THE LORD CHANCELLOR ANNOUNCES A REVOLUTION

In 1620 Francis Bacon published a manifesto. He was critical of endless theoretical philosophizing based on the classical texts and advocated more empirical testing and pragmatic knowledge (Grafton:197).

Both the New World and ancient texts played key roles in Bacon’s dramas of scientific discovery. The title page of the Great Instauration shows a ship sailing past classical columns that represent the pillars of Hercules, the ancient limits of navigation and knowledge. Charles V had taken the pillars as his symbol, with the cautious humanist motto: "Ne plus ultra" "Do not go too far." Bacon kept the pillars but sent his ship past them and lopped off a vital word from the Latin tag: Plus ultra, "Too far is not enough". Discovery, not reading has become the central mode of obtaining important knowledge (Grafton:198).

And anyone who cared to see, as Bacon did, knew exactly at whose doors to lay the blame for the human races general failure to think for itself... The Greeks stood at the beginning of the story, already infected with two sorts of original sin. They had theorized too much and they had known too little. The character of their thought had been fixed in advance by the larger nature of their society. Working competitively in large cities, sophists taught for pay and philosophers for reputation. Both sort of thinker had naturally tried less to find the truth than to win debates. Their philosophy, accordingly, concentrated less on the workings of nature than on the tricks of argument (Grafton:200).

Question: anyone see any parallels with our current situation?

* Taken from Anthony Grafton, New Worlds, Ancient Texts: The Power of Tradition and the Shock of Discovery, London: Harvard University Press, 1992.