A History of the Origins of World Philosophy, British Empiricism II: Francis. Bacon 2

British Empiricism II: Francis. Bacon 2

2. The life of Bacon

　　Francis. Bacon was born on 22 January 1561 in London, England to a new aristocratic family. His father was the Crown's Primal Minister, and his mother was a member of the Calvinist order. His family background clearly had an important impact on his upbringing.

　　Bacon was in poor health as a child, but he was very intelligent, the youngest of the five brothers and the most loved by his parents. His early education was accomplished under the meticulous care of his mother.

　　Bacon was intellectually precocious and entered Trinity College, Cambridge, at the age of 12. In the school for 4 years, excellent grades, quite praised, less than 15 years old to pass the academic. He entered politics at the age of 16, and his first position was as an attaché to the British ambassador to France on an envoy to Paris. From then on, until he was expelled from politics at the age of 60, he never left the British political scene in his life.

　　Bacon pursued fame and fortune and grew up with it. But he is not simply a man of fame and fortune. His concern for the social situation is indeed unusual. This was probably a common tendency of the promising youth of that era, but because he later became a philosopher, it seemed even more remarkable.

　　During his time in France, he revealed the characteristics of his life: on the one hand, he paid attention to the various situations in the political circles of France and the European continent, and on the other hand, he wrote a "Record of European Politics" based on the materials collected. Writing while engaging in politics is Bacon's character. This character has not changed throughout his life. "The Politics of Europe" is not Bacon's masterpiece, but the ideas expressed in the book advocating freedom of belief and political unity are consistent with his lifelong ideas.

　　However, just then, in 1579, when he was 18 years old, his father died of illness. The death of his father was a heavy blow to a young man who was obsessed with pursuing a career. Because he had not suffered many setbacks since he was a child, and he usually lived in luxury, and he was very happy with the aristocratic lifestyle, this blow was particularly heavy.

　　Although Bacon's father was rich, because he was not the eldest son and had 5 half-brothers, his inheritance was very limited. This situation undoubtedly stimulated Bacon's career sentiment even more. After that, Bacon went to the Gray Bar Association to work as a lawyer for a while, but the legal profession could not satisfy him.

　　Two years later, he entered the House of Representatives, but he was still not satisfied. For the glory of his career, he worked hard to find a backer. He first went to his uncle for help, but despite his unremitting efforts, there was no result. In 1591 he finally became friends with The Earl of Essex, Queen Elizabeth's favourite. Although the Earl is not a great figure in British history, he is a complete news figure. Regarding his relationship with the queen, it has aroused the creative desire of many literati and inkers. He was 6 years old, young and popular. Bacon found such a friend as he wished. And this friend of his was indeed very friendly to him and willing to help, but unfortunately, despite the young earl's strong recommendation, Her Majesty the Queen was not impressed. The count successively recommended him to be a minister of law or a chief prosecutor; a deputy officer or chief of defense, a judge or a chief judge, or a chief of the examination department; in short, the official position was not to be chosen, although a crab was not as good as a crab, as long as it was given to the official. However, although the queen was very fond of the count, she ignored Bacon, and the count was anxious and helpless about it, so she gave bacon a share of her property.

Bacon was very grateful to his friend. He wrote scripts for him and often attended his banquets and galas. However, the good times were short-lived. The Earl fell out of favor for his defeat in the attack on The Irish, and was arrested and tried for plotting rebellion. Unfortunately, Bacon went so far as to be a juror and acted so hard that after the Count's execution, he drafted the Count's indictment by himself. As a result, people at that time and later accused him of lacking morality and being a villain. In fact, there are many people who behave like him, but he cannot defend himself because he is Francis. bacon.

　　During this time, Bacon was in a state of physical and mental turmoil as the Earl of Essells drifted and sank. But his work remained uninterrupted, and around 1592 he completed the initial conception of the book The Great Revival, and in 1597 published his Collected Treatises on Discourses.

　　It was not until 1603, when Queen Elizabeth died and James I ascended the throne, that Bacon began to receive attention. In that year, he was made a baron. Since then, his political and academic career has entered a relatively smooth period. His personal life also changed.

　　In 1605, his main work, On the Progress of Learning, was published;

　　In 1606, he married Alice. Barham married at the age of 45;

　　In 1607, he was promoted to deputy attorney general;

　　In 1608, he began to write the New Tools;

　　In 1609, The Wisdom of the Ancients was published;

　　In 1610, he began to write the New Great West Island;

　　In 1612, a revised edition of the Treatise on Discourses was published, containing 38 of his papers.

　　In the seven years since 1605, Bacon has written books, published books, married, and been promoted. Fu Fu ushered in a cheerful middle age, and since then, his career has become smoother and smoother.

　　In 1613 he was promoted to Chief Inspector; in 1616 he was appointed Privy Councillor; in 1617 he was appointed Chancellor of the Seal. According to legend, when he was young, his father, who was always the minister in charge of the seal, entered the palace, and Queen Elizabeth also called him "my little seal minister". It wasn't until 40 years later that he actually sat in the same position his father used to sit in. In 1618 he became a magistrate and was made Baron of Baron Baruna. In 1620, his New Tools and The Great Revival were also published.

　　However, the prosperity and decline, the moon is full and short, and in 1621, the days of Bacon's bad luck began to fall. In the same year he had just been promoted to viscount, but he was charged with taking bribes, and after a trial by the nobility, he was convicted, fined 40,000 pounds, and imprisoned in the Tower of London. Although he was soon released and the fine paid was returned to him, his political career came to an end.

　　To be fair, the past ten years or so that Bacon has been proud of the spring breeze has indeed been contaminated with the bad habits of many bureaucratic classes. As a politician, he consciously or unconsciously fell into the mutual infighting between politicians. In order to save himself, he also paid tribute to others by attacking him by his opponents. As a chief justice, he knew that the law was broken and accepted bribes, which was naturally intolerable to the law, but the atmosphere at that time did reach the level of upward and downward efficiency without accepting bribes. He lived a luxurious life, and although he was disgusting, he was also in harmony with the official atmosphere of the time.

　　However, he was Bacon after all. But because he was Bacon, his bad deeds, especially those of selling friends and taking bribes, were intolerable. Despite his best arguments, he said that although the bribe did not affect the verdict, he still could not be forgiven. Just as the so-called villains do evil deeds, it is taken for granted, and the scandals of great people are fearsome.

　　The old Bacon, with his characteristic mental state, accepted all this. These severe blows and setbacks did not depress him. Not only that, but once the black gauze hat is gone, the creation is more diligent. Only 6 months after his downfall, he completed his historiography History of the Reign of Henry VII. The following year, He published The History of the Wind. In 1623, he published The History of Life and Death and On the Dignity and Development of Science. In 1624, the last revised edition of the Treatise on Discourses was published, with a total of 58 articles. On April 9, 1626, Bacon died.

　　Bacon loved science all his life, and he was a leading figure in modern experimental science in the West. In his later years, he continued to enjoy it. Before he died, he saw heavy snow and fell in love, so he suddenly had a whim, and personally did an experiment to preserve chicken meat with snow, but unfortunately he fell ill due to cold and could not afford to be sick.

　　Bacon's life, poverty is long, rich and rare. He lived most of his life on credit. Once rich, it is luxurious. In 1598, he was imprisoned for a short time for defaulting on his debts. By the time of his death, he had 7,000 pounds in savings, but owed as much as 22,000 pounds.

　　Bacon's life, between career and learning, the balance between the two can be described as a difficult thing that ordinary people can hardly imagine, so that later researchers sometimes can't help but ask: he pursued fame and fortune all his life, rushing endlessly, can be described as decades as a day, and his learning is so exquisite and profound, what time did he use to get this knowledge.

　　In a nutshell, Bacon was a complex man. His researchers said, "Bacon is great intellectually; morally he is weak." His personality is multifaceted, and his genius is not limited to one corner. He was a jurist, politician, scientist, philosopher, historian, and essayist. It is difficult to make the next general evaluation of such a complicated personality and talent. However, because he is complex, he has depth and taste. In fact, there are several big figures in history who are not multi-level and deep-seated, and bacon is not alone. However, because the contrast between Bacon's political and academic life, theoretical creation and moral behavior is very sharp, posterity pays more attention to him.

　　Looking at Bacon in terms of achievements, he himself is more interested in summarizing his life. In his Testament, he wrote: "My soul will be given to God, my body will be destroyed in the loess, and my name will be passed on to future generations and will be famous overseas." Sir Bacon did not exaggerate at all.

3. Bacon's philosophical achievements

　　Bacon's philosophy is most praised by the latter and has aroused the interest of researchers, his illusion theory, induction and his subdisciplinary theory, and the most vivid impression he left on posterity is that he is the founder of the modern experimental science of the West.

　　(1) About illusions

　　Bacon's philosophical contribution was mainly his opposition to the old logic since Aristotle and the method of establishing a new logic. This new logical method of his is his philosophical method.

　　Bacon believes that in the old way of thinking, people often fall into the trap, and there are 4 situations that are the most worrying. These 4 situations are all obstacles that prevent people from correctly understanding science. He called these four situations four illusions, that is, falsehoods, and the specific content of the four falsehoods was:

　　(1) "Racial Illusion"

What is a racial illusion? He said: "The illusion of a race is planted in human nature itself, that is, in the human race or in this class. To assert that the human senses are the measuring force of things is a mistake. On the contrary, all awareness, whether of the senses or the mind, always depends on the yardstick of the individual rather than the ruler of the universe; human understanding is like a concave mirror, which receives light without regularity, and thus distorts and fades the nature of things by incorporating its own properties in the reflection of things. This baconic expression may be accepted by the average Chinese reader as a difficult language.

　　In layman's terms, the illusion of race is that people are accustomed to using human senses or minds as a measure of understanding the world, rather than according to the standards of the universe itself. In this way, man's understanding of the world is like looking at the world with a convex and uneven mirror, because the mirror is uneven, and the image in the mirror is absolutely difficult to be accurate.

　　This idea seems to be the most basic common sense today. At the beginning of the 17th century, it was a bold summary and discovery of academic value. You know, in an age of long-term distortion of thought, to discover common sense is to discover truth. And what Bacon found was more than just common sense. His metaphors for mirrors are particularly brilliant. Looking at the world with a bumpy mirror, such as looking at the world with a haha mirror, the image reflected in the mirror must also be humorous or funny. Beautiful women such as the Western Venus, China's Xishi girl does not look in this mirror, but is not afraid to look in this mirror, only those who seek happiness laugh at the haha mirror, and some ugly girls such as China's saltless miss and Europe's donkey-headed princess, they look at this mirror, it is inevitable to be particularly affectionate. If the human mind is straight like a mirror, even if it is not a mirror, the quality of the mirror is good or bad. The terrible thing is that the human mind system is a mirror full of self-confidence, and even if it is really a mirror, it will never easily admit that it will distort all external images. On the contrary, it simply considers itself to be an appropriate and fair response to the outside world.

Peigen was a philosopher who paid great attention to perceptual experience, and he could notice that the human mind would also have misunderstandings, and hoped that people would be liberated from this misunderstanding, the illusion, which indeed had very unusual epistemological value. Modern Chinese often like to say, follow the feeling, do not know that this feeling is also drunk and hazy, walking across the river can be careful.

　　(2) "Cave Illusion"

What is a cave illusion? Bacon said, "The cave illusion is the illusion of individuals. For every man (except for the common mistakes of ordinary humanity) has his own cave, which bends and discolors the light of nature. The cave is formed either because of the man's own inherent and unique nature; or because of his education and dealings with others; or because of the reverence and praise for his authority as a result of his reading of books; or because of the various impressions which differ according to the human heart (some are 'prejudiced' and 'confident', others are 'indifferent'), and so on; and so on. In this way, the essence of man (as it is repeated by different people) is actually a variable and disturbing thing, and it seems to be ruled by luck. Therefore, Heraclitus once said well, people always seek their small world in pursuit of science, not to the public world. "

Bacon mentioned "Yuanjing". The exact meaning of the word Yuanjing is difficult to grasp. This is probably a kind of hereditary material that cannot be seen or touched even after dissection. It seems inappropriate to discuss the issue of illusion in such terms. But at that time, I was afraid that it was helpless. What matters is that Bacon's original intention is clear. Cave illusions and species illusions are similar, but differ. The racial illusion refers to the illusion that may exist as an ordinary person, or the meaning of some common tendencies: the cave illusion emphasizes the phenomenon and cause of the individual illusion of different individuals. Or it can be said that the racial illusion is about how the mirror creates the misunderstanding, and the cave illusion explains in a certain sense how to cause these uneven mirrors.

　　The original meaning of the cave illusion refers to the limitations of people's personal understanding of the world due to subjective or objective reasons. This varies from person to person. Some people read too much and are too dead, reading back and forth, reading as a nerd, becoming a two-legged bookcase, so the books become a cave to prevent him from forming a correct understanding - into the hole, not seeing the day. Or because of the prejudice in his heart, when he mentions the lazy word, he thinks of the Eight Precepts of the Pig, and when he mentions the wise man, he thinks of Zhuge Liang, who does not know that the Eight Precepts of the Pig have also made great achievements by relying on a long mouth, and Zhuge Liang has also lost the street kiosk because of the misuse of horse rumors. However, caves are inevitable. In life, it can be said that everyone has a cave that cannot be escaped, because everyone is limited by the living environment, learning environment, experience environment, and working environment, and we have no ability or even possibility to understand everything in the world. The cave is what I rely on, and the cave is misunderstood by me, just as it is difficult to think without a fixed position, and it is wrong to stick to the fixed position, including Mr. Bacon, who proposed the illusion of the cave. Otherwise, he wouldn't have died for doing pointless experiments.

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