The Advancement of Learning (Modern Library Science) - Softcover

Bacon, Francis

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0375758461 ISBN 13: 9780375758461

Publisher: Random House Publishing Group, 2001

Synopsis

Advancement of Learning Francis Bacon, lawyer, statesman, and philosopher, remains one of the most effectual thinkers in European intellectual history. We can trace his influence from Kant in the 1700s to Darwin a century later. The Advancement of Learning, first published in 1605, contains an unprecedented and thorough systematization of the whole range of human knowledge. Bacon's argument that the sciences should ... Full description

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Review

While he didn't exactly invent science, Francis Bacon is its best-known early promoter. The Advancement of Learning is his 1605 argument in favour of natural philosophy and inductive reasoning, and is just as vigorous and cogent today. Though using the language of Shakespeare, the book is still largely accessible to modern readers--still, a bit of classical knowledge is helpful. Shaking off the centuries-old domination of Aristotle, Bacon advocated building scientific theories on facts and observations rather than pure reason; little has changed in our approach to understanding the world since then. Of greatest interest to historians and philosophers of science, the book will also appeal to those curious about the underpinnings of today's naturalistic thinking. --Rob Lightner

Review

The OFB includes a great deal of new information concerning the history of the transmission of Bacon's texts, thanks to the progress made in Bacon scholarship ... I cannot imagine a scholar who would not give preference to the convenience and complexity of the new Bacon volumes. (Acta Comeniana)

Besides the texts themselves, the volumes include substantial introductions by the editors, detailed commentary and a useful glossary that gives the modern equivalents of Bacon's terms. Moreover, scholars can consult the meticulous technical descriptions of the texts reproduced and collated. (Acta Comeniana)

The product of thorough, painstaking, and judicious scholarship ... should serve to strengthen the vitality and visibility of the Bacon project, and fulfil the aim of all sound critical editions: to ensure that the work will not need to be redone for a very long time. (Notes and Queries)

This commentary, like the introduction, is underpinned by wide-ranging and sure-footed scholarship. (Notes and Queries)

A thoroughly impressive job ... Kiernan begins his introduction with a fluent and efficient analytic summary of the contents of Bacon's book ... assured and authoritative bibliographical section. (Notes and Queries)

This new edition of The Advancement of Learning is indeed more correct, more faithful, more profitable, and more diligent than any of its predecessors, and it is most warmly welcome. (Review of English Studies)

Many of Kiernan's notes become mini-essays in themselves, striking exactly the right balance between textual, semantic, and cultural elucidation, as well as providing summary guides to current Bacon research. (Review of English Studies)

Kiernan is especially good in tracking classical and contemporary allusions; in situating Bacon on the social and political map of his day; and in discussing Bacon's understanding of humanism, rhetoric, dialectic, and moral philosophy. (Sixteenth Century Journal)

Edition details

• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0375758461
• ISBN 13: 9780375758461
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 256