Francis Bacon on Self-Care, Divination, and the Nature–Fortune Distinction

IF 0.5 2区哲学 Q3 HISTORY & PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE

Early Science and Medicine Pub Date : 2023-06-02 DOI:10.1163/15733823-20230067

Silvia Manzo

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

In presenting self-preservation as the most general law of nature, set at the summit of the structure of the natural world, Francis Bacon characterized the universal appetite for self-preservation as an innate instinct which, in the case of living beings, is primarily associated with the emotion of fear. Bacon’s philosophy offers several techniques of self-care to manage the fear of accidents of fortune from which the existence and well-being of the self is under constant threat. This article reconstructs Bacon’s treatment of divinatory arts and their contributions to self-care. We will explore how he adopts traditional divinatory arts and reforms them: oneirocritics, physiognomy, and astrology. We will contend that Bacon’s approach to divinatory arts as techniques for self-care and the management of fortune shows some salient points shared with his natural philosophy: in both cases, the approach is hermeneutical, with the goal of exerting human power. With regard both to nature and to fortune, however, our power to modify the state of things extends only so far. The range of decisions we can make is not unlimited but encompasses only what is “in our power,” that is, what depends on us.

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弗朗西斯·培根谈自我关怀、占卜和自然-财富的区别

弗朗西斯·培根以自然世界结构的顶峰为背景，将自我保护描述为最普遍的自然规律，他将普遍的自我保护欲望描述为一种天生的本能，就生物而言，这种本能主要与恐惧情绪有关。培根的哲学提供了几种自我照顾的技巧，以应对对命运意外的恐惧，而自我的存在和幸福正不断受到威胁。本文重构了培根对占卜艺术的处理及其对自我保健的贡献。我们将探讨他如何采用传统的占卜术并对其进行改革：占星术、相术和占星术。我们将争辩说，培根将占卜艺术作为自我护理和财富管理的技巧，这表明了他与自然哲学的一些共同点：在这两种情况下，这种方法都是解释学的，目的是发挥人类的力量。然而，就自然和命运而言，我们改变事物状态的能力只限于此。我们可以做出的决定范围并不是无限的，而是只包括“我们力所能及”的事情，也就是说，取决于我们的事情。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Early Science and Medicine HISTORY & PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE-

CiteScore

0.50

自引率

0.00%

发文量

审稿时长

>12 weeks

期刊介绍： Early Science and Medicine (ESM) is a peer-reviewed international journal dedicated to the history of science, medicine and technology from the earliest times through to the end of the eighteenth century. The need to treat in a single journal all aspects of scientific activity and thought to the eighteenth century is due to two factors: to the continued importance of ancient sources throughout the Middle Ages and the early modern period, and to the comparably low degree of specialization and the high degree of disciplinary interdependence characterizing the period before the professionalization of science.