Francis Bacon History, Politics and Science, 1561}}}1626 [Paperback]

In this book Brian Wormald provides a fundamental reappraisal of Francis Bacon.In this book Brian Wormald provides a fundamental reappraisal of one of the most innovative figures of the age. Though dedicated to his work on both 'natural science' and 'policy' Bacon's conception and practice of history is here revealed as central to his understanding of both.In this book Brian Wormald provides a fundamental reappraisal of one of the most innovative figures of the age. Though dedicated to his work on both 'natural science' and 'policy' Bacon's conception and practice of history is here revealed as central to his understanding of both.Brian Wormald provides a fundamental reappraisal of one of the most complex and innovative figures of the late-Elizabethan and Jacobean age. In the centuries since his death, Francis Bacon (1561-1626) has been perceived and studied as a promoter and prophet of the philosophy of science--natural science--but he saw himself also as a clarifier and promoter of what he called policy or the study and improvement of the structure and function of civil states. Mr. Wormald shows that Bacon was concerned equally with the knowledge of the world of nature and with that of policy. The junction between the two enterprises was effected by his work in history; and in the end it was Bacon's conception and practice of history that provided the answer to his efforts to advance policy and natural philosophy.Acknowledgments; 1. Introduction; 2. Two programmes: know thyself and know the universe of nature; 3. Knowledges are as pyramids, whereof history is the basis - history civil - this latter extended to describe and to include the Common Law of England; 4. Logic - idols of the mind - rhetoric; 5. Policy: a great part of philosophy - Bacon's engagements of policy; 6. Morality and policy I; 7. Morality and policy II; 8. Morality and policy III; 9. Morality and policy IV; 10. Civil history of letters - civil history mixed; 11. Civil history of the reign of Kl“!