Jeff Rubard
2010-02-06 22:48:40 UTC
For Boston:
---- [!!!!] [Why put on "airs?"]
TEH NEW ORGANON
OR TRUE DIRECTIONS CONCERNING THE INTERPRETATION OF NATURE
Francis Bacon
1620
[Note on the Text]
AUTHOR'S PREFACE
Those who have taken upon them to lay down the law of nature as a
thing already searched out and understood, whether they have spoken in
simple assurance or professional affectation, have therein done
philosophy and the sciences great injury. For as they have been
successful in inducing belief, so they have been effective in
quenching and stopping inquiry; and have done more harm by spoiling
and putting an end to other men's efforts than good by their own.
Those on the other hand who have taken a contrary course, and asserted
that absolutely nothing can be known — whether it were from hatred of
the ancient sophists, or from uncertainty and fluctuation of mind, or
even from a kind of fullness of learning, that they fell upon this
opinion — have certainly advanced reasons for it that are not to be
despised; but yet they have neither started from true principles nor
rested in the just conclusion, zeal and affectation having carried
them much too far. The more ancient of the Greeks (whose writings are
lost) took up with better judgment a position between these two
extremes — between the presumption of pronouncing on everything, and
the despair of comprehending anything; and though frequently and
bitterly complaining of the difficulty of inquiry and the obscurity of
things, and like impatient horses champing at the bit, they did not
the less follow up their object and engage with nature, thinking (it
seems) that this very question — viz., whether or not anything can be
known — was to be settled not by arguing, but by trying. And yet they
too, trusting entirely to the force of their understanding, applied no
rule, but made everything turn upon hard thinking and perpetual
working and exercise of the mind.
----
*Translatio*: Bacon's "inductive logic" is the real *Logik der
Sozialwissenschaft* [BUNDESREPUBLIK, a thing to say] -- that is to
say, he provides the *index veri et falsum* by which 'eminent'
concerns of political economy make "salient truths" about /social
life/ --- *accessible*. "That's the way it is, the way it's gotta be"
etc. [*Very seriously*, and "We" did not think enough about "Martha's
Prefecture" and the way /alternates/ for American "set-pieces" had
already been /tried/, with *v. negative results* so HEY in fact I AM
NOT another FACE IN THE CROWD etc.] Unfortunate but There Are
Alternatives --
SCRIPTUM ["Yeah, I say Latin now."]: Jeff, I *did save her* -- I saved
the golden calf itself etc. really it's a lot.
---- [!!!!] [Why put on "airs?"]
TEH NEW ORGANON
OR TRUE DIRECTIONS CONCERNING THE INTERPRETATION OF NATURE
Francis Bacon
1620
[Note on the Text]
AUTHOR'S PREFACE
Those who have taken upon them to lay down the law of nature as a
thing already searched out and understood, whether they have spoken in
simple assurance or professional affectation, have therein done
philosophy and the sciences great injury. For as they have been
successful in inducing belief, so they have been effective in
quenching and stopping inquiry; and have done more harm by spoiling
and putting an end to other men's efforts than good by their own.
Those on the other hand who have taken a contrary course, and asserted
that absolutely nothing can be known — whether it were from hatred of
the ancient sophists, or from uncertainty and fluctuation of mind, or
even from a kind of fullness of learning, that they fell upon this
opinion — have certainly advanced reasons for it that are not to be
despised; but yet they have neither started from true principles nor
rested in the just conclusion, zeal and affectation having carried
them much too far. The more ancient of the Greeks (whose writings are
lost) took up with better judgment a position between these two
extremes — between the presumption of pronouncing on everything, and
the despair of comprehending anything; and though frequently and
bitterly complaining of the difficulty of inquiry and the obscurity of
things, and like impatient horses champing at the bit, they did not
the less follow up their object and engage with nature, thinking (it
seems) that this very question — viz., whether or not anything can be
known — was to be settled not by arguing, but by trying. And yet they
too, trusting entirely to the force of their understanding, applied no
rule, but made everything turn upon hard thinking and perpetual
working and exercise of the mind.
----
*Translatio*: Bacon's "inductive logic" is the real *Logik der
Sozialwissenschaft* [BUNDESREPUBLIK, a thing to say] -- that is to
say, he provides the *index veri et falsum* by which 'eminent'
concerns of political economy make "salient truths" about /social
life/ --- *accessible*. "That's the way it is, the way it's gotta be"
etc. [*Very seriously*, and "We" did not think enough about "Martha's
Prefecture" and the way /alternates/ for American "set-pieces" had
already been /tried/, with *v. negative results* so HEY in fact I AM
NOT another FACE IN THE CROWD etc.] Unfortunate but There Are
Alternatives --
SCRIPTUM ["Yeah, I say Latin now."]: Jeff, I *did save her* -- I saved
the golden calf itself etc. really it's a lot.