Bacon: Of Studies

Ø  Philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist, orator, and author

Ø  As a pragmatic and an empirical thinker, Bacon subscribed to the fundamental Renaissance ideals—Sepantia (search for knowledge) and Eloquentia (the art of rhetoric).

Ø  Bacon is considered the father of the English essay

Ø  Bacon envisioned the essay as an opportunity to offer advice

Ø  Bacon followed and advocated Inductive Reasoning  [Empiricism]

Ø  He advocated the  Baconian method in Novum Organum

Ø  Bacon was charged with corruption and he lost his royal job

Ø  Bacon considered the Essays “but as recreation of my other studies”

Ø  The essays are marked by his aphoristic style.

·       Purpose of study: delight, for ornament, and for ability.

o   Delight can be had in private leisure

o   Ornaments can be used in conversation

o   Ability is useful for judging things and practical affairs

·       Learning helps us in making “plots and marshalling of affairs” [schemes and plans]

·       Bad effects of excessive study:

o   Sloth (indolence) in behaviour,

o   affectation in style

o   whimsical attitude (humour)

·       Attitudes of different people toward studying

o   Crafty men condemn studies

o   simple men admire them

o   wise men use them

·       Bacon’s prescription for study:

o   Read not to contradict and confute

o   nor to believe and take for granted;

o   nor to find talk and discourse;

o   but to weigh and consider.

·       How to read books

o   Some books are to be tasted

o   others to be swallowed

o   some few to be chewed and digested

·       Effects of different types of learning

o   Reading maketh a full man

o   Conference (speaking in public place) a ready man

o   writing an exact man.

·       Bacon’s prescription for overcoming deficiencies in various forms of art

o   if a man write little, he had need have a great memory

o   if he confer [talk] little, he had need have a present wit

o   if he read little, he had need have much cunning, to seem to know that he doth not.

·       Effects of various fields of study

o   Histories make men wise;

o   poets witty;

o   the mathematics subtle;

o   natural philosophy deep;

o   moral grave;

o   logic and rhetoric are able to contend

·       Bacon’s prescription for correcting a man’s mental aptitude his skills are not mature  [if a man’s wit be wandering]

o   let him study the mathematics; for in demonstrations, if his wit be called away never so little, he must begin again

·        Bacon’s prescription for those who cannot distinguish among things or ideas:

o   Let him follow the practice of the schoolmen who like to closely examine small, unimportant details as if they were the most important thing around.

·       For acquiring skills for reaching a conclusion through many different things and explaining with illustrations, Bacon suggests

o   let him study the lawyers’ cases

A.    Studying for pleasure is done in private and done to lie back and relax.

2.     “Abeunt studia in mores.”

It is from Ovid’s Heroides. It means in Latin “Studies help form character.”

3.     “let him study the Schoolmen; for they are cymini sectores” Who are advised here?

A.    Those cannot differentiate between things and ideas

4.     “Let him study the Schoolmen; for they are cymini sectores” What does Bacon suggest by the practice of the schoolmen?

A.    Schoolmen like to closely examine small, unimportant details as if they were the most important thing around.

5.     What does Bacon mean by ‘sloth’?

A.    Indolence

6.     What are the bad sides of spending too much time?

A.    Sloth (indolence) in behaviour, affectation in style and whimsical attitude (humour)

7.      “Natural abilities are like natural plants that need pruning by study”. Bacon might have got this analogy from

A.    The Courtier by Balthasar Castiglione

8.     “They perfect nature”. What is the meaning of ‘nature’ here?

A.    Natural abilities

9.     “…for natural abilities are like natural plants that need pruning by study” Bacon is here drawing upon the fundamental Renaissance concept put forward by

A.    Balthasar Castiglione in The Courtier

10.   Why is ‘experience’ necessary for study?

A.    Experience shows the limit to the numerous directions shown by study

11.     “wise men use them.” How?

A.    By observation sharpened by experience

12.    “Bowling is good for the stone and reins; shooting for the lungs and breast; gentle walking for the stomach; riding for the head; and the like.” He Bacon is

A.    Showing his knowledge in other field of study [medicine] as usual with the Renaissance habit

13.    “so every defect of the mind may have a special receipt.” This line proves that Bacon wrote the essay

A.    With the purpose of addressing various issues relating the defects of the mind [mental ability and personality skills]

14.   Of studies can be said to be a piece intended for developing

A.    Personality skills