Bacon

Francis Bacon The Advancement of Learning
Physically, why do people have two eyes? It is not so that they can see colors, or see pictures clearer. People have two sets of eyes so that they can gain depth perception. The Gutenberg printing press made it possible for Francis Bacon’s The Advancement of Learning to be reviewed, but Bacon understood the importance of having his work reviewed just as scientist today push to have their discoveries examined by a scientific board of review.
Historical Contextualization
Oral tradition made did not leave much room for questioning a source, because there is a lack of comparison. Traditionally societies learned by listening to orators, because there were few opportunities for literacy. In antiquity whole societies depended on a single person to remember the oral history of their tribe. Generations upon generations of linage, events, and records were memorized from one orator to the next. One of the problems with oral tradition is that there is very little room for review, because it is based on the memory of one person. Aristotle, Plato, Isaiah, and even Jesus Christ himself taught orally. It is not that oral tradition is bad, but simply that oral tradition is difficult to critique because it depended on the knowledge of the single informer.
After the Gutenberg printing press was invented people were better able to question traditionally ideas because they were able review their ideas with others. Just over a hundred years before Bacon was born Johannes Gutenberg invented the Gutenberg Printing Press. It was a miraculous invention because as books became more popular literacy grew. True, not everyone was able to read, but more people were able to read and write. Instead of everyone assuming that one man’s memories were accurate people could write a letter to their cousin two towns away to know what that town believed. Ideas no longer remained stagnant in one village but they moved across towns, regions, and kingdoms. Books were being printed by the hundreds, purchased, read, and more importantly talked about and reviewed by thousands. This is the generation Bacon was born into. In his book The Advancement of Learning Bacon challenges his audience to question traditional beliefs through the written word.
Critical Analysis
Bacon keeps his audience in mind while he is writing. The book opens with Bacon writing to the King. He develops the King’s intellect, judgment, and superiority first and then Bacon writes, “yet I may excite your princely cogitations to visit the excellent treasure of your own mind, and thence to extract particulars for this purpose, agreeable to your magnanimity and wisdom,” Bacon does not plead with the King to think about the text, but like any good entertainer he invites the King to read the book. Think of two comedians on one stage. The first says, “You are the funniest person I know. I have this really good joke that I think you will like. Let me tell it to you,” and the other comedian says, “this is the funniest joke in the world, and I am going to tell it to you,” It could be the same joke, but naturally I know that I would rather hear the first comedian tell the joke. The idea that Bacon is writing to please his audience makes me believe that Bacon intended his book to be reviewed. From Bacon’s word choice it appears he understood that his audience was real and did not just care about facts and figures but wanted to be entertained as well.
In Bacon’s closing statements encourages the reader to reviewed and reread his text. The last passage of Bacon’s book captures his message, “for I could not be true and constant to the argument I handle, if I were not willing to go beyond others; but yet not more willing than to have others go beyond me again,” It appears that Bacon is asking the reader to question his book. He then goes on to state that if the reader has any questions they should reread his book. Push aside the idea that multiple people can review Bacon’s book for a moment and concentrate on the idea that a single readers can review his text over and over again word for word. It appears from his request that the reader reread his text that Bacon did not want his book to be mobbed but reviewed by an individual willing to ask themselves if there are any falsies in The Advancement of Learning . Bacon closes his text by encouraging the reader to look insider their own thoughts and find out what their perception is on his work.
The author continues to encourages the review philosophies for truth by searching for pieces of truth in each philosophy. Bacon uses Aristotle’s idea that like children in their innocents call everyone mother people in their ignorance call every theory mother, but as a child grows older they learn to recognize only one mother and the same can be said for matured people who recognize only one truth. Although, in this example Bacon assumes that the individual will be able to identify the truth by simply recognizing the truth, this example does not deter from the idea that Bacon believes theories need to be reviewed before accepted as truth. He goes even further to caution the reader not to get caught up in the entire packaged philosophy but to break it down into pieces. Bacon seems to believe the proper review of a philosophy will discover truth in the individual ideas of a philosophy and not the philosophy as a whole. In that sense he not only encourages the reader to review philosophies, but to strain the philosophies enough that the reader has to piece together their own.
Personal Reflection
I believe scientific review boards embody the message from Francis Bacon to review a study before considering it scientifically sound. Something that I learned in college was to not trust scientific studies published first in the local news paper for the simple reason that they have not yet been reviewed by a scientific review board. I no type in my question into Google with out setting the search engine to scholar. It should be incredible to me that I am instantly able to have thousands reviewed studies at my finer tips ready for me to read, review, and analyze as long as I have my laptop and a wireless connection. Truthfully, I rarely think about life without the internet; that would be like life without food in a refrigerator and pumping water. Only on the stage of my imagination can I depict a life without literature, international communication, and published books. It is remarkable for me to imagine someone publishing a book to tell people that they should question traditional beliefs when the world I live in is a little mouse-click-happy about publishing the next big discovery on their blog spot for all to read it.
The message I was able to take from reading Francis Bacon was that it takes a group of people who are able to communicate to review a text, an idea, or a philosophy. At the same point that group can not be a mob running into the study with their pitchforks or ready to smoother the text with golden stars. A good review board seems to be composed of individuals who can effectively communicate their perception to the group. How does an individual gain depth perception? Well, we have two eyes for one reason; that reason is not so that we can see colors better or an image clearer but so that we can have depth perception. I think that I learned the importance of rereading, and reviewing texts so that I can gain a better depth perception of what I believe and what I agree or disagree with in the text.