The Advancement of Learning

Bacon, Francis

ISBN 10: 1770833196 / ISBN 13: 9781770833197

Published by Theophania Publishing, 2011

About this Item

Seller Inventory # 21042328-n

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Advancement of Learning
• Publisher: Theophania Publishing
• Publication Date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1770833196
• ISBN 13: 9781770833197
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

Thank you for checking out this book by Theophania Publishing. We appreciate your business and look forward to serving you soon. We have thousands of titles available, and we invite you to search for us by name, contact us via our website, or download our most recent catalogues. In the entrance to the former of these, to clear the way and, as it were, to make silence, to have the true testimonies concerning the dignity of learning to be better heard, without the interruption of tacit objections, I think good to deliver it from the discredits and disgraces which it hath received, all from ignorance, but ignorance severally disguised; appearing sometimes in the zeal and jealousy of divines, sometimes in the severity and arrogancy of politics, and sometimes in the errors and imperfections of learned men themselves. I hear the former sort say that knowledge is of those things which are to be accepted of with great limitation and caution; that the aspiring to overmuch knowledge was the original temptation and sin whereupon ensued the fall of man; that knowledge hath in it somewhat of the serpent, and, therefore, where it entereth into a man it makes him swell; Scientia inflat; that Solomon gives a censure, “That there is no end of making books, and that much reading is weariness of the flesh;” and again in another place, “That in spacious knowledge there is much contristation, and that he that increaseth knowledge increaseth anxiety;” that Saint Paul gives a caveat, “That we be not spoiled through vain philosophy;” that experience demonstrates how learned men have been arch heretics, how learned times have been inclined to atheism, and how the contemplation of second causes doth derogate from our dependence upon God, who is the first cause.

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