Abstract
The first part of this paper will provide a reconstruction of Francis Bacon’s interpretation of Academic scepticism, Pyrrhonism, and Dogmatism, and its sources throughout his large corpus. It shall also analyze Bacon’s approach against the background of his intellectual milieu, looking particularly at Renaissance readings of scepticism as developed by Guillaume Salluste du Bartas, Pierre de la Primaudaye, Fulke Greville, and John Davies. It shall show that although Bacon made more references to Academic than to Pyrrhonian Scepticism, like most of his contemporaries, he often misrepresented and mixed the doctrinal components of both currents. The second part of the paper shall offer a complete chronological survey of Bacon’s assessment of scepticism throughout his writings. Following the lead of previous studies by other scholars, I shall support the view that, while he approved of the state of doubt and the suspension of judgment as a provisional necessary stage in the pursuit of knowledge, he rejected the notion of acatalepsia. To this received reading, I shall add the suggestion that Bacon’s criticism of acatalepsia ultimately depends on his view of the historical conditions that surround human nature. I deal with this last point in the third part of the paper, where I shall argue that Bacon’s evaluation of scepticism relied on his adoption of a Protestant and Augustinian view of human nature that informed his overall interpretation of the history of humanity and nature, including the sceptical schools.
The following abbreviations will be used to for the individual works of Bacon: ADV (The Advancement of Learning), Colors (Colors of good and evil), CNR (Cogitationes de natura rerum), CV (Cogitata et visa), DAU (De dignitate et augmentis scientiarum), DO (Distributio operis), DSV (De sapientia veterum), HVM (Historia vitae et mortis), NO (Novum organum), RPH (Redargutio philosophiarum), SI (Scala intellectus), TPM (Temporis partus masculus), VT (Valerius terminus). SEH: The Works of Francis Bacon, eds. James Spedding, Robert Leslie Ellis and Douglas Denon Heath, 7 vols., London: Longman, 1859–1864. OFB: The Oxford Francis Bacon, eds. Graham Rees and Lisa Jardine, 15 vols., Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1996-.
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Notes
- 1.
In CV SEH III 602 and RPH SEH III 570, Bacon mentions these and other authors (such as Aristotle, Plato, Plutarch and Lucretius) as his sources of ancient philosophy.
- 2.
- 3.
See note 51.
- 4.
- 5.
Hamlin (2005) p. 54.
- 6.
Bacon mentions Du Bartas (1544–1590) in alluding to a passage of his La Sémaine (1578) (ii, 222, lines 1–2) in ADV OFB IV 20 and DAU SEH I 449. In addition to the fact that he may have met Du Bartas during his stay in Poitiers in 1577, several external circumstances connect Du Bartas to him. Du Bartas praised Bacon’s father, Nicholas, as one of four pillars of the English language along with Thomas More, Philip Sydney and Queen Elizabeth. On the other hand, Anthony Bacon, Francis’ brother, had met Du Bartas in France during the 1580s, and apparently sponsored the translation into English of La Sémaine and of La Seconde Sémaine (1585). One English translation of part of this work published in 1595 (The First Day of the Worldes Creation) was dedicated to him, and of the six parts of The Second Week that Josuah Sylvester translated and published in 1598, two each were dedicated to Anthony Bacon and to the Earl of Essex. King James admired Du Bartas, who visited him in Edinburgh. La Sémaine became enormously popular in Joshua Sylvester’s often-reprinted translation. See Du Bartas 1979, vol. 1, pp. 15–16; 96–97; ADV OFB IV note pp. 219–220; Jardine-Stewart (1998) pp. 100–101.
- 7.
On evidences of Bacon’s acquaintance with La Primaudaye (1546–1619) and Mornay (1549–1623), see Jalobeanu (2012) pp. 221–223.
- 8.
Hamlin (2005) pp. 36–42.
- 9.
Lia Formigari (1988) pp. 4–5 and 11, attributes to Bacon a linguistic scepticism, and argues that his theory of idols is a tribute paid to the sceptical crisis of his age. She indicates some parallels between Bacon and Sanches. Without claiming that there is any evidence of Bacon’s acquaintance with Sanches’s work, Granada (2006) pp. 99, 101–103, shows that there are evident coincidences in their arguments.
- 10.
Jefferson and Maia Neto (2009) argue that there are general affinities at various points between Bacon’s stance towards knowledge, and those maintained by Montaigne, Charron and Sanches.
- 11.
Bacon was personally related to Greville (1554–1628), who was a favorite at the court of Elizabeth I, Earl of Essex’s kinsman and member of Philip Sidney’s intellectual circle. See Jardine-Stewart (1998) passim and introduction to A letter of advice to Fulke Greville OFB I 199–205. As for Sir John Davies of Hereford (1569–1626), there remain at least four letters written by Bacon to him (The Letters and Life of Francis Bacon, vol. III, p. 65; vol. IV, pp. 5–6; Davies (1876) vol. 1, p. xl-xlii). In addition, in his Scourge of Folly, Davies addressed a sonnet to Bacon. See also M. Kiernan’s note, in Essays OFB XV 179, who refers to Baker (1952) pp. 144–54. On the sceptical doctrines in these English authors, see Hamlin (2005) passim and Chaudhuri (2006) part III.
- 12.
Essays OFB XV 7.
- 13.
Smith (2012) p. 36.
- 14.
- 15.
Sextus Empiricus, HP, I, 1. A terminological remark is necessary here. When talking about the philosophical outlook opposed to Scepticism Bacon did not use the word “dogmatic” neither any particular denomination. On the other hand, he called “dogmatists” the “rationalist” philosophers, but he used the term not in the sense coined by Sextus. See for instance NO OFB XI 152–153 (book I, aph. 95).
- 16.
NO OFB XI 52, Preface. In many cases, I quote Jardine and Silverthorne’s translation of Bacon (2000a), sometimes slightly revising the translation.
- 17.
Bacon, In praise of Knowledge, in The Letters and Life of Francis Bacon, vol. 1, p. 125.
- 18.
Bacon, “Of love and self-love”, in The Letters and Life of Francis Bacon, vol. 1, p. 379.
- 19.
Lucretius, De rerum natura, II, 1–10.
- 20.
ADV OFB IV 52.
- 21.
Essays OFB XV 8; ADV OFB IV 52. On the argument of “Of Truth” see Derrin (2013) pp. 67–71.
- 22.
Bacon, “Of love and self-love”, in The Letters and Life of Francis Bacon, ed. Spedding, vol. I, p. 383.
- 23.
Cicero, De natura deorum, I viii 18.
- 24.
ADV OFB IV 31. For more mentions of Velleius see TPM SEH III 536; ADV OFB IV 116–117.
- 25.
NO OFB XI 108–109 (book I, aph. 67).
- 26.
Ibid.
- 27.
ADV OFB IV 31; 123.
- 28.
ADV OFB IV 31.
- 29.
ADV OFB IV 27–28.
- 30.
ADV OFB IV 28, 31, 91–92; DAU I SEH 562; DO OFB XI 44; SI SEH II 688; NO OFB XI 52, 78, 188.
- 31.
See Sextus Empiricus, HP I 1–2.
- 32.
VT SEH III 244; TPM SEH III 537–538; NO OFB XI 108–109 (book 1, aph. 67).
- 33.
ADV OFB IV 110–111; DAU SEH I 622.
- 34.
DAU SEH I 719.
- 35.
Colors SEH VII 78; DSV SEH VI 672; NO OFB XI 57, Preface; NO OFB XI 118–119 (book 1, aph. 75); RPH SEH III 580; HVM OFB XII 232.
- 36.
Granada (2006) p. 91.
- 37.
NO OFB XI 108–109 (book I, aph. 67): “At noua Academia Acatalepsiam dogmatizauit, & ex professo tenuit. Quae licet honestior ratio sit, quam pronunciandi licentia, quum ipsi pro se dicant, se minime confundere inquisitionem, vt Pyrrho fecit, & Ephectici, sed habere quod sequantur vt probabile, licet non habeant quod teneant vt verum”.
- 38.
DAU SEH I 719. The mention of Pyrrhonism does not occur in the parallel passage of the Advancement (ADV OFB IV 138). On the political and moral contexts of this discussion, see Peltonen (1995) p. 142. Hamlin suggests that this passage of DAU may echo Cicero, Tusculanae Disputationes, V, 85. The moral doctrines of Herillus and Pyrrho are to be found in Cicero, De finibus, IV, 15, 40. The association of Pyrrho with Herillus was not unusual in the early modern reception of scepticism. See Hamlin (2005) pp. 31, 77, 87.
- 39.
VT SEH III 244. This passage of VT was probably the draft on which Bacon based the account of scepticism offered later in ADV OFB IV 110-111 and DAU SEH I 622.
- 40.
Colors SEH VII 78: “the Academics, which suspended all asseveration”.
- 41.
ADV OFB IV 111.
- 42.
“Nova Academia” in NO (book 1, aph. 67); DSV SEH VI 672 and DAU SEH I 622; “second Academy” in VT SEH III 244; “later Academy” in ADV OFB IV 111; “recentiore Academia”; “utraque Academia (veteri et nova)” in DAU SEH I 622.
- 43.
NO OFB XI 108–109 (book I, aph., 67): “At noua Academia Acatalepsiam dogmatizauit, & ex professo tenuit.” Apparently an earlier draft of this sentence appears in RPH SEH III 580: “Hinc Schola Academica, quae ex professo Akatalepsiam tenuit.” (My emphasis in both quotations). The treatment of scepticism is much briefer in RPH than in NO book I, aph. 67. In RPH, no mention of Pyrrhonism or of the first period of the Academy is made. Remarkably, in the version of the sentence presented in NO, Bacon adds “nova” to “Academia”, likely to stress the contrasts with respect to acatalepsia between the old and new Academy.
- 44.
ADV OFB IV 110–111; cf. 31.
- 45.
ADV OFB IV 110–111; 31; DAU SHE I 622. The Latin version of this passage (DAU SEH I 621–622) adds that acatalepsia was adopted “still more among the Sceptics” (“multo magis inter Scepticos”). In the context of this passage in which Bacon makes a major distinction between “Academici (…) et Sceptici”, “Sceptici” seems to intend the Pyrrhonians.
- 46.
HVM OFB XII 232–233.
- 47.
- 48.
NO OFB XI 52–53, Preface.
- 49.
NO OFB XI 108–109 (book 1, aph. 67).
- 50.
- 51.
Colors SEH VII 78.
- 52.
This depiction reminds us of Du Bartas’s characterization of Pyrrho as dominated by “wavering fantasies” which make him ridiculous. Du Bartas (1979), vol. I, 283.
- 53.
TPM SEH III 537–538. I quote the English translation from Farrington (1964), p. 71.
- 54.
This is probably the first draft of passages in ADV and DAU SEH I 621.
- 55.
ADV OFB IV 111; DAU SEH I 622.
- 56.
Bacon said that this is a mere “professio”. This word could be linked to his statement according to which Academics held acatalepsia “ex professo” in NO OFB XI 108–109 (book I, aph. 67) and RPH SEH III 580.
- 57.
RPH SEH III 579–580. Cf. the slightly modified version of this text in Preface to the Instauratio Magna in OFB XI 14.
- 58.
RPH SEH III 580.
- 59.
SI SEH II 688: “Veruntamen negare plane non possumus, quin si qua nobis cum antiquis intercedat societas, ea cum hoc genere philosophiae maxime conjuncta sit; cum multa ab illis de sensuum variationibus et judicii humani infirmitate et de cohibendo et sustinendo assensu prudenter dicta et animadversa probemus; quibus etiam in numera alia, quae eodem pertinent, adjungere possemus; adeo ut inter nos et illos hoc tantum intersit, quod illi nil vere sciri posse prorsus, nos nil vere sciri posse ea qua adhuc gens humana ingressa est via, statuamus.”
- 60.
SI SEH II 688 : “Sed tamen rursus in hac de qua diximus societate facile quis perspexerit, nos earum illos viros initiis opinionum conjunctos, exitu in immensum divisos esse. Etsi enim primo non multum dissentire videamur, quod illis incompetentiam humani intellectus simpliciter, nos sub modo asseramus”
- 61.
NO OFB XI 78 (book I, aph. 37): “Ratio eorum, qui Acatalepsiam tenuerunt, & via nostra initiis suis quodammodo consentiunt; exitu immensum disiunguntur et opponuntur. Illi enim nihil sciri posse simpliciter asserunt; Nos, non multum sciri posse in Natura, ea, quae nunc in vsu est, via: Verum illi exinde authoritatem sensus & intellectus destruunt; Nos auxilia ijsdem excogitamus & subministramus.”
- 62.
The sense in which Bacon claimed to agree with the sceptics in its initial positions has been very well analyzed by Smith (2012), and I rely on his study.
- 63.
- 64.
ADV OFB IV 31.
- 65.
ADV OFB IV 91; DAU SEH I 562. The reference to the sceptical tenets is more explicit in the DAU Latin version: “de eo suspenditur judicium”; “statim defensores in utramque partem suscitabit”. The function that Bacon attributes to Problemata, and this subtle association of it with sceptical techniques, by no means appear to have been typical of the Renaissance reception of this extremely popular literary genre. See Blair (1999).
- 66.
Hamlin (2005) p. 142.
- 67.
Translated as “mental grasp” in Cicero (1967).
- 68.
Cicero, Academica, II.vi.17–18.
- 69.
Akatalepsia has been translated variously by modern scholarship. Charles Schmitt has rendered it as “the failure to grasp”; Schmitt (1972) p. 71. Annas and Barnes in their translation of Sextus Empiricus and The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Scepticism (Bett 2010) have rendered it as “inapprehensibility”. As for the translators of Bacon, Brian Vickers glosses akatalepsia as a term used by sceptics “to argue that reality is ‘non-apprehensible’” (Bacon (2002) p. 636). The Spedding translation have rendered akatalepsia as “to comprehend anything” (SEH IV 39, preface to NO) or “a denial of the capacity of the mind to comprehend truth” (SEH IV 111). Jardine and Silverthorne have opted to render the Latin word as “lack of conviction”, Bacon (2000a) p. 40, whereas The Oxford Francis Bacon inserted a gloss into Bacon’s Latin which defines akatalepsia as the notion “that knowledge is unattainable”.
- 70.
NO OFB XI 118–119 (book I, aph. 75): “Hinc schola Academiae nouae, quae Acatalepsiam ex professo tenuit, & homines ad sempiternas tenebras damnauit”. Cf. RPH SEH III 580: “Hinc Schola Academica, quae ex professo Acatalepsiam tenuit, et homines ad sempiternas tenebras damnavit.”
- 71.
DO OFB XI 34.
- 72.
CV SEH III 607. Cf. NO OFB XI 78–80 (book I, aph. 41).
- 73.
DO OFB XI 44: “Istam vero Iudicii suspensionem non est quod exhorreat quispiam in Doctrina, quae non simpliciter nil sciri posse, sed nil nisi certo ordine & certa via sciri posse asserit.”
- 74.
NO OFB XI 188–190 (book I, aph. 126): “Occurret & illud: nos, propter inhibitionem quandam pronuntiandi, & principia certa ponendi, donec per medios gradus ad Generalissima rite peruentum sit; Suspensionem quandam iudicij tueri, atque ad Acatalepsiam rem deducere. Nos vero non Acatalepsiam, sed Eucatalepsiam meditamur et proponimus: Sensui enim non derogamus, sed ministramus; &Intellectum non contemnimus, sed regimus. Atque melius est scire quantum opus sit, & tamen nos non penitus scire putare, quam penitus scire nos putare, & tamen nil eorum quae Opus est scire”.
- 75.
- 76.
- 77.
Hovey (1991) pp. 72–73.
- 78.
- 79.
Du Bartas (1979) vol I, 323–324 (II.1 Eden, 261–8). I quote from the English translation by Josuah Sylvester.
- 80.
Harrison (2007) p. 11.
- 81.
Calvin, Institutes, II, ii. 12.
- 82.
- 83.
Primaudaye (1594) pp. 182–185. The French original of the Academie Francaise was published in several parts from 1577 forward. I quote the second part of this work from the English translation by Thomas Bowes published in 1594.
- 84.
Primaudaye (1594) pp. 187–188.
- 85.
Primaudaye (1594) pp. 190–192.
- 86.
Davies (1876) vol. 1, p. 19.
- 87.
Davies (1876) vol. 1, p. 15.
- 88.
Davies (1876) vol. 1, p. 24.
- 89.
Davies (1876) vol. 1, p. 20.
- 90.
Greville (1820) stanzas 4–19.
- 91.
Greville (1820) stanza 98, pp. 42–43.
- 92.
Greville (1820) stanza 16, p. 12.
- 93.
- 94.
- 95.
Harrison (2007) pp. 180–181.
- 96.
Calvin, Institutes, III, xxv. 792–3. Harrison (2007) pp. 60–61.
- 97.
VT SEH III 222–223.
- 98.
For a more detailed exposition of the epistemic consequences of the Fall of Adam in Bacon’s account, see Manzo (2001). More recent studies have dealt with the connection between Bacon’s narrative of the Fall of human nature and his directions for the “culture of the mind”; see Harrison (2012) and Corneanu (2011) chap. 1.
- 99.
On Bacon’s view of mythology in this regard, see Manzo (2014).
- 100.
RPH SEH III 565–566; 570.
- 101.
ADV OFB XI 111; DAU SEH I 622. On Socrates and irony see Cicero, Academica, II.v.15.
- 102.
Bacon evokes this image frequently throughout his work: DAU SEH I 547; ADV OFB IV 80; Apothegms OFB I 259 (n. 263); Letter to Lord Burghley (1592), The Letters and Life of Francis Bacon SEH VIII 109; History of the King Henry the Seventh OFB VIII 27.
- 103.
Spedding’s translation, slightly modified (DSV SEH VI 749). The Latin version (DSV SEH VI 672) says: “Empedocles, qui tanquam furens, et Democritus, qui magna cum verecundia, queruntur, omnia abstrusa esse, nihil nos scire, nil cernere, veritatem in profundis puteis inimersam, veris falsa miris modis adjuncta atque intorta esse”. The passage seems to be directly inspired in Cicero, Academica, II.v.14: “physici raro admodum, cum haerent aliquot loco, exclamant quasi mente incitati --Empedocles quidem ut interdum mihi furere videatur – abstrusa esse omnia, nihil nos sentire, nihil cernere, nihil omnino quale sit posse reperire” and Academica, I.xii.44: “ut Democritus, in profundo veritatem esse demersam, opinionibus et institutis omnia teneri, nihil veritati relinqui, deinceps omnia tenebris circumfusa esse dixerunt.” See also Diogenes Laertius, Vitae, IX Pyrrho, 72 (Democritus) and 73 (Empedocles).
- 104.
- 105.
SI SEH II 688: “Veruntamen negare plane non possumus, quin si qua nobis cum antiquis intercedat societas, ea cum hoc genere philosophiae maxime conjuncta sit; cum multa ab illis de sensuum variationibus et judicii humani infirmitate et de cohibendo et sustinendo assensu prudenter dicta et animadversa probemus; quibus etiam in numera alia, quae eodem pertinent, adjungere possemus; adeo ut inter nos et illos hoc tantum intersit, quod illi nil vere sciri posse prorsus, nos nil vere sciri posse ea qua adhuc gens humana ingressa est via, statuamus.”
- 106.
NO OFB XI 112 (book I, aph. 71).
- 107.
The sophistic character of the founders of philosophical schools was also noted in RPH.
- 108.
NO OFB XI 112 (book 1, aph. 71).
- 109.
NO OFB XI 52–53, Preface.
- 110.
Manzo (2009).
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Manzo, S. (2017). Reading Scepticism Historically. Scepticism, Acatalepsia and the Fall of Adam in Francis Bacon. In: Smith, P., Charles, S. (eds) Academic Scepticism in the Development of Early Modern Philosophy. International Archives of the History of Ideas Archives internationales d'histoire des idées, vol 221. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-45424-5_5
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