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Description of Part I of the Great Instauration The Divisions of the Sciences Francis Bacon first published the ‘Plan of the Work’ of his Great Instauration in 1620, printed as a prefix to his New Method and both translated into Latin as the Distributio Operis, Instauratio Magna and Novum Organum respectively. According to the Plan, the Great Instauration is divided into six working parts, patterned after the Six Days Work of Creation that lead to the Sabbath or Seventh Day of Rest. The first part is to contain a general survey of the existing state of human knowledge. Bacon provided his example of this in his greatly expanded nine-book version of the Advancement and Proficience of Learning, translated into Latin as the De Dignitate et Augmentis Scientiarum and published in 1623. (The first and earlier two-book version was published in English in 1605.) Published as an example to give ‘light’ to future ages, Bacon undoubtedly hoped that new surveys would be carried out periodically by his scientific successors. The following extract is taken from the Distributio Operis, as translated into English by Robert Ellis and published in James Spedding’s Works of Francis Bacon (1858):- The first part exhibits a summary or general description of the knowledge which the human race at present possesses… In laying out the divisions of the sciences, however, I take into account not only things already invented and known, but likewise things omitted which ought to be there. For there are found in the intellectual as well as in the terrestrial globe waste regions as well as cultivated ones… With regard to those things which I shall mark as omitted…I shall always (provided it be a matter of any worth) take care to subjoin either directions for the execution of such work, or else a portion of the work itself executed by myself as a sample of the whole: thus giving assistance in every case either by work or by counsel… For I do not propose merely to survey these regions in my mind, like an augur taking auspices, but to enter them like a general who means to take possession. Bacon’s approach is not only like that of a navigator charting the seas and continents of the world, but also like that of an architect, who must first survey the ground on which the proposed building is to be erected, seeing what is needed and what is already provided for, what are the strengths and weaknesses, what possibilities there are, and generally envisioning the sort of design that the building might take. In Bacon’s case, he already has a vision of the building, which is to be a temple or pyramid of philosophy, three-sided on a triangular base. Each side represents knowledge concerning one of the three great areas of life—divine, human and natural—and it is to rise from earth to heaven, from physical to metaphysical truths, like a Jacob’s Ladder. The survey, therefore, is as much to determine the state of the building as it has progressed so far, and therefore to see what still needs to be done, as to discover the state of the ground and foundations. Although Bacon states clearly and categorically that the advancement of learning, and proficience in its use, is to embrace all three worlds of divinity, humanity and nature, in order to discover the nature and laws of each at every level of life, he in fact only deals at length with the natural world and but touches briefly on the human sphere and even less on the divine sphere. Yet he definitely states that his intention is to build a temple of natural, human and divine philosophy, thereby taking all knowledge as his province. This occulting of knowledge and his method of approach concerning divine and human nature is entirely in keeping with his designs, which are cabalistic. But like a good teacher, who wishes to exclude no one fit for the task, he provides enough sign-posts for the discovery of all by the earnest seeker after truth. The search for such truths is itself a training in the Art of Discovery, which is what he wishes to teach us. These words shalt thou declare and these shalt thou hide… Esdras: Exodus II, 14: 5-6. There is another method of Delivery… The ancients used it with judgment and discretion; but in later times it has been disgraced by many who have made it as a false and deceitful light, in which to put forward their counterfeit merchandise. The intention, however, seems to be by obscurity of delivery to exclude the vulgar (that is, the profane vulgar) from the secrets of knowledge, and to admit those persons only who have received the interpretation of the enigmas through the hands of teachers, or have wits of such sharpness and discernment that they can of themselves pierce the veil. Francis Bacon, De Augmentis Scientiarum, Bk VI (transl.) That the discretion anciently observed, though by the precedent of many vain persons and deceivers disgraced, of publishing part, and reserving part to a private succession, and of publishing in a manner whereby it shall not be to the capacity nor taste of all, but shall as it were single and adopt his reader, is not to be laid aside, both for the avoiding of abuse in the excluded, and the strengthening of affection in the admitted. Francis Bacon, Valerius Terminus. So too our plan is that our teaching should quietly enter into souls fit and capable of it... Francis Bacon, Novum Organum, Bk I, Aph 35 (transl.) Click essay button below to read an overview of the Great Instauration
© Peter Dawkins, FBRT, 1999 |
