Professor, DSc Bozhidar Ivkov
Professor Aleksander Gungov – Sofia University
Associate Professor, PhD Silviya Serafimova

For more information, please contact