Chapter 7 Section 05

four five The human understanding is prone, by its nature, to imagine more order and regularity in the world than it sees.Though many things in nature are alone and unpaired, the human understanding loves to imagine for them parallels, connections, and correlations which do not actually exist.Because of this, people have fabricated the theory that all celestial bodies move according to perfect circular orbits, and completely rejected (except in the name) the ideas of spiral lines and dragon heads and dragon tails. ①Because of this, people brought in the element "fire" together with its circle, so as to match it with the other three elements perceived by the senses, and make it into four. ②Because of this, the density ratio of these so-called elements is also mandatory to be ten to one. ③ There are many other sleep talkers like this.These fantasies affect not only dogma but simple concepts. ①The reason why the number of elements is four is that there are four attributes of elemental properties, that is: heat, cold, wet, and dry.Two of these four attributes are combined with each other in turn, and there are six different patterns. Except for cold and heat, dry and wet, which cannot be established due to their own contradictions, the other four combinations are equivalent to the four elements.

In fact, when Bacon wrote this book, Kepler had already demonstrated the three laws concerning the motion of planets in elliptical orbits; but Bacon did not cite them as arguments, it seems that he did not know or did not agree with this discovery. (Hyperbolic spirals drawn on the orbital circles show unevenness in the latitude of celestial bodies. Please refer to the relationship between spiral lines and orbital circles mentioned in the section on spontaneous rotational motion in Article 48 of Volume 2. Ancient Astronomy There is a kind of thinking that the ecliptic is tangent to the orbital circle of the moon and the planets, and there are parts protruding from the orbital circle at the top and bottom; the protruding circle on the upper part is called the dragon head, and the protruding circle on the lower part is called the dragon's tail. Both points show that the motion of celestial bodies is not in a perfect circular orbit, so when Bacon pointed out the fiction that people make perfect circular motions out of their neat nature, he accused them of completely denying these two ideas.——Translator) ②Fuller pointed out that the ancients imagined that the four elements had their natural positions, and their bottom-up levels were earth, water, air, and fire; the ring of fire was higher than the air (Kachin said that the ancients regarded The four elements are imagined as four sets of coils around a center, and their levels from the inside out are earth, water, air, fire, and the fire circle is far outside the air), so different from the first three elements, it is people imperceptible to the senses.

③ Fleur pointed out that this theory prevailed in the scholastics, and its actual guidance originated from a misunderstanding of a passage of Aristotle.Aristotle mentioned the "tithe ratio" in Chapter 2, Section 6 of the book "De Generation eet Corruptione" said, but he put it forward as a hypothesis for the sake of example. - translator four six Once the human understanding has taken an opinion (whether it has taken it as the accepted opinion or as its own accord), it draws all other things to support and to conform to that opinion. . Even if there are more and heavier cases to be found on the other side, it either ignores and despises them, or sets them aside and excludes them by a little distinction, so that preconceived judgments are held to great and harmful to the extent that the authority of the original conclusions remains unviolated.Let me tell you a story as an example: once, some people pointed out to a certain person a picture of escaping ship disaster by making a wish hanging in a temple, and asked him if he still recognized the power of the gods; the person asked instead: "Yes, but where are those who drowned after making a wish?" ① This sentence is a good answer.In fact, all superstitions, whether astrology, dreams, omens, or fortune tellers, etc., are the same; because people are happy with that kind of fantasy, they only remember those events that agree, and those who do not agree, even if they meet There are many more, and I don't pay attention to it and ignore the past.As for philosophy and science, the evil creeps in far more subtly; there, the first conclusion invariably taints everything that follows, even if it is much better and healthier. and make them agree with itself.Besides, apart from pleasures and fantasies of the kind written above, there is a peculiar and permanent error of the human intellect, that it is more easily excited by the positive than by the negative; You should make yourself unbiased in facing both sides.In fact, in establishing any true principle, the contrary instance is the stronger of the two. ②① Fleur pointed out that Cicero (Cicero) mentioned this story in the third chapter of the book "De Natura Deorum", verse 37. It is said that this "someone" is Diagoras (Diagoras, BC. fifth-century Greek philosopher, who took the surname "Atheist").Diogenes LaBrtius (Diogenes LaBrtius, Greek historian of the second century AD, author of "Life of Philosophers" in ten volumes) also tells this story in a slightly modified form, referring to him as the cynic Di Diogenes the Cynic; but at the same time he said that Charles de Gaulas had the same thing. ——Translator ② Fleur pointed out that Bacon seems to be referring to the method of elimination here, which is discussed a lot in the second volume.See volume 105. ——Translator 47

The human understanding is most aptly moved by a few things which rush into the mind at once and suddenly enough to fill the imagination; how similar.As for the repetition of many distant and varied cases, so that principles may be tested like fire,1 the human intellect is altogether dull and unsuitable, unless strict laws and governing authority to force it there. ① Articles 21 to 52 in the second volume of this book are examples of this effort. ——Translator 48 The human understanding is restless; it cannot stop or rest, but always pushes on, but in vain. Because of this, we can't always think about the end or limit of the world, but always think that there is always something outside.We can't always think about how the long history of eternity has flowed to today; the idea that time is generally considered to be divided into past infinity and future infinity is untenable, because that will inevitably happen. One small difference, and the infinite disappears and tends to become the finite. ① Regarding the infinite divisibility of a line, ② also due to the inability of thought to stop, there is the same subtlety.And in the investigation of causes, this inability to stop is even more serious: the most general principles in nature should only be regarded as absolute in the way they are discovered, and no reason can be given. to reduce them to some cause; but the human understanding, unable to rest of itself, still seeks something antecedent in the natural order.As a result, in striving for something farther away, it falls back on something near at hand, that is, on an ultimate cause; and this cause is clearly related to the nature of man and not to that of the universe, And it is from this source that philosophy has been screwed up. ③ It can be said that a man who seeks causes for the most common things is not a less crude and superficial man than a man who does not seek causes for subordinate and particular ④ things. philosopher. ① It is right to say that there is no difference in size of infinity, and that if one divides it into size, it loses its infinity and tends to be finite.

As for saying that there will be a small difference between the past and the future when there is an infinite point, this is illogical.There are only two meanings to this statement: either one mistook the past infinite for a great finiteness, and therefore of course said that the future infinite would sooner or later be greater than it; bigger than the future.The former confuses the greatest finiteness with infinity; the latter does not see that: assuming a line is infinitely long without upper and lower extremes, there is no midpoint at all (that is, the upper and lower halves), and therefore there is no such thing as upper and lower ( That is, short on the top and long on the bottom or short on the bottom and long on the bottom). —Translator ② This refers to the words of Aristotle; several places in his works say that, in theory, every inch can be divided infinitely.

③See Volume 2, Article 2. ——Translator ④ Fleur said that this is a noun in logic, referring to a particular proposition in a treatment relationship with the corresponding general proposition, for example, for the universal proposition "all A is B", "some A is B" is a particular proposition. forty nine The human understanding is not a dry light,* but is impregnated with the will and with the passions of every kind; and from this come sciences which may be called "as man wills." It is easier for a mortal to believe what he wishes to be true.Thus he rejects difficult things, because of impatience in study; he rejects clear things, because they limit hope; he rejects deeper things in nature, because of superstition; he rejects the light of experience, From arrogance and pride, lest his mind seem to be occupied by trivial things; he rejects things which are not commonly believed,2 from conformity to popular opinion.In conclusion, there are innumerable and sometimes imperceptible ways in which emotions can contaminate understanding. ① Fleur points out that this term is borrowed from Heraclitus, who has an oft-quoted saying that "the wisest mind is a dry light".

② Fleur points out that this term is borrowed from Heraclitus, who has an oft-quoted saying that "the wisest mind is a dry light". fifty Yet the greatest hindrance and disturbance of the human understanding arises from the dullness, incompetence, and deceitfulness of the senses; when that which excites the senses prevails over that which does not immediately impress them, even though the latter is more important.For this reason thinking generally ceases with sight, so that little or no observation is made of the unseen.Because of this, the entire movement of the spirit contained in the tangible object is hidden there and unobserved by people.Owing to this, all the more subtle structural changes in the molecules of the coarser plastids (commonly called changes, but actually shifts of position through very small spaces) are likewise unnoticed.But it is precisely these two things mentioned above, if people do not search for and reveal them, no great achievements can be made in nature in terms of producing works.It is also because of this that the fundamental nature of ordinary air, and of all objects thinner than air (which are many), is also scarcely known.The senses themselves are a feeble and fallible thing; and those instruments which amplify or sharpen them can do little; and a truer interpretation of nature can be attained only by proper and applicable examples and experiments, for There the judgment of the senses touches only the experiment, which touches the point in nature and the thing itself. ① Fleur points out that Bacon seems to have adopted in some respects the same doctrine as Democritus' atomism in regard to the final constitution of matter; that is to say, he holds that all material things are It is composed of extremely small molecules in a certain arrangement.He differs from Democritus in that he denies the hypothesis of a void; nor does he admit that matter is immutable.See Volume Two, Eight Articles. ——Translator Wuyi①

The human understanding, by its very nature, is inclined to make abstractions, to give a substance and reality to passing things.But it is not so much for our purpose to reduce nature to abstractions, as did the school of Democritus, who penetrated deeper into nature than any other school.The object of our attention is not so much matter as form, but rather the structure of matter and its changes, or mere action,3 as the law of action or motion; for form is only a figment of the mind,4 unless you Those laws governing activity are called formulas. ① This article prepares a version for the discussion of the hidden process and hidden structure in the second to seventh volumes of the second volume. ——Translator ② Ancient Greek philosopher, materialist (born in 460 BC); the most famous theory is atomism.

Read it together with five or seven articles in one volume, and you can see Bacon's comprehensive evaluation of this school, so as to understand Bacon's own attitude towards studying nature. ——Translator ③ The original text of the Latin text is actuspurus, and the English text is translated as simple action here, and it is also translated as pure act in the seventh and fifth articles of the first volume. I have uniformly translated it as "simple action".Kachin commented that the so-called simple activity refers to the activity or progress of an object within itself, such as the growth of a plant. ——Translator ④ Bacon used the word "form", he himself said in the second volume of the second article, "because it has been used for a long time and has become familiar", and in the second volume of the first seven articles, he warned people, " Do not apply what I have said to the formula to which their speculations have hitherto been accustomed."Therefore, the name of the same "French" has two very different meanings when used by Bacon: sometimes it is the so-called "French" that "has been used for a long time" and "people are used to" (and this is what Bacon wanted Negative), sometimes it is what he himself called "French" with a specific meaning.What he denies here and elsewhere, as Fowler points out, is something like the idea of ​​Plato, that is, "that materially undefined or ill-defined "Abstract formulas and ideas" (see Article 17 of Volume II); he was even more opposed to the opinion that "Forms generate existence" and believed that it was a mistake of the human mind itself (see Article 2 of Volume II).As for Bacon's own method (called "Baconian method" in philosophical terms), in his own words, it is "the law and determination of absolute reality", the simple quality and simple action in matter. His law is "the real distinction of things," the "true distinction of species."See volumes 66, 75, 124 in volume 1, and articles 1 to 20 in volume 2, especially 17 in volume 2. ——Translator 52

Taken together, this is what I call the illusion of race.They arise either from the uniformity of the essence of the human spirit,1 from its prejudice, or from its narrowness, or from its restless movement, or from the emotional Infusion, either from the incompetence of the senses, or from the modality of feeling. ①The above article 45 points out that "human understanding tends to imagine more order and regularity in the world than what it sees" according to its nature. The unity of essence.Bacon said in the book "Advancemen to fLearning": "Because the essence of human beings has an even and uniform nature, they often conceive and fabricate a greater evenness and uniformity in nature than they actually do", This can be proven. ——Translator Wusan

Cave illusions arise from the unique organization of the mind or body of each individual; also from education, habit, and chance.The illusions of this class are great in number and variety; and I will cite only those which most cloud the understanding, and which most call for warning. May Fourth Some people are attached to a particular science and speculation, either because they fancied themselves writers and inventors about it, or because they had worked hard on those things and thus had a deep understanding of them. habit. If such people are engaged in philosophy and thinking of a general nature, they will distort and color these things under the obedience of their original fantasies.This is particularly the case with Aristotle, who made his natural philosophy a mere slave to his logic, and thereby rendered it polemical and bordering on useless. ①There is another group of chemists who, out of a few experiments in the furnace, have built up a whimsical philosophy, with only a few references as the skeleton; And then built an entire theoretical system that fits his favorite topic. ③①For Bacon's opinions on Aristotle, see Articles 63 and 67 of Volume 1 and Articles 11 to 14 of Volume 1 on criticizing the old logic. ——Translator ② Refer to Articles 64 and 70 of Volume 1. ——Translator ③ Gilbert (William Gilbert of Colchester), the royal physician of Queen Elizabeth and James I of England, wrote the book "Magnete" (DeMagnete) (published in 1600).Kachin quotes Hallam as saying that Gilbert's Magnetism "gathered together all the knowledge of others on the subject, and he at the same time became the father of English experimental philosophy" (see Hallam, pp. "History of European Literature" Volume II, Part II, Chapter VII, Section 21). Bacon talks about him in many places in this book (1 volume 64, 70, 2 volume 35 etc.), always accusing him of the narrowness of his methods.The original note of the English translation commented that, in fact, "his "Magnetism" has stood the test of science, and it is much stronger than most of Bacon's own scientific conjectures."Kachin also pointed out that Gilbert was a strong supporter of the Copernicus system and was far ahead of Bacon.Kachin said, "His mistake (if it can be called a mistake) is to bind himself too much on the subject of magnetism, and tend to expect too large results from it." Kachin also mentioned that when Galileo discussed Gilbert's system in his third dialogue, he also had great respect. He also pointed out that Bacon, in the third volume of "De Augmentis Scientiarum", also acknowledged Gilbert's due praise. ——Translator Wuwu There is one chief and, as it were, fundamental difference between different minds in relation to philosophy and science, and this is that some minds are stronger and better adapted to see differences in things, while others are more Stronger and better suited to seeing similarities in things.A calm and penetrating mind is able to fix its speculations and fixate and fix on the most subtle distinctions; while a high-spirited and scattered mind is good at seeing the purest and most common similarities, and Bring them together.But both kinds of hearts are prone to mistakes due to excess: one seeks difference and eagerly grasps the difference by mistake, and the other seeks similarity and eagerly grasps empty shadows.