Francis Bacon 培根作品简介

Francis Bacon and His Works

Francis Bacon

Francis Bacon(1561—1626)was one of the leading figures in natural philosophy and in the field of scientific methodology in the period of transition from the Renaissance to the early modern era.

He studied at Cambridge (Trinity College) and Gray's Inn, entered Parliament, and gradually established his reputation, but made little progress during Elizabeth's reign.

Works

Francis Bacon left vast and varied writings, which might be divided into three great branches:

Scientifical works — in which his ideas for an universal reform of knowledge, scientific method and the improvement of mankind's state are presented.

Religious/literary works — in which he presents his moral philosophy and theological meditations. Juridical works — in which his reforms in Law are proposed.

Contributions

Francis Bacon had made great contributions on Literature, Philosophy, Science, law and art. Literature:

Francis Bacon’s literatur al work mostly are proses and essays. There are some features of Bacon's essays: ①the language is very neat, pretty and weighty. ②the sentences are very short. Bacon also likes to use more co-ordinate conjunctions than the subordinated ones, such as "as, since, because". ③the devices are parallelism, epigrams(警句), metaphor,and simile.

And his most important work is Essay, which was regarded as one of the greatest prose works in the world for its brevity, compactness and powerfulness. Essay covers a wide variety of subjects, such as love, truth, friendship, politics, economy, religion, beauty, studies, and marriage.

Of Truth

Ⅰ Brief Introduction

●First published in 1625

●Francis Bacon declares that truth in the philosophical and theological sense, as well as honesty in the

civil business sense, are the "sovereign good of human nature."

Ⅱ Background Information

“What is truth?” said jesting Pilate (Full name: Pontius Pilate)

●According to the new testament scripture, at first, Pilate thinks Jesus is innocent, for he had questioned

Jesus for many times. But under the pressure of the jewish religious leaders, Jesus was sentenced to death.

●In the conversation between Pilate and Jesus, Pilate asked,''what have you done?'' Then, Pilate

asked:“What is truth?”

●Actually Pilate knew Jesus was innocent but he still asked , “What is truth” . At that time a lot of people

like Pilate, they do know what is truth but they pretend they don’t know .

●Bacon uses this Bible story to introduce his topic——truth. He wants to tell people what is truth and

what attitude should we take towards truth.

Ⅲ Topic

The inquiry of truth, which is the love-making or wooing of it, the knowledge of truth, which is the presence of it, and the belief of truth, which is the enjoying of it, is the sovereign good of human nature.

Ⅳ Sentences Analysis

1. “But it is not only the difficulty and labor, which men take in finding out of truth, nor again, that when it is found, it imposeth upon men's thoughts, that doth bring lies in favor; but a natural though corrupt love, of the lie itself.”

●Up to this point Bacon is saying there are few philosophical skeptics left but humans still prefer the

freedom to choose their own views over the hard work of pursuing truth especially since they consider truth constricting.

2. No advantage

Bacon writes “One of the later school of the Grecians, examineth the matter, and is at a stand, to think what should be in it, that men should love lies; where neither they make for pleasure, as with poets, nor for advantage, as with the merchant; but for the lie's sake.”

3. Advantages

Bacon writes “A mixture of a lie doth ever add pleasure. Doth any man doubt, that if there were taken out of men's minds, vain opinions, flattering hopes, false valuations, imaginations as one would, and the like”

4. Disadvantages