DIVISION II. SECOND PERIOD OF MODERN

PHILOSOPHY.

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The Characteristics of the Second Period of Modern

Philosophy. The Second Period of Modern Philosophy -extending from the beginning of the seventeenth century to the third quarter of the eighteenth is characteristically a period of analysis and formal reflection. A leading problem the leading problem of the second period is the problem of the method of philosophical inquiry and reflection and of the sources of knowledge. As regards method and its view of the sources of knowledge, thought in this period is, predominantly, either empiricistic, intuitionalistic, or rationalistic. As analytic, the standpoint of this period is that of (phenomenal) consciousness rather than of selfconsciousness. The most common results of thinking of the period, accordingly (that is, in consequence of the fact that on the standpoint of mere consciousness subject and object are separated), are, in the theory of knowledge and being as such, subjective idealism or else scepticism, on the one hand, and, on the other, dogmatism, or the arbitrary affirmation of a supersensible existence; in the theory of nature, mechanism; in that of will, determinism. The truth

of the foregoing assertions can, of course, be established only in connection with the presentation and characterization of the systems of the period. The actual historical connection of systems in this period is such that it is impracticable to attempt to group them under the separate heads of "empiricistic," "intuitionalistic," and "rationalistic" systems. The systems will be characterized as they are individually dealt with.

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Francis Bacon (1561-1626). — Francis Bacon was the son of Nicholas Bacon, for many years lord-keeper of the great seal under Elizabeth, and Anne Cooke, daughter of

Sir Anthony Cooke and said to have been a woman of extraordinary learning, culture, and piety. At the age of twelve, the "young lord-keeper," as Elizabeth styled the rather precocious youth, entered the University of Cambridge. Here he acquired, if not a very profound knowledge of Aristotle himself, a decided antipathy to the Aristotelian philosophy as then taught, regarding it as disputatious and barren. He left the university, at the age of fifteen, to study law in Gray's Inn, London. Soon afterwards he was sent with the English embassy to Paris to acquire a knowledge of the human "world" in general, and of diplomacy in particular. The death of his father, in 1579, recalled him from Paris to England, and threw him entirely on his own resources. He decided to practise law; but he had a larger than merely professional ambition, namely, that of being grandly useful to "his country, the Church, and humanity at large." He had, as he himself avowed, "early taken all knowledge for his province," and had conceived a design of beginning a revolution in human knowledge and action by the discovery of a method that would supplant the empty Scholastico-Aristotelian logic, on the one hand, and a blind, slavish, and delusive empiricism on the other. Passing through Gray's Inn, he took a place at the bar (1582); sat several times in Parliament during the reign of Elizabeth, at one time seriously offending the Queen and damaging his prospects of advancement by honest opposition to a certain plan cherished by her Majesty; acquired standing as queen's counsel, after having failed in an attempt to secure an appointment as attorney-general, then as solicitor-general, and, again, as master of the rolls; held, in the reign of James I., successively the positions of king's counsel, solicitor-general, attorney-general, privy councillor, lord-keeper, and lord-chancellor (1618); was knighted, and invested with the titles of Baron Verulam and Viscount St. Albans (1621). That he really served his country is doubtful, since he was always an upholder of royal prerogative as against the privileges of the Commons, and was guilty of political corruption (though not of receiv

ing of bribes), and fell in disgrace from his high position as chief minister of justice. He did really serve the Church in the reign of Elizabeth by earnest endeavors in aiding to promote ecclesiastical unity and tolerance. What service he has rendered to humanity, by his philosophical achievements, may be judged of after a consideration of those achievements.

Works. — Most of Bacon's philosophical works came into being, and accordingly arrange themselves, with direct reference to a design early conceived, and followed up throughout life, which was nothing less than a design of inaugurating a reformation of existing sciences, the reconstruction of all knowledge. "The end of knowledge," says Bacon, is the "glory of the Creator and the relief of man's estate." The reformation of science has for its goal the rendering of it "active," or practical. To become truly "active" it must cease to be merely empirical, on the one hand, and merely abstract and formal on the other, it must have a method by which it may be both universal and concrete. The application of the method presupposes the existence of a collection of facts or phenomena as data. The systematic and complete application of the method to the interpretation of facts results in the knowledge sought. The application may be not only systematic and complete, it may also be merely tentative and incomplete. By way of illustration of the application of the method a series of graduated instances must be exhibited, and, further, a department of knowledge must be created to preserve truth accidentally discovered apart from the systematic application of the method. Preliminarily to the positive construction of science in the new sense, is needed a survey of the existing state of knowledges. The reformation of the sciences, the "Magna Instauratio," must, according to the foregoing analysis, have certain leading parts. These are represented by certain works of Bacon, as follows: Part I. "Partitiones Scientiarum," or

1 See the Prefaces and Introductions to the works of Bacon in the edition of Spedding, Ellis, and Heath; also Professor Adamson's article on Bacon in the "Encyclopædia Britannica" (9th ed.).

survey of the sciences, with which are concerned the "Valerius Terminus" (1603), which falls partly into the next class also, "Advancement of Learning" (1605), "Descriptio Globi Intellectualis" (1609), "De Dignitate et Augmentis Scientiarum" (1623), the last-named incorporating the substance of the rest; Part II. "Interpretatio Naturæ," the method of interpreting nature, with which deal "Partis Secundæ Instaurationis Delineatio et Argumentum" (1606, 1607), Cogitata et Visa" (1612), "De Interpretatione Sententiæ duodecim " (-?), "Redargutio Philosophiarum (1609), "Novum Organum" (1620), the last embodying the results of the others of this group; Part III. "Historia Naturalis et Experimentalis," the data or raw materials of science, represented by "Historia Ventorum," "Historia Vitæ et Mortis," "Historia Densi et Rari," "Sylva Sylvarum," etc., the last-named being the most important; Part IV. "Scala Intellectus," graduated examples of investigation conducted by the new method, represented by the work "Filum Labyrinthi" (1607?); Part V. "Prodromi," or anticipations of the new philosophy; Part. VI. "Active Philosophy," to be the work of future generations. There may be mentioned as indirectly connected with the "Instauratio Magna": "The New Atlantis " (a fragment), which is a picture of an imaginary state in which the principles of the new philosophy are embodied; "De Principiis et Originibus Secundum Fabulas Cupidinis et Coeli" (circa 1623), perhaps the most important of the very few of Bacon's works that concern themselves with really metaphysical conceptions; "Cogitationes de Natura Rerum," to be classed with the "De Principiis," etc. The celebrated "Essays" and "Wisdom of the Ancients " may be mentioned here; nor should the "Temporis Partus Masculus" (circa 1583), Bacon's first expression of the standpoint which distinguishes him among philosophers, be overlooked. The most important of Bacon's works are, of course, the "De Dignitate et Augmentis Scientiarum" and the "Novum Organum." The latter, it should be noted, is a fragment.

Philosophy. 1. The Survey of the Sciences1 (Bacon's "Encyclopædia" of Existing Sciences). Introduction.— Human knowledge has two, quite distinct, sources, understanding and revelation: it is, accordingly, "philosophy" or "theology," "human learning" or "divine learning." "Human learning may, upon the basis of the division of the understanding into the three branches, memory, imagination, and reason, be divided into history, poesy, and philosophy (in the narrower sense). "Divine learning" may be likewise divided.

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History. History is natural and civil, the latter comprising ecclesiastical and literary history. Natural History treats of nature as free, as constrained, or subject to rules of art, and as erring," or varying: it is a history of "creatures," of arts, and of "marvels." Civil History is either memorials, perfect histories, or antiquities. Ecclesiastical History is the history of the Church, of providence, and of prophecy.

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"Poesy."-"Poesy," which is distinguished from history and from philosophy, in that it "bows things to the desires of the mind," whereas those two do just the opposite, is either epic, dramatic, or allegorical (the other kinds of poetry being regarded by Bacon as belonging to Rhetoric). "Philosophy."—"Philosophy" is either "divine," "natural," or human," the last-named being styled also "humanity." But underlying these three branches of philosophy is a "primitive or summary philosophy," a philosophia prima, which, rather difficult of exact definition, may be described as a "receptacle for all such profitable observations and axioms as fall not within the compass of any special parts of philosophy or science, but are more common and of a higher stage." Bacon would here place, for example, the "axioms": "If equals be added to unequals, the wholes will be unequal," "All things change, but nothing perishes," etc.; and the conceptions, "quantity," "similitude,"

1 We follow the "Advancement of Learning," supplementing it at points from the "De Augmentis."

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