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Francis Bacon and the
Progressof Knowledge
Brian Vickers
continuously
and denigrations
Glorifications alternate
in thehistoryof Baconianismand of Bacon's fortunes.'
495
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496 Brian Vickers
increased;
as if the openingof the worldby navigationand commerceand the
discoveryof knowledgeshouldmeetin one timeor age (III, 320-21).2
further
That is, Columbus'sdiscoveryofAmericawas thefulfillment ofDaniel's proph-
ecy,inaugurating a newage oflearning-a typically confident Renaissanceassess-
mentof its own newness.
Indeed,thisidea oftheconstantgrowthofknowledgewasbothnewinBacon's
formulation, and historically significant.Even AnthonyQuinton,3a criticnot
naturallysympathetic to Bacon,juxtaposeshim approvingly withthe medieval
philosophers,who "saw themselves as orderersand preserversofknowledge,not
as itscreators"(29), a staticpositionagainstwhichhe setsBacon's "moreor less
unprecedented notionof knowledgeas cumulative."As Quintonsays,"in order
forknowledgeto be thoughtofin thisway,as something to be constantly added
to,a newconceptionoftrue,basic,paradigmatic knowledgehas to be adopted."
Bacon tookthatstep,Quintonwrites,"by separatingdivineand naturalknowl-
edge," and
in his beliefin the possibilityof largeand continuousgrowthof knowledge,of
finding newknowledgeratherthanretrieving old knowledgebeforeit disappears
irrecoverably, heplayeda crucialpartincreatinga mentalatmosphere orenviron-
mentin whichthenatural-science centeredconceptionofknowledgecould flour-
ish (30).
Not onlyin thenaturalsciencesbut in everyfieldof knowledgetodaywe confi-
dentlyexpectthat new researchwill expand our understanding of a subject,
theframework
enlargeor redefine or conceptualcategorieswithin which we see,
or thinkit.
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Francis Bacon 497
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498 Brian Vickers
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FrancisBacon 499
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500 Brian Vickers
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Francis Bacon 501
inquiry,"op.cit.in note9.
26 Rossi,"Venti,maree,ipotesiastronomiche in Bacone e Galilei,"Aspettidella rivolu-
zionescientifica(Naples, 1971), 163-91.
27 Perez-Ramos, FrancisBacon's Idea ofScienceand theMaker'sKnowledgeTradition
(Oxford,1988), 248n. On this outstandingstudy,the most importantone to date on
Bacon's naturalphilosophy, see mybriefnoticein the TimesHigherEducationalSupple-
ment,5 May 1989,28.
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502 Brian Vickers
in movingintoareas beyondtheircompe-
II. Scholarsoverreachthemselves
tence.The memorableversesthatJonathanSwiftwroteas a mock epitaphfor
himselfincludesthelines:
True genuineDulness mov'd his pity
Unless it offer'dto be witty.28
OthermisunderstandingsofBacon's scientific sincethey
ideasare lesssurprising,
derivein part fromhis own attitudeto terminology. In the Advancementof
Learning,forexample,he drewattentionto thefactthathe was using"theword
sensefromthat[which]is received":
Metaphysicin a differing
it will easily appear to men of judgmentthat in this and otherparticulars,
wheresoevermy conceptionand notionmay differfromthe ancient,yet I am
studiousto keep the ancientterms.For hoping well to delivermyselffrom
mistaking by theorderand perspicuousexpressingof thatI do propound,I am
otherwisezealous and affectionate ... to retainthe ancientterms,thoughI
sometimesaltertheuses and definitions. (III, 352-53;De Augmentis,
IV, 344-45)
Bacon's hope that"theveryorderofthematterand theclearexplanationwhich
I giveofeverything willpreventthewordsI use frombeingmisunderstood" (IV,
344) was too optimistic,forsomereadershavemanagedto misconstrue him.But
beforewe protestthathe oughtto have inventeda new terminology, we should
remember thathe was writingin Latin,whereneologismswould have been far
lesseasythanin English,and thatbothclassicaland Renaissancerhetoric warned
againstneologism.
To take two instancesof misunderstanding, considerthe keyterms"Meta-
physics"and "Form." Bacon's scientific theoryhad as its goal the discoveryof
thelaws ofnatureand physicalcausesbya processthatwouldrisegraduallybut
inevitablyfromthe particularto the general.In developingthisnotion,Bacon
arrangedknowledgeinto a pyramidor hierarchyof increasinggenerality. The
base or primarylevelis "historyand experience,"thatis,observablephenomena,
whichare "infinitein number."Above thatcomes physics;thenmetaphysics;
and finally"summaryphilosophy,"whichbestridesall the othersciencesby
virtueof its generality.Metaphysicsis definedas the discoveryof forms,the
innatestructuralpropertiesof matter(III, 352-59; IV, 126, 344-47). This is
obviouslya highlyidiosyncratic use of the term,but Bacon-as he had prom-
ised-definesit so carefullyin itscontextthatthereis littleexcuseformisunder-
standingit.Yet MichaelHattaway29 managedto misconstrue itas "metaphysics"
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FrancisBacon 503
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504 Brian Vickers
33 Horton,op.cit.in note 23, 243. Rom Harre,in "A Note on Ms. Horton'sDefence
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FrancisBacon 505
expositionofinductive
But this"longlist"ofinstancesis in facta tightly-argued
method.Whatis magicalaboutthis,thereadermaynowbe asking?Copenhaver
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506 Brian Vickers
3' See, e.g., Keith Hutchinson,"What happenedto occult qualitiesin the Scientific
Revolution?," Isis,73 (1982), 233-53;and AugustBuck(ed.), Die okkultenWissenschaften
in der Renaissance(Wiesbaden,1989).
38 See D. Pingree,"Some of the Sources of the Ghayat al-Hakim,"Journalof the
Warburgand CourtauldInstitutes, 43 (1980), 1-15,at 13.
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FrancisBacon 507
oftheoccultsee,e.g.,B. Vickers,"Analogyversusidentity,"
3 For Bacon's criticisms
op.cit.in note30, 133-34,and "On thegoal oftheoccultsciencesin theRenaissance,"in
G. Kauffmann(ed.), Die Renaissanceim Blickder NationenEuropas(Wiesbaden,1991),
51-93,at 90-92.
cosmology,"Ambix,22 (1975), 81-101,
40 G. Rees, "FrancisBacon's semi-Paracelsian
at 97-98.
41 Reif, "The TextbookTraditionin Natural Philosophy,"JHI, 30 (1969), 17-32;
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508 Brian Vickers
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FrancisBacon 509
See the admirableessay by Paolo Rossi cited in note 1, whichtakes issue witha
42
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510 Brian Vickers
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FrancisBacon 511
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512 Brian Vickers
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Francis Bacon 513
sourcesand influences,"in
48 See Brian Vickers,"Bacon's so-called'Utilitarianism':
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514 Brian Vickers
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Francis Bacon 515
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516 Brian Vickers
ofthischallenging
The overalleffect is to rehabilitate
reinterpretation Bacon
as a founderofand contributerto thenewscience-settingaside thefruitlessuse
revolution"(47). Agreeingwiththearguments
of theconceptof a "scientific of
Thomas Kuhn,52Perez-Ramosnotesthatin the seventeenth century"a whole
clusterof now attainable'objectsof knowledge'-heat,electricity,magnetism,
lifephenomena-was actuallycreatedand sanctionedby theBaconiantradition
as properlybelongingto the cognitivescope of naturalphilosophy"(35). This
constitutedan enormousexpansionand legitimizationofthestudyofnature,and
Bacon's influencecan be tracednot onlyon the thinkersmentionedhere(such
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FrancisBacon 517
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518 Brian Vickers
CentreforRenaissanceStudies,
Eidgen6ssischeTechnischeHochschuleZurich.
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