Francis Bacon’s Natural Philosophy and the Laws of Nature

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This book offers a uniquely comprehensive and authoritative account of the natural philosophy and of the conception of the laws of nature by Francis Bacon, one of the leading English reformers of natural science and an inspirer of the Scientific Revolution.

This book offers a uniquely comprehensive and authoritative account of the natural philosophy and of the conception of the laws of nature by Francis Bacon, one of the leading English reformers of natural science and an inspirer of the Scientific Revolution. The first part of the book focuses on the concepts central to his natural philosophy which are keys to understanding his account of the laws of nature, including his account of the creation of the universe and the several great stages of nature, of necessity and chance in natural events, the theory of matter and motion, and his cosmology. The second part examines four types of entities that explain the regularity of nature and shows how they form a system. This part also addresses a full interpretation of his controversial concept of forms, the relation of Bacon’s natural philosophy to his jurisprudence, provides a new insight into Bacon’s approach of induction, and discusses the relation between his speculative philosophy and his method. It is argued that Bacon has a unique view of the laws of nature which can be seen as a transition from ancient, medieval, and Renaissance approaches to early modern views.

Francis Bacon’s Natural Philosophy and the Laws of Nature will be of special interest to Francis Bacon scholars, historians of Renaissance and early modern philosophy and science, historians of law, historians of theology, Renaissance scholars and early modern English studies scholars.

Obsah

Introduction

Bacon on nature and laws

Methodological considerations

Summary of the chapters

Part I

Chapter 1

Background and Contexts of Bacon’s Natural Philosophy

1.1. The sources

1.2. Natural philosophy and religion

1.3. Natural philosophy and mythology

1.4. Natural philosophy and law

1.5. Active life and contemplative life

Chapter 2

The History of Nature

2.1. The stages of the history of nature

2.2. The Holy Trinity in the history of nature

2.3. Creation and God’s double emanation

2.4. The tension between discord and concord

2.5. The human species, fallen nature, and restoration

Chapter 3

Necessity and Contingency in Nature and Human Life

3.1. Determinism, divine providence, and fate

3.2. Fate and causal necessity

3.3. The ends of nature: particular and universal teleology

3.4. God’s will and power and secondary causation

3.5. Fortune in human life

3.6. Chance, “epistemic chance”, and restoration

Chapter 4

The Constitution of Matter: From Atoms to Latent Schematisms

4.1. The constitution of matter and the principle of things

4.2. Prime matter, prime form and secondary forms

4.3. Atomic attributes

4.4. The evolution of the stance towards atomism

4.5. Latent schematisms

4.6. Simple natures and latent schematisms

Chapter 5

Motion

5.1. Motion and change

5.2. Motion and appetites

5.3. Classifications of motion and rules of predominance

5.4. Violent motion and the motion of liberty

5.5. Place, rest and local motion

5.6. The qualitative and quantitative approach of matter and motion

Chapter 6

Cosmology

Part II

Chapter 7

The Summary Law of Nature

7.1. The “highest generality of motion”

7.2. The vertex of nature’s pyramid: unity and multiplicity

7.3. The summary law of nature in the atomist writings

7.4. The knowledge of the summary law of nature

Chapter 8

The Maxims of Natural Philosophy, the Law of the Conservation of Matter and the Law of the Preservation of the Greater Whole

8.1. First philosophy

8.2. Maxims of first philosophy and legal maxims

8.3. Baconian induction, legal induction, and “anticipations”

8.4. The law of the conservation of matter

8.5. The law of the preservation of the greater whole

8.6. Further maxims of natural philosophy

Chapter 9

Forms

9.1. The multiple meanings and the scope of Baconian forms

9.2. Forms as essences and the question of convertibility

9.3. “True difference”, “natura naturans”, and “source of emanation”

9.4. Forms as laws of properties

9.5. Forms as laws of science

9.6. The theological background and normativity of forms

Chapter 10

Customs of Nature

10.1. Physical and metaphysical causes

10.2. The epistemic critique of final causes

10.3. Customs of nature and exceptions

10.4. The legal background and the epistemological status of the customs of nature

10.5. Artificial customs in human life

10.6. Operative science: manipulating natural customs

Chapter 11

Miracles from Nature to Art

11.1. Supernatural, natural, preternatural, and artificial

11.2. Miracles of God: Are the laws of nature inviolable?

11.3. Miracles of nature

11.4. Two notions of preternatural and the exceptions to the customary paths of nature

11.5. Miracles of art

11.6. The limits and possibilities of art

Chapter 12

The Nomological System and its Ontological, Epistemological and Historical Import

12.1. A comparison of the nomological types

12.2. The system

12.3. Theology, jurisprudence and Bacon’s quasi-materialism

12.4. The epistemological status of the laws, Bacon’s speculative philosophy and method

12.5. The laws of nature in the seventeenth-century context

12.6. The Baconian laws of nature in the seventeenth-century context

Reference list