Atomism and ‘subtlety’ in Francis Bacon's philosophy

References

• 1974 . Francesco Barone: Dalla magia alla scienza , rev. ed. , 210 – 211 . Torino : Giulio Einaudi . 244–245, 325.
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• The dates of the Cogitationes and De principiis are conjectural: see The works of Francis Bacon Spedding J. Ellis R.L. Heath D.D. London 1859–1864 7
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• Rossi . 1974 . Francesco Barone: Dalla magia alla scienza , rev. ed. , 164 – 169 . Torino : Giulio Einaudi . 193–201. In Dalla magia Rossi says nothing about the De fluxu or Thema. He discusses the De fluxu (without recognising the physical theory embodied in it) in Aspetti della rivoluzione scientifica (Naples: Morano, 1971), 153–222.
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• On the speculative philosophy see Rees Graham Francis Bacon's semi-Paracelsian cosmology Ambix 1975 22 81 101 his ‘Francis Bacon's semi-Paracelsian cosmology and the Great Instauration’, Ibid., 161–173; his, ‘The fate of Bacon's cosmology in the seventeenth century’, Ambix, 24 (1977), 27–38; his, ‘Matter theory; a unifying factor in Bacon's natural philosophy?’, Ibid., 110–125; & his ‘Francis Bacon on verticity and the bowels of the earth’, Ambix, 26 (1979), 202–211.
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• Rossi . 1974 . Francesco Barone: Dalla magia alla scienza , rev. ed. , 17 – 21 . Torino : Giulio Einaudi . 165, 167.
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• Kurd , Lasswitz . 1890 . Geschichte der Atomistik vom Mittelalter bis Newton Vol. 2 , 413 – 436 . Hamburg und Leipzig Vol. I esp. pp. 431–432 and 436, for Lasswitz's views on the relationship between Bacon's ‘atomism’ and the spiritus. Charles T. Harrison, ‘Bacon, Hobbes, Boyle and the Ancient Atomists’, Harvard studies and notes in philology and literature, 15, (1933), 191–218 says nothing whatever about the pneumatic theory of matter or speculative philosophy (pp. 192–197). Henry Guerlac, Essays and papers in the history of modern science (Baltimore and London, 1977), 82–106 is sensibly reserved about the degree of Bacon's commitment to atomism (p. 87) but adds nothing to knowledge of the relationships between the pneumatic theory of matter and Bacon's ‘atomism’. J. R. Partington, A history of chemistry (4 vols., London, 1961–1970), vol. 2, 394–497.
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• Kargon , R.H. 1966 . Atomism in England from Hariot to Newton 43 – 44 . Oxford
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• Kargon's date for De principiis seems to be just a guess—like all the other dates that have been proposed. Rossi Francesco Barone: Dalla magia alla scienza , rev. ed. Giulio Einaudi Torino 1974 193 194 favours a much later date: ‘Il De principiis, che è uno scritto incompiuto e che tradisce una certa frettolosità di stesura, è quindi probabilmente da considerarsi come una serie di appunti preparati, intorno al 1623–4, per la revisione del De sapienta veterum’. However, the De principiis is no more unfinished or hurried than the Descriptio which was written in 1612. Rossi's proposal is based partly on a misunderstanding of remarks in Spedding's preface to the De sapientia. Spedding refers to Rawley's note that Bacon was revising the De sapientia in the last five years of his life (see The works of Francis Bacon (ed. J. Spedding, R. L. Ellis and D. D. Heath: 7 vols., London, 1859–1864), vol. I, 9–10; vol. 6, 615–616). Neither Rawley nor Spedding associate this exercise with the De principiis. By no stretch of the imagination is the De principiis a revision of the Cupid and Coelum fables of De sapientia—a revision in the same sense that the De augmentis is a revision of the Advancement. The Cupid fable and the De principiis share entire sentences at the beginning but thereafter the latter goes its own way—far beyond anything suggested in the De sapientia. It may be assumed that the De principiis was written after the De sapientia (1609); that is why I have dated it in the form (161–?). At present there seems to be no convincing evidence whatever for a more precise dating. I have accepted Spedding's reasons for dating the Cogitationes around 1604 (for his evidence see Works, vol. 3, 13–14). M. B. Hesse thinks that the Cogitationes is ‘almost certainly later’ than 1604, and adds that its treatment of atomism ‘is in some respects more subtle than that of De Principiis’ (see her ‘Francis Bacon’, in A critical history of western philosophy (ed. D. J. O'Connor: New York, 1964), 141–152, 561 (footnotes)). If Hesse means to suggest that the Cogitationes was written after the De principiis, then she is almost certainly mistaken. The Cogitationes must have been written before the Descriptio (1612), for part of the former was expanded and incorporated in the latter (see Works, vol. 3, 32–35, and compare pp. 749–752). Even if we disregard Spedding's powerful arguments for an earlier dating, the Cogitationes cannot be later than c. 1611. The De principiis cannot have been written before c. 1610, so can only have been written before the Cogitationes if we accept an implausibly late date for the latter and the very earliest possible date (of all the possible dates between c. 1610 and 1626) for the former. Hesse exaggerates Bacon's attachment to atomism (see footnotes 12 and 13 below); perhaps she suggests a later date for the Cogitationes because it is more tolerant of the atomists’ doctrines than the De principiis.
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• Kargon . 1966 . Atomism in England from Hariot to Newton 44 – 45 . Oxford
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• Kargon . 1966 . Atomism in England from Hariot to Newton 47 – 49 . Oxford
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• Hesse , M.B. 1970 . “ Francis Bacon ” . In DSB Vol. 1 , 372 – 377 . New York
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• Hesse , M.B. 1970 . “ Francis Bacon ” . In DSB Vol. 1 , 373 – 373 . New York Neither Hesse nor Kargon have the slighest inkling of the cosmological elaborations of the pneumatic theory of matter. Hesse (footnote 8), 149–152 devotes something like three times more space to Bacon's reflections on atomism and mechanism than to the pneumatic theory of matter and its elaborations. Nowhere does the mechanical tail more obviously wag the pneumatic dog.
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• See, for instance, Garner B.C. Francis Bacon, Natalis Comes and the mythological tradition Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 1970 33 264 291 Garner talks as if Bacon's pneumatism were consistent with atomism: “There is no reason to suppose that the spirits themselves are not composed of atoms’ (pp. 274–275). There is nothing wrong with this argument, except that Bacon denies it (see Works (footnote 8), vol. 3, 82; vol. 5, 464: ‘Itaque atomi neque ignis scintillis … neque spiritus aut aetheris minutiis, similes sunt’). Garner was trying to overcome the ‘contradiction’ between Bacon the atomist and Bacon the pneumatist. But if Bacon is not an atomist, there is no contradiction. Garner may have been influenced by Hesse (footnote 8), 151, who urged that Bacon's allegedly ‘conflicting views’ on matter could be reconciled by supposing that the action of the spirits ‘may be in some sense mechanical’. That is wishful thinking inspired by the assumption that Bacon was primarily a mechanical philosopher. Bacon did not (as I hope to show) have conflicting views about the nature of matter. The few effects which he ascribed to mechanical causes, to the interactions of the tangible parts of bodies, fit into his otherwise wholly non-mechanical philosophy without difficulty.
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• See Rees Graham Francis Bacon's semi-Paracelsian cosmology Ambix 1975 22 81 101
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• Bacon . 1859–1864 . The works of Francis Bacon Edited by: Spedding , J. , Ellis , R.L. and Heath , D.D. Vol. 2 , 350 – 351 . London 7 vols. 381, 616; vol. 5, 321, 325, 349.
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• Rees . 1975 . Francis Bacon's semi-Paracelsian cosmology . Ambix , 22 : 81 – 101 . passim.
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• Rees . 1975 . Francis Bacon's semi-Paracelsian cosmology . Ambix , 22 : 81 – 101 . See also Rees, ‘Bacon on verticity’ (footnote 4), passim.
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• Rees . 1977 . Matter theory; a unifying factor in Bacon's natural philosophy? . Ambix , 24 : 115 – 118 .
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• This sort of language is to be found (typically) in the Thema coeli for instance. See Bacon The works of Francis Bacon Spedding J. Ellis R.L. Heath D.D. London 1859–1864 3 769 780 7 vols. vol. 5, 547–559.
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• Spedding , James . 1861–1874 . The letters and life of Francis Bacon Vol. 7 , 123 – 126 . London vol. I
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• Spedding . 1861–1874 . The letters and life of Francis Bacon Vol. I , 379 – 379 . London 7 vols. ‘that hill of the Muses … a hill of the goodliest discovery that man can have, being a prospect upon all the errors and wanderings of the present and former times’. This echoes lines by Lucretius subsequently quoted by Bacon thirty years later in the essay ‘Of truth’ (see Works (footnote 8), vol. 6, 378; and Lvcreti de rerum natvra libri sex; recognovit brevique adnotatione critica instrvxit Cyrillus Bailey (Oxford 1900; repr. 1974), Lib. 2, ll. 1–13).
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• Spedding , J. , Ellis , R.L. and Heath , D.D. , eds. 1859–1864 . The works of Francis Bacon Vol. 7 , 253 – 253 . London 7 vols.
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• Spedding , J. , Ellis , R.L. and Heath , D.D. , eds. 1859–1864 . The works of Francis Bacon Vol. 3 , 532 – 532 . London 7 vols. There are also several references to Epicurus (but not to Epicurean atomism) in Of the colours of good and evil (1597), in Works (footnote 8), vol. 7, 78, 79, 91.
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• See, for example, Spedding The letters and life of Francis Bacon London 1861–1874 I 108 109 7 vols. 123–126, 334.
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• Rees . 1975 . Francis Bacon's semi-Paracelsian cosmology and the Great Instauration . Ambix , 22 : 163 – 164 .
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• Rees . 1975 . Francis Bacon's semi-Paracelsian cosmology and the Great Instauration . Ambix , 22 : 164 – 172 .
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• Rees . 1975 . Francis Bacon's semi-Paracelsian cosmology and the Great Instauration . Ambix , 22 : 172 – 173 . When my study of the influence of Bacon's cosmology on his plans for the Instauration was published, I did not know that he had entertained the hope that material might be promoted from Part Five to Part Six. That hope was not expressed in the Distributio operis (1620), the ‘official’ plan of the Instauration, but in an early draft of the plan entitled Partis instaurationis secundae delineatio et argumentum (c. 1607) we read: ‘Namque ipsi Interpretationi Naturae attribuuntur libri tres; tertius, quartus et sextus; siquidem quintus, qui ex Anticipationibus est secundum usum rationis communem, ad tempus tantum sumitur, et deinceps postquam figi coeperit atque ex usu rationis legitimo verificari, et transfertur et commigrat in sextum’ (Works (footnote 8), vol. 3, 547; compare vol. I, 143–144; vol. 4, 31–32).
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• Kargon . 1966 . Atomism in England from Hariot to Newton 45 – 45 . Oxford
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• Spedding , J. , Ellis , R.L. and Heath , D.D. , eds. 1859–1864 . The works of Francis Bacon Vol. 3 , 15 – 35 . London 7 vols. vol. 5, 419–439.
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• Spedding , J. , Ellis , R.L. and Heath , D.D. , eds. 1859–1864 . The works of Francis Bacon Vol. 3 , 23 – 23 . London 7 vols. 24, 27, 28, 31–32; vol. 5, 427, 428, 431, 432, 435–437.
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• Spedding , J. , Ellis , R.L. and Heath , D.D. , eds. 1859–1864 . The works of Francis Bacon Vol. 6 , 649 – 650 . London 7 vols. 654–657, 723–725, 729–731. See also sections 4 and 5 below. Of the thirty-one fables interpreted by Bacon, thirteen (Pan, Actaeon, Orpheus, Coelum, Proteus, Cupid, Daedalus, Erichthonius, Deucalion, Atalanta, Prometheus, Sphinx and Proserpina) are concerned with natural-philosophical matters. Cupid and Coelum are the sole ‘atomist’ fables. It is interesting that in his interpretation of Coelum Bacon does not once speak of atom or void (ibid., vol. 6, 649–50, 723–5).
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• Spedding , J. , Ellis , R.L. and Heath , D.D. , eds. 1859–1864 . The works of Francis Bacon Vol. 6 , 680 – 682 . London 7 vols. 758–761.
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• See The works of Francis Bacon Spedding J. Ellis R.L. Heath D.D. London 1859–1864 7
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• The De principiis is often misrepresented as an ‘atomist’ work, but most of it is devoted to an examination of the philosophies of non-atomists—principally Telesio (see The works of Francis Bacon Spedding J. Ellis R.L. Heath D.D. London 1859–1864 3 87 118 7 vols. vol. 5, 469–500
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• On the place of these texts in Bacon's output, see Rees Francis Bacon's semi-Paracelsian cosmology and the Great Instauration Ambix 1975 22 163 164 passim.
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• Spedding , J. , Ellis , R.L. and Heath , D.D. , eds. 1859–1864 . The works of Francis Bacon Vol. 6 , 656 – 656 . London 7 vols. 731.
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• Spedding , J. , Ellis , R.L. and Heath , D.D. , eds. 1859–1864 . The works of Francis Bacon Vol. 2 , 381 – 381 . London 7 vols.
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• Spedding , J. , Ellis , R.L. and Heath , D.D. , eds. 1859–1864 . The works of Francis Bacon Vol. 3 , 49 – 49 . London 7 vols. vol. 5, 445–446.
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• Spedding , J. , Ellis , R.L. and Heath , D.D. , eds. 1859–1864 . The works of Francis Bacon Vol. 3 , 115 – 116 . London 7 vols. vol. 5, 496–497. On Telesio's experiments see below in this section.
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• Spedding , J. , Ellis , R.L. and Heath , D.D. , eds. 1859–1864 . The works of Francis Bacon Vol. 3 , 88 – 88 . London 7 vols. vol. 5, 470.
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• Spedding , J. , Ellis , R.L. and Heath , D.D. , eds. 1859–1864 . The works of Francis Bacon Vol. 3 , 716 – 716 . London 7 vols.
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• Spedding , J. , Ellis , R.L. and Heath , D.D. , eds. 1859–1864 . The works of Francis Bacon Vol. 3 , 743 – 744 . London 7 vols. vol. 5, 518–520. For the constitution of the heavens according to the Thema see ibid., vol. 3, 772; vol. 5, 550.
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• Spedding , J. , Ellis , R.L. and Heath , D.D. , eds. 1859–1864 . The works of Francis Bacon Vol. I , 319 – 319 . London 7 vols. vol. 4, 204–205, for instance.
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• Spedding , J. , Ellis , R.L. and Heath , D.D. , eds. 1859–1864 . The works of Francis Bacon Vol. 3 , 17 – 17 . London 7 vols. I have altered the translator's rendering. For Bacon ‘aetheris’ invariably means ‘of the [celestial] ether’, not ‘of the air’.
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• Spedding , J. , Ellis , R.L. and Heath , D.D. , eds. 1859–1864 . The works of Francis Bacon Vol. 3 , 23 – 23 . London 7 vols. 24, 27, 28, 31–32; vol. 5, 427, 428, 431, 432, 435–437.
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• Spedding , J. , Ellis , R.L. and Heath , D.D. , eds. 1859–1864 . The works of Francis Bacon Vol. 2 , 213 – 213 . London 7 vols. vol. 5, 321.
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• Spedding , J. , Ellis , R.L. and Heath , D.D. , eds. 1859–1864 . The works of Francis Bacon Vol. 2 , 380 – 380 . London 7 vols.
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• Spedding , J. , Ellis , R.L. and Heath , D.D. , eds. 1859–1864 . The works of Francis Bacon Vol. 2 , 303 – 303 . London 7 vols. vol. 5, 398. The Historia densi was not published until 1658. The date of composition is therefore conjectural but cannot be far off the mark. Bacon died in 1626. In 1622 he promised to write a history on the subject of dense and rare. Rawley says that it was written after the Historia vitae et mortis (1623): see ibid., vol. 1, 9; vol. 2, 11,
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• For instance, he tries to explain what attached spirits are by saying what they are not—namely, vacuum: ‘Sometimes they take them for vacuum; whereas they are the most active of bodies’ The works of Francis Bacon Spedding J. Ellis R.L. Heath D.D. London 1859–1864 2 380 380 7 vols. Conversely, when explaining the Democritean concept of the atom, Bacon asserts that atoms are not like ‘particles of spirit or ether’ (ibid., vol. 3, 82; vol. 5, 464).
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• Spedding , J. , Ellis , R.L. and Heath , D.D. , eds. 1859–1864 . The works of Francis Bacon Vol. 1 , 323 – 324 . London 7 vols. 351–352; vol. 2, 266–268, 635; vol. 4, 209, 235; vol. 5, 361–362.
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• See Schmitt C.B. Experimental evidence for and against a void: the sixteenth-century arguments Isis 1967 58 352 366 For earlier ‘experimental’ arguments on the subject of the void, see Edward Grant, ‘Medieval explanations and interpretations of the dictum that “Nature abhors a vacuum”’, Traditio, 29 (1973), 327–355.
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• Telesio , Bernadino . 1910–1921 . De rerum natura Edited by: Spampanato , Vincenzo . Vol. 3 , 87 – 88 . Modena vol. 1
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• Another instance of his resistance to the implications of empirical evidence is to be seen in his response to Galileo's telescopic discoveries; see Rees Francis Bacon's semi-Paracelsian cosmology and the Great Instauration Ambix 1975 22 94 95
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• Spedding , J. , Ellis , R.L. and Heath , D.D. , eds. 1859–1864 . The works of Francis Bacon Vol. 6 , 655 – 655 . London 7 vols. 729–730. It is interesting to note that when Bacon incorporated this passage in the De principiis, he omitted the reference to the natural motion of the atom (see ibid., vol. 3, 80–81; vol. 5, 462–463).
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• See Hesse Francis Bacon A critical history of western philosophy O'Connor D.J. New York 1964 143 143 in On the special position of final causes in the philosophy of Aristotle see Metaphysica 982b and Physica 994b; also see E. J. Dijksterhuis, The mechanization of the world picture (trans. C. Dikshoorn; Oxford, 1961), 41.
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• Spedding , J. , Ellis , R.L. and Heath , D.D. , eds. 1859–1864 . The works of Francis Bacon Vol. 1 , 181 – 181 . London 7 vols. 185; vol. 3, 84, 567; vol. 4, 72, 76; vol. 5, 466.
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• Spedding , J. , Ellis , R.L. and Heath , D.D. , eds. 1859–1864 . The works of Francis Bacon Vol. 1 , 186 – 186 . London 7 vols. 197; vol. 4, 77, 88; vol. 6, 672, 749.
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• Spedding , J. , Ellis , R.L. and Heath , D.D. , eds. 1859–1864 . The works of Francis Bacon Vol. 1 , 128 – 130 . London 7 vols. vol. 4, 18–20.
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• On the relationships between these philosophies see below; and also Rees Francis Bacon's semi-Paracelsian cosmology and the Great Instauration Ambix 1975 22 173 173
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• Spedding , J. , Ellis , R.L. and Heath , D.D. , eds. 1859–1864 . The works of Francis Bacon Vol. 1 , 213 – 216 . London 7 vols. vol. 3, 83, 86, 242; vol. 4, 106–108; vol. 5, 465, 468.
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• For Cardan's definition of ‘subtlety’ see Hieronymi Cardani Mediolanensis medici de Subtilitate libri XXI … Basel 1560 1 8 8 For Scaliger's definition see Ivlii Caesaris Scaligeri exotericarum exercitationum liber quintvs decimvs, de subtilitate, ad Hieronymvm Cardanvm … Lvtetiae … MDLVII, Ex. 1 (‘QUID SIT SVBTILITAS’), fol. 1r. Bacon knew both these works; he criticises Cardan very severely in Temporis partus masculus (see Works (footnote 8), vol. 3, 530).
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• Spedding , J. , Ellis , R.L. and Heath , D.D. , eds. 1859–1864 . The works of Francis Bacon Vol. 1 , 319 – 319 . London 7 vols. vol. 4, 204. See also vol. 3, 15; vol. 5, 419.
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• Spedding . 1861–1874 . The letters and life of Francis Bacon Vol. 3 , 85 – 85 . London 7 vols. Works (footnote 8), vol. 3, 518, 737–738; vol. 5, 514–515.
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• These bodies are the various sorts of spirits. On the density and rarity of pneumatic bodies ‘one compared with another’ see The works of Francis Bacon Spedding J. Ellis R.L. Heath D.D. London 1859–1864 2 255 256 7 vols. vol. 5, 350–352.
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• Spedding , J. , Ellis , R.L. and Heath , D.D. , eds. 1859–1864 . The works of Francis Bacon Vol. 1 , 168 – 169 . London 7 vols. vol. 4, 58.
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• Spedding , J. , Ellis , R.L. and Heath , D.D. , eds. 1859–1864 . The works of Francis Bacon Vol. 2 , 259 – 259 . London 7 vols. vol. 5, 354: ‘Let it not be thought that this inquiry and speculation on pneumatic bodies is too subtle or curious. For it is certain that the omission and neglect hereof have paralysed philosophy and medicine, and made them as it were planet-struck; so that they have stood amazed and helpless as far as the true investigation of causes is concerned; attributing to qualities things which are owing to the spirits’. See also ibid., vol. 2, 380–382.
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• Spedding , J. , Ellis , R.L. and Heath , D.D. , eds. 1859–1864 . The works of Francis Bacon Vol. 1 , 232 – 233 . London 7 vols. vol. 4, 123–124.
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• Spedding , J. , Ellis , R.L. and Heath , D.D. , eds. 1859–1864 . The works of Francis Bacon Vol. 1 , 233 – 234 . London 7 vols. vol. 4, 124–125.
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• Spedding , J. , Ellis , R.L. and Heath , D.D. , eds. 1859–1864 . The works of Francis Bacon Vol. 3 , 565 – 565 . London 7 vols.
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• Spedding , J. , Ellis , R.L. and Heath , D.D. , eds. 1859–1864 . The works of Francis Bacon Vol. 1 , 234 – 234 . London 7 vols. vol. 4, 125–126.
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• Spedding , J. , Ellis , R.L. and Heath , D.D. , eds. 1859–1864 . The works of Francis Bacon Vol. 1 , 234 – 235 . London 7 vols. vol. 4. 126.
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• Spedding , J. , Ellis , R.L. and Heath , D.D. , eds. 1859–1864 . The works of Francis Bacon Vol. 2 , 381 – 381 . London 7 vols.
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• Spedding , J. , Ellis , R.L. and Heath , D.D. , eds. 1859–1864 . The works of Francis Bacon Vol. 2 , 381 – 382 . London 7 vols.
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• Spedding , J. , Ellis , R.L. and Heath , D.D. , eds. 1859–1864 . The works of Francis Bacon Vol. 2 , 382 – 382 . London 7 vols.
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