In section 40 of Bacon’s Novum Organum, the author writes: “The formation of ideas and axioms by true induction is no doubt the proper remedy to be applied for the keeping off and clearing away of idols. To point them out, however, is of great use; for the doctrine of Idols is to the interpretation of nature what the doctrine of the refutation of sophisms is to common logic.”

I wonder what B means by “true” induction. Is there a true way of making general conclusions from cases or instances or from particular kinds of evidence, and for what reason? Maybe Bacon is after the idea of what elements may best lead to good conclusions or the truth: where do I begin to unravel the nature of a stone?

But what about the Idols, those broad categories of things that hamper thought and reason. Consider the Tribe. B writes,

The Idols of the Tribe have their foundation in human nature itself, and in the tribe or race of men. For it is a false assertion that the sense of man is the measure of things. On the contrary, all perceptions as well of the sense as of the mind are according to the measure of the individual and not according to the measure of the universe. And the human understanding is like a false mirror, which, receiving rays irregularly, distorts and discolors the nature of things by mingling its own nature with it.

The Idols of the Tribe go to human nature in general, not just individuals, and the likelihood that we will come to conclusions based on the senses, which can’t necessarily be trusted because explanations of sensory matter don’t necessarily lead to consensus. More, it sounds as if Bacon is claiming that two natures are intermingling when we perceive the world and things in it: the nature of the thing and the nature of the perceiver. We color or influence everything we come into contact with fundamentally. Bacon writes that the understanding is confounded by assuming more order in the world than there really is (hence assuming that dogmas can be assigned truth based on this assumption (45), is too quick to agree with opinion (46), and, to jump over a few others, here’s a final quote:

But by far the greatest hindrance and aberration of the human understanding proceeds from the dullness, incompetency, and deceptions of the senses; in that things which strike the sense outweigh things which do not immediately strike it, though they be more important. Hence it is that speculation commonly ceases where sight ceases; insomuch that of things invisible there is little or no observation. Hence all the working of the spirits enclosed in tangible bodies lies hid and unobserved of men. So also all the more subtle changes of form in the parts of coarser substances (which they commonly call alteration, though it is in truth local motion through exceedingly small spaces) is in like manner unobserved.

We have the religion question, the politics question, and the question of what makes a good king concerning the subject of the 17th century. Shakespeare in Lear goes after the alternative to the rational King in Lear who gives away his authority. The divisions that proceed during the Civil Wars which will result in the first king to die by beheading at the hands of an official act, Charles I, bring in the period of the Protectorate.

But what about other ideas? What about science and the things that people are thinking about beyond the grandiosities of king and country? To Bacon, then, and his writings. Bacon links us to the tradition of thinking that we might place into the category of rationalism, formalism, skepticism, or empiricism and the large heading of the liberal sciences developed by Copernicus and Galileo and others based on observation and distinguishing between what is and isnt sound evidence on which to base conclusions. Consider first that Bacon is interested in method: how should we go about learning things and getting to the truth, which may have nothing to do with the Great Lettuce Head. Bacon is on solid traditional ground when he writes in the essay On Truth, . . . truth, which only doth judge itself, teacheth that 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. The first creature of God, in the works of the days, was the light of the sense; the last, was the light of reason; and his sabbath work ever since, is the illumination of his Spirit.

In Of Studies, he writes, Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man. And therefore, if a man write little, he had need have a great memory; if he confer little, he had need have a present wit: and if he read little, he had need have much cunning, to seem to know, that he doth not. Histories make men wise; poets witty; the mathematics subtile; natural philosophy deep; moral grave; logic and rhetoric able to contend. These are foundational concerns of the liberal arts: this is why all students have to complete a round of general studies, at least according to Bacon. He writes further: Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider. Method. But more, honesty. Unlike Edmund in Lear who confutes and confounds with his wit, the knowledgeable person studies for something more important that gain.

Heres what my mentor Hugh of St. Victor has to say on the matter of wisdom, writing long before Bacon in the Didascalicon,

Humility is the beginning of discipline, and although there are many examples of this, these three especially are important to the reader: first that he should hold no knowledge and no writing cheap; second, that he should not be ashamed to learn from anyone; third, that when he himself will have attained knowledge, he should not scorn others. This has deceived many, who wished to seem wise prematurely. Hence, they swell up with self-importance, so that now they begin to pretend to be what they are not, and to be ashamed of what they are, and thus they withdraw further from wisdom, because they wish not be wise, but to be considered wise.

The issue of method has a beginning, a starting point. That is, how do we determine where the stumbling blocks are that get in the way of reason and knowledge. People today argue that its TV, drugs, Brittany Spears, and all other manner of evil things, even McDonalds French fries. For Bacon, these are the Idols that he deals with in Novum Organum, some of the “evils” above perhaps falling into some of the Idol categories.

This is important: what gets in the way of figuring how old the earth is? What inhibits good legislation? What inhibits good decisions? What gets in the way of learning the MLA method? The Idols of the Tribe, Cave, Marketplace, and the Theater. In 38 Bacon writes by way of prepping for the details: The idols and false notions which are now in possession of the human understanding, and have taken deep root therein, not only so beset men’s minds that truth can hardly find entrance, but even after entrance is obtained, they will again in the very instauration of the sciences meet and trouble us, unless men being forewarned of the danger fortify themselves as far as may be against their assaults.

Next post: Idols of the Cave.

I wanted to schedule a couple of posts reserved for Bacon and Hobbes. I wonder at the ability to tie three authors together–Milton, Hobbes, and Bacon–into a coherent whole, but the only way to do this is to talk about history and to try and organize things focus, say the English Civil Wars of the mid 17th century and King Lear (whose subject has a lot to do with the coming to power of James the Scot and the death of the massive Elizabeth Tudor and James son Charles and the rise of Oliver Cromwell). Lets claim that the fears that people had in England around the problem of succession didnt really come into being. James turns out not to be so bad, although this makes the incredible tensions between England and Scotland seem trivial, which I dont mean to imply. Nevertheless James is a compromiser, loves sport, dance, and disputation, and, importantly, the idea of royal absolutism. Heres the sonnet/argument that begins his Basilikon Doran

GOD giues not Kings the stile of Gods in vaine,
For on his Throne his Scepter doe they swey:
And as their subjects ought them to obey,
So Kings should feare and serue their God againe
If then ye would enjoy a happie raigne,
Obserue the Statutes of your heauenly King,
And from his Law, make all your Lawes to spring:
Since his Lieutenant here ye should remain,
Reward the iust, be stedfast, true, and plaine+,
Represse the proud, maintayning aye the right,
Walke alwayes so, as euer in his sight,
Who guardes the godly, plaguing the prophane:
And so ye shall in Princely vertues shine,
Resembling right your mightie King Diuine.

This is a great look at James interpretation of a kind of chain of being. But the idea is that in absolutism the king is responsible for his people as god is responsible for Man as a whole. God acts through the king, in other words. Such an idea, however, especially given the English Parliament, isnt going to fly very well. Charles himself is going to take things a little farther than his father and will, in his attempts to spread Episcopal style church governance onto Scotland, fail miserably.

The ideas go like this: can a king manifest this much mediating (remember weve talked a lot about divine mediation in class and the reaction of the Protestant Reformation against Catholicism) authority surrounded by Catholics and Protestants, neither of whom can really swallow a kings absolutist stance, especially in a Parliamentary arrangement. The Protestant plurality (majority) in England and Scotland is itself split between factions, such as the Puritans (of which Presbyterians, Congregationalists are a denomination), who advocated a different style of church governance (ministers and separate convocations) and those who supported a national Episcopal-style church, formed by bishops and priests and who held to the Book of Common Prayer, parts of which were slammed by critics as placing too much emphasis on sacraments rather than on preaching.

Wanderlust writes: “A quote that I discovered by Charles Metcalfe, a civil servant for the EIC goes, ” Our dominion in India is by conquest. It is naturally disgusting to the inhabitants and can only be maintained by military force. It is our positive duty to render them justice, to respect and protect their rights.” This quote ties in with a continuing discussion as regards to authority in class and at work. The best authority is one that is granted by the followers, a perfect example of which is Gandhi. Although the British were far from being welcome by the Indian people, especially in the 20th century, this quote reflects the importance of the notion of responsibility. That a people cannot be taken over. They must be won over. Loyalty and respect cannot be bought or demanded – they must be earned. People cannot be led by force. They must choose their Gandhis, Kings, Marxs and Nassers.”

I like it that Wanderlust is thinking along these lines: historical analogy. Keep up the good work.

Here are the first three lines The Wife of Baths tale in The Canterbury Tales:

1: Experience, though noon auctoritee
2: Were in this world, is right ynogh for me
3: To speke of wo that is in mariage;

The idea of authority (as an idea that changes over time) has come up a lot in the texts weve been covering in EL1. Thus the Wife beginning her tale with an arrow pointing directly at it seems significant: shes earned the right to speak on the subject as an actor. We could ask the question: what is the importance of experience to the Wifes long prologue and tale, its relationship to conclusions about domination (which may or may not be obvious), gender, to the truth, and, more importantly, to the nature of Chaucers audience and what they expect of the interplay between what the Wife claims as a character in the Tales and the climax in the tale proper, where experience and female authority and supernatural motif come into contact, a la Marie de France. We could also claim that Chaucer is beginning to engage human intimacy much closer than anything weve thus far covered, including Gawain, and subjects other than the noble classes.
Continue reading →

Some useful Chaucer links:

Librarius has an interesting approach although the frames are a little bothersome

Also the Chaucer page supported by Harvard’s English Department has lots of good stuff. See the “Cantebury Tales” section for interlinear translations of all the works we’re covering.

Here’s a nice, indepth and interesting site on the Battle of Hastings, thanks to a link from the Digital Medievalist.

Here are some interesting reads on Gawain at the Luminarium.

Also, Damon Flowers had asked about the potential discomforting situation of the prize swapping if Gawain had bedded the Lady. Here’s a read that might or might not give some answer on the issue by Gerard McDaniel.

1170 extract
“Upon this, as though he had but that moment commenced to live, he used all endeavors, by spiritual exercises, to redeem the moments of his past life; and knowing that this life is but a journey and a warfare, in order that he might be sanctified in body, and disembarrassed in spirit by vices, armed with virtues, he girded himself up for the race, and prepared himself for the struggle of the conflict. Therefore, in finishing his race, he ran not as uncertainly, and, in fighting well, he did not fight as one that beateth the air. Then almost all his thoughts and discourse were upon the end of this life and the troubles of its path. Sometimes, also, in his discourses delivered to his brethren, the monks of the church of Canterbury, and the clergy and people of that city, he would say: I have come to you to die among you. And sometimes he would say: In this church there are martyrs, and, before long, God will increase the number of them. This he said, signifying by what death he should glorify the Lord.”

Drawn from Roger of Hoveden’s Chronicle Internet Medieval Source Book

Note the key words here: “journey,” “warfare,” “Path.” Note the world view.