Mourning in academia. Univ. Assoc. Dr. Emanuel Socaciu, professor at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Bucharest, died at the age of 51

Univ. Assoc. Dr. Emanuel-Mihail Socaciu, professor at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Bucharest and founding member of the Applied Ethics Research Center, died at the age of 51.

Emanuel Socaciu was the founder of a unique master's program in Eastern Europe. PHOTO: UB

The University of Bucharest confirmed on Friday, November 7, the transfer to the eternal ones of the univ. Dr. Emanuel-Mihail Socaciu, through a message published on the institution's website.

“The Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Bucharest announces, with deep sorrow, the passing away, after great suffering, caused by a relentless illness, of associate professor Dr. Emanuel-Mihail Socaciu, a landmark of moral and political philosophy and a prominent personality of Romanian philosophical education”,
it is shown in the message sent by the university.

Born in 1974, in Arad, Emanuel-Mihail Socaciu graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Bucharest in 1997, and in 2008 he became a doctor of the same institution. He has been teaching at the Faculty of Philosophy since 1997, and in the last three years he held the position of vice dean.

Through his teaching and research activity and his involvement in the institutional development of the faculty, Emanuel-Mihail Socaciu contributed decisively to the modernization of moral and political philosophy in Romania, giving it international visibility.

He was a founding member of the Applied Ethics Research Center and its director between 2015 and 2020, coordinating the first interdisciplinary projects in the field of practical philosophy.

Among them are the projects NORMEV (“Evolutionary modeling of the emergence of norms of social interaction”) and INEMTEC (“The epistemic status of moral intuitions in the ethical evaluation of new and emerging technologies”).

He established the interdisciplinary master's program “Philosophy, Politics and Economics”, unique in Eastern Europe, and strengthened academic partnerships with prestigious institutions, including the Oxford Uehiro Center for Practical Ethics.

Teacher, mentor and a free spirit

Throughout his career, Emanuel-Mihail Socaciu was a professor beloved by students, known for his warmth, humor and intellectual openness.

“Emi Socaciu, professor at the Faculty of Philosophy, passed away last night. He was 51 years old. A premature and unjust death. A life project interrupted by a relentless illness.

Emi was a kind and gentle man, he spoke to you warmly, his smile was always ready to intervene in the discussion. He was my teacher in the 2nd year, he was the assistant of teacher Valentin Mureșan.

I remember his smile, which soon turned into a roar of laughter, when we started talking about the paper I had written at Ethical Theories. I had written a silly story about a sect of Kantian billionaires, which had amused Emi a lot. He gave me a 10. Other pros would have given me a 5, and it would have been deserved.

Last year, we kept bumping into each other at college and we always exchanged a few words. He told me he wanted to do a podcast on ethical issues and I offered to come and record at my studio. We're still talking. And now – now it is left that we will never speak again.

Rest in peace dear Emi!

Condolences to the family and loved ones!”, journalist Iulian Tănase wrote on his Facebook page, upon learning the news.

The work of Emanuel-Mihail Socaciu includes a series of representative works for contemporary Romanian philosophy.

In the volume “Whose house is my house? Preliminaries to an ethics of restitution” (2014), he proposes the first philosophical analysis of the return of property confiscated during the communist period, a topic widely debated in an interview for “Adevărul”.

He was the editor and co-editor of important volumes, such as “Fundamentele măduriirii moderne politica” (1999), “Thomas Hobbes: political philosophy” (2001), “Japanese philosophy today” (2013) and “Philosophy of human sciences. In memoriam Mihail-Radu Solcan” (2015) and published articles in national and international academic journals.

He was also the pioneer of ethics and academic integrity in Romania, being co-editor of the first manual dedicated to this discipline, material that reached the second edition and used in numerous universities.