Bacon & Dregs

[jochen stremmel]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uD2qScZlvYE


2013/8/24 Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net>

> I'm reading Rupert Sheldrake's Science Set Free. He touches on Bacon's
> vision within the history of science and philosophy. It  is fascinating
> reading.  He questions some of the common precepts of current science using
> experimental evidence from respected scientists. It is interesting to see
> how much disagreement there is on some very fundamental questions and how
> little certain basic phenomena are really understood.  He is a very lucid
> thinker and writer.
> On Aug 23, 2013, at 4:49 PM, alice wellintown wrote:
>
> >
> > Apt too, act two, Act 2, too, II, 1+1
> >
> >
> > http://www.readbookonline.net/readOnLine/57392/
> >
> > On Friday, August 23, 2013, alice wellintown wrote:
> > In a trash can I found a book of Bacon. This essay is the sweetest.
> > "Of Innovations"
> >
> > It's also apt.
> >
> > http://www.authorama.com/essays-of-francis-bacon-25.html
> >
> >
> > On Friday, August 23, 2013, Markekohut wrote:
> > VERY LIKE! witty.
> >
> > Sent from my iPad
> >
> > On Aug 23, 2013, at 7:49 AM, alice wellintown <alicewellintown at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >
> > > So, Knowledge is Power. And knowledge, as Bacon defined it, against
> > > the Dregs and Aristotle, is the foundation of Empire. And, Bacon's
> > > Empire, built on the foundation of knowledge and power, on NAtural
> > > Science, has been built. The Industrial Revolution, steam,
> > > electricity, these are the manifestations of Bacon's dream of Empire.
> > > The father of induction confronted the Dregs. And in like manner, the
> > > clash, the culture, custom, clash, against traditions, beliefs, all
> > > that was muddy and prone to a foggy way of seeing things, to a
> > > slugishness of mind, was driven by a curiosity about new and different
> > > ideas. The fear of others, of far of places, of all that ancient Dregs
> > > had invented about the unknown and yet discovered places, must be met
> > > with direct experience, with contact and more contact, with more and
> > > more repudiation of the ancient Dregs at home, and where adventure and
> > > exploration was.
> > >
> > > Bacon tastes great.
> > >
> > > On 8/23/13, alice wellintown <alicewellintown at gmail.com> wrote:
> > >> Bacon's struggle to overcome intellectual blockades and the dogmatic
> > >> slumber of his age and of earlier periods had to be fought on many
> > >> fronts. Very early on he criticized not only Plato, Aristotle and the
> > >> Aristotelians, but also humanists and Renaissance scholars such as
> > >> Paracelsus and Bernardino Telesio.
> > >>
> > >> Although Aristotle provided specific axioms for every scientific
> > >> discipline, what Bacon found lacking in the Greek philosopher's work
> > >> was a master principle or general theory of science, which could be
> > >> applied to all branches of natural history and philosophy (Klein
> > >> 2003a). For Bacon, Aristotle's cosmology, as well as his theory of
> > >> science, had become obsolete and consequently so too had many of the
> > >> medieval thinkers who followed his lead. He does not repudiate
> > >> Aristotle completely, but he opposes the humanistic interpretation of
> > >> him, with its emphasis on syllogism and dialectics (scientia operativa
> > >> versus textual hermeneutics) and the metaphysical treatment of natural
> > >> philosophy in favor of natural forms (or nature's effects as
> > >> structured modes of action, not artifacts), the stages of which
> > >> correspond—in the shape of a pyramid of knowledge—to the structural
> > >> order of nature itself.
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> Bacon began to struggle with tradition as early as 1603. In Valerius
> > >> Terminus (1603?) he already repudiates any mixture of natural
> > >> philosophy and divinity; he provides an outline of his new method and
> > >> determines that the end of knowledge was “a discovery of all
> > >> operations and possibilities of operations from immortality (if it
> > >> were possible) to the meanest mechanical practice” (Bacon III [1887],
> > >> 222). He opposes Aristotelian anticipatio naturae, which favored the
> > >> inquiry of causes to satisfy the mind instead of those “as will direct
> > >> him and give him light to new experiences and inventions” (Bacon III
> > >> [1887], 232).
> > >>
> > >> http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/francis-bacon/#NatStrTra
> > >>
> > >> It may surprize some to learn that Bacon's great obstacle was
> > >> Aristitole ands how Arisitole was adopted, but we when we remember
> > >> that Aristotle stressed that only that which was already known could
> > >> be learned, that is, that the growth of learning, of knowledge
> > >> involved simply bringing together, a synthesis, of the universal truth
> > >> of reason and the particular of sense. Growth of knowledge belonged to
> > >> "becoming", that is, to change, and is thus inferior to what is known,
> > >> to knowledge that, through reflexivity, that is the manipulation of
> > >> this in syllogistics or demonstration.
> > >>
> > >> So, as Aristotle struggled against the Dregs, now Bacon must struggle,
> > >> and the Ancient Dregs include Aristotle and his fellow travelers.
> > >>
> > >> Demonstration of the old truths is the stuff of school boys in a lab.
> > >> Bacon would fly out inot the u
>
>
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