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Francis
Bacon (1561-1626)
Francis
Bacon, a representative of the Renaissance in
England, is a well-known
philosopher,
scientist and essayist
. He
lays the foundation for modern science with his
insistence on scientific
way of
thinking and fresh observation rather than
authority as a basis for obtaining knowledge.
Bacon’s
Life:
Francis
Bacon was
born
at
London.
He
entered Trinity
College,
Cambridge,
at
the
age
of
twelve. He
studied law and became a barrister in 1582; two
years later he took a seat in the House
of
Commons.
His
opposition,
in
1584,
to
Queen
Elizabeth’s
tax
program
retarded
his
political
advancement.
While
in
the
earlier
days
he
supported
the
earl
of
Essex,
Bacon,
in
1601,
was
involved in his prosecution. With the
accession of James I (1566-1625) and thereafter, a
number of
honours were
bestowed
on
Bacon:
he
was
knighted
in
1603,
made
Solicitor
General
in
1604,
Attorney General in 1613, and Lord
Chancellor in 1618.
He
had
powerful
enemies,
foremost
among
them was
Sir
Edward
Coke.
“Ba
con
and
Coke
were bitter political
rivals, in Parliament and the law courts.” They
even contended for the hand of
the same
woman, a widow, Lady Elizabeth Hatton, -
“beautiful, widowed, and rich.”
Bacon, not having come from
a rich family, and always pressed for money:
accepted, and this
is one of the great
surprises of history
, a litigant’s
bribe. This was in 1621; so, just four months
after he was raised to the peerage,
Bacon was evicted from office. (“I do plainly and
ingenuously
confess
that I
am
guilty
of
corruption,
and
do
renounce
all
defense.”)
Francis
Bacon went
into
retirement and died in 1626; he was
buried at Saint Michael’s Church in St. Albans,
just north of
London, Hertfordshire.
Bacon’s Philosophy:
Francis
Bacon’s
major
contribution
to
phil
osophy
was
his
application
of
induction
,
the
approach used by modern science, rather
than the
a priori
method of
medieval scholasticism
.
Up to and during Bacon’s
time there existed philosophies rooted not so much
in reason but in pure
faith;
philosophies promoted by the church. [See Saint
Anselm (1033-
1109) and Thomas Aquinas’
(1225-
1274)
and,
more
generally,
the
Scholastic
School.]
Bacon
was
“violently
opposed
to
speculative philosophies and the
syllogistic quibbling of the Schoolman ..., Bacon
argued that the
only knowledge of
importance to man was empirically rooted in the
natural world.”
Thus,
Bacon
delineated
the
principles
of
the
inductive
thinking
method, which,
while
as
a
method
goes back to the times of Aristotle, constituted a
breakthrough in the approach to science.
It was just these kind of materialist
theories that brought about the great discoveries
of Copernicus
and
Galileo.
Bacon
could
see
that
the
only
knowledge
of
importance
to
man
was
empirically
rooted
in
the
natural
world;
and
that
a
cl
ear
system
of
scientific
inquiry
would
assure
man’s
mastery over the world.
Bacon’s Writings:
Bacon’s first work was
The
Advancement
of
Learning
(1605).
His
second came
along
in
1620,
Novum Organum
; it was part
of his larger philosophical work known as
Instauratio Magna
,
of which
he
only
completed
two
parts: this,
Novum
Organum
,
and
De
Augmentis
Scientarum
.
De
Augmentis
Scientarum
,
which
came
out
in
1623,
was
an
expansion
of
his
1605
work.
Apothegms
came
out
in
1624.
His
aphoristic
Essays
were
continually
worked
on
between
1597
and 1625. Bacon’s utopian fable about
the
island of “Bensalem,” the
New Atlantis
, came out in
1627, appended to
Sylva
Sylvarum
. And his final work,
The World
, came out three
years after his
death.
B
acon’s Essays
:
Though
most
of
his
writings
were
philosophical,
Bacon
also
distinguished
himself
as
an
eloquent
essayist.
His
Essays,
containing
fifty-
eight
short
pieces
of writing
published
in
several
editions from 1597 to 1625, ranked
among the best prose works in English, with bright
ideas and a
collection
of
concise
aphorisms.
He
invented
an
explicit,
direct
and
terse
prose
style
,
which
owned
much to
the
Latin
author
Seneca
but
distinctly
his
own,
and
exerted
great
influence
on
subsequent English
writing.
His
Essays
is the first example of that genre in
English literature. Bacon borrowed the term
“essay”
from
Montaigne,
the
first
great
modern
essayist,
the
predecessor
of
Bacon.
The
Advancement
of Learning
is
a
great
tract
on
education.
Here
Bacon
highly
praises
knowledge,
refuting the objections to learning and
outlining the problems with which his plan is to
deal. Also
he answers the charge that
learning is against religion.
Novum
Organum
(
The New
Instrument
) is a
successful
treatise
written
in
Latin
on
methodology.
The
argument
is
for
the
use
of
inductive
method of
reasoning (
归纳推理的方法
) in
scientific study.
Of
Studies is the most popular of Bacon’s
essays.
It analyzes what studies
chiefly serve for,
the different ways
adopted by different people to pursue studies, and
how studies exert influence
over human
character. Forceful and persuasive, compact and
precise, the essay reveals to us Bacon’s
mature attitude towards learning.
Comments on Bacon’s
essays
:
The
following structures are greatly used in his
essays:
Tripartite structure
(
三分式结构
)
Parallel
structure (
平行结构
)
Antithetical structure
(
正反对照结构
)
Text:
OF STUDIES
STUDIES
serve
for
delight,
for
ornament,
and for
ability.
Their chief
use for
delight,
is
in
privateness
and retiring (1); for ornament, is in discourse;
and for ability, is in the judgment, and
disposition of business. For expert (2)
men can exe-cute, and perhaps judge of
particulars, one by
one; but the
general counsels, and the plots and marshalling of
affairs, come best, from those that
are
learned.
To spend too much
time
in studies
is
sloth; to
use
them
too
much for
ornament,
is
affectation; to make judgment wholly by
their rules, is the humor (3) of a scholar.
They
perfect
nature,
and
are
perfected
by
experience:
for
natural
abilities
are
like
natural
plants, that need pruning by study; and
studies themselves, do give forth directions too
much at
large, except they be bounded
in by experience. Crafty men contemn studies,
simple men admire
them, and wise men
use them; for they teach not their own use; but
that is a wisdom without them,
and
above them, won by observation. Read not to
contradict and confute; nor to believe and take
for granted; nor to find talk and
discourse; but to weigh and consider.
Some
books
are
to
be
tasted,
others
to
be
swallowed,
and
some
few
to
be
chewed
and
digested; that is, some books are to be
read only in parts; others to be read, but not
curiously (4);
and some few to be read
wholly, and with diligence and attention. Some
books also may be read
by
deputy,
and
extracts
made
of
them
bothers;
but
that would (5)
be
only
in
the
less
important
arguments, and the meaner sort of
books, else distilled books are like common
distilled waters (6),
flashy things.
Reading maketh a full man;
conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.
And therefore,
if
a
man write
little,
he
had
need
have
a
great
memory;
if
he
confer
little,
he
had
need
have
a
present wit: and if he
read little, he had need have much cunning, to
seem to know, that (7) he doth
not.
Histories make men wise; poets witty (8); the
mathematics subtle; natural philosophy deep;
moral
grave;
logic
and
rhetoric
able
to
contend.
Abeunt
studia
in
mores
(9).
Nay,
there
is
no
stond(10)
or impediment in the wit, but may be wrought out
by fit studies; like as diseases of the
body, may have appropriate exercises.
Bowling
is
good
for
the
stone
and
reins
(11);
shooting
for
the
lungs
and
breast;
gentle
walking for the
stomach; riding for the head; and the like. So if
a man’s wit be wandering, let him
study
the
mathematics; for
in
demonstrations,
if
his wit
be called
away
never
so
little,
he
must
begin again. If his wit be not apt to
distinguish or find differences, let him study the
Schoolmen
(12); for they are cymini
sectors. If he be not apt to beat over matters
(13), and to call up one thing
to prove
and
illustrate another, let him study
the lawyers’ cases. So every defect of the mind,
may
have a special receipt (14).
?
Notes:
?
( 1
) privateness and retiring: private life and
retirement. When alone and away
from
work or secular affairs.
?
( 2 ) expert: experienced ( rather than
learned ). Men who learned much from
experience and little from study.
?
( 3 ) humor:
mannerism, implying absurd error.
?
( 4 )
curiously: with thoroughness and care.
?
( 5 ) would:
should.
?
( 6 )
distilled waters: infusions of herbs, as home
remedies.
?
( 7 )
that : that which; what.
?
( 8 ) witty: inventive.
?
( 9 ) Abeunt
studia in mores ( Latin) : Studies become ways of
life.
?
(10 )
stond: block, drawback.
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