Search engine for discovering works of Art, research articles, and books related to Art and Culture
Javascript must be enabled to continue!
Francis Bacon and Ingenuity*
View through CrossRef
AbstractThis essay discusses the Latin termingeniumwithin the writings of Francis Bacon (1561–1626). It proposes that althoughingeniumdoes not easily translate into English, Bacon uses the term in a clearly defined range of senses. For the most part, he echoes the discourse of ingenuity and inventiveness common to many sixteenth-century humanists, but differs from them in sharply delimiting the scope and status of ingenious thinking. In particular, he excludes ingenuity from the logical portion of his reformed art of discovery: as the goal of this was demonstrative knowledge, Bacon (like the Aristotelian logicians he aimed to supplant) believed that it had to be the province of the intellect, not ofingenium. A fuller understanding of the ways in which Bacon usesingeniumcasts his methodological thought into illuminating new relief, and draws attention to the manner in which Bacon’s ideas were appropriated, criticized, and misunderstood in the half century after his death — not least by the self-styled Baconians in and around the early Royal Society.
Title: Francis Bacon and Ingenuity*
Description:
AbstractThis essay discusses the Latin termingeniumwithin the writings of Francis Bacon (1561–1626).
It proposes that althoughingeniumdoes not easily translate into English, Bacon uses the term in a clearly defined range of senses.
For the most part, he echoes the discourse of ingenuity and inventiveness common to many sixteenth-century humanists, but differs from them in sharply delimiting the scope and status of ingenious thinking.
In particular, he excludes ingenuity from the logical portion of his reformed art of discovery: as the goal of this was demonstrative knowledge, Bacon (like the Aristotelian logicians he aimed to supplant) believed that it had to be the province of the intellect, not ofingenium.
A fuller understanding of the ways in which Bacon usesingeniumcasts his methodological thought into illuminating new relief, and draws attention to the manner in which Bacon’s ideas were appropriated, criticized, and misunderstood in the half century after his death — not least by the self-styled Baconians in and around the early Royal Society.
Related Results
Jurisprudence by Aphorisms: Francis Bacon and the “Uses” of Small Forms
Jurisprudence by Aphorisms: Francis Bacon and the “Uses” of Small Forms
The belief that Francis Bacon was, from the start, a stalwart defender of royal absolutism has prevailed in scholarship despite occasional comments about Bacon’s pluralist or colla...
All That Glitters: Devaluing the Gold Standard in the Utopias of Thomas More, Francis Bacon, and Margaret Cavendish
All That Glitters: Devaluing the Gold Standard in the Utopias of Thomas More, Francis Bacon, and Margaret Cavendish
Francis Bacon’s and Margaret Cavendish’s ideal societies unexpectedly follow Thomas More’s Utopia in eliminating the exchange value of gold and replacing it with a knowledge econom...
On Metaphysics and Method, Or How to Read Francis Bacon’s Novum organum
On Metaphysics and Method, Or How to Read Francis Bacon’s Novum organum
The purpose of this paper is to offer a preliminary survey of one of the most widely discussed problems in Bacon’s studies: the problem of the interplay between the speculative (i....
Method and Control
Method and Control
It has been widely noted that rules for scientific method fail to produce results consistent with those rules. Daniel Garber goes further by showing not only that there is a gap be...
The Influence of Roy de Maistre on Francis Bacon
The Influence of Roy de Maistre on Francis Bacon
Very little is said about the Australian artist Roy de Maistre in scholarship on Francis Bacon, apart from the fact that he provided guidance about painting processes and other tec...
Los usos políticos del cuerpo: los dos cuerpos del rey en la filosofía política de Francis Bacon
Los usos políticos del cuerpo: los dos cuerpos del rey en la filosofía política de Francis Bacon
Como figure destacada en el complejo escenario político de la transición entre la dinastía Tudor y la dinastía Estuardo de Inglaterra, Francis Bacon (1561-1626) adoptó la teoría de...
Francis Bacon, Jan Baptist Van Helmont and Demetrius Cantemir. Family resemblances of auctoritas in Early Modern Europe
Francis Bacon, Jan Baptist Van Helmont and Demetrius Cantemir. Family resemblances of auctoritas in Early Modern Europe
The present paper stakes out the destiny of certain ideas on scientific methods and epistemic and ontological representations that spread in 17th century Europe like a cultural epi...
Bacon’s Novum organum
Bacon’s Novum organum
Dan Garber’s paper provides materials permitting to reply to an objection frequently made to the idea that the Novum Organum is a book of logic, as the allusion to Aristotle’s Orga...