twisting the lion's tail Bacon quote
Helen De Cruz
Hacking mentioned in 'Representing & intervening' that Francis Bacon first argued that not only must we observe nature in the raw, but also sometimes twist 'the lion's tail', that is, manipulate the world in order to learn its secrets. Not being an expert in the history of philosophy of science, I cannot find the original quote by Bacon anywhere, and all sources I have found that mention the quote either give no reference, or give Hacking's work as a reference.
Could anyone tell me off-list, where Bacon mentions this?
Sincerely,
Helen De Cruz
--
Dr. Helen De Cruz
Centre for Logic and Analytic Philosophy
University of Leuven
Dekenstraat 2
3000 Leuven
Belgium
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Steven French
I asked this question many years ago (on the HOPOS-list) and the
conclusions I came to is that Bacon said no such thing and that
Hacking seems to have got this quote from Kuhn ('Mathematical vs.
Experimental Traditions in the Development of Physical Science',
Journal of Interdisciplinary History, Vol. 7, No. 1. (Summer, 1976),
pp. 1-31, on p. 12.) Our resident Bacon expert, Sophie Weeks, tells me
that Bacon did however talk about clinging onto Proteus (B's figure
for matter) while he twisted and turned into various different shapes
(see De sapientia veterum (The Wisdom of the Ancients) which can be
found in volume 6 of the Spedding, Ellis and Heath edition of Bacon's
works).
cheers,
Steven
Professor Steven French
Professor of Philosophy of Science and Head of Dept.
Department of Philosophy
University of Leeds
Leeds LS2 9JT
Tel: 0113 3433279
Email: s.r.d....@leeds.ac.uk
http://www.philosophy.leeds.ac.uk/Staff/SF/Index.htm
An ocean traveler has even more vividly the impression that the ocean
is made of waves than that it is made of water.
Arthur S. Eddington: The Nature of the Physical World, Cambridge
(1929).