Chapter 14 Volume 2 - Chapter 01

one It is the work and object of human power to produce and add to a given object one or more new properties. It is the work and work of human knowledge to discover the form, or the true distinction of species, or the quality of inducing properties, or the source of emanations (these are the closest adjectives to that thing) for a given quality. Goal ①.Subsidiary to these two primary tasks, there are two other secondary and lower tasks: the former is to transform concrete objects as far as possible; Every movement discovers the hidden process that proceeds from the manifest active cause and the manifest material cause to the induced form; so does the body at rest discover its secret structure. ①This volume as a whole is discussed with the aim of discovering the formulas of properties. - translator

③ For details, see Volume 2, Article 7. - translator two In what a bad condition human knowledge is at the present time, this can be seen even from generally accepted maxims.It is rightly said, "True knowledge is knowledge by reason" ①.People further divide causes into four types, namely, material cause, formal cause, capable cause, and final cause, which is not inappropriate.But looking at these four reasons, the purpose is to corrupt science and not advance science except for science involving human activities.The discovery of French cause is what people feel desperate about.Both active and material causes (to be investigated and accepted as remote causes, as they are now, without being connected with their hidden process into the form) are again weak, superficial, of little or no help. for real, active science.Please also don’t forget that I said in the previous article that the opinion that the method produces and exists is a mistake of the human mind itself, and I have corrected it.Although in nature there is really nothing but a single body, which performs individual simple activities according to a fixed law, but in philosophy it is this law itself and its investigation, discovery and interpretation that become the basis of knowledge. The base also becomes the base of the action.

By formula I mean the law, with its clauses; and I take this name because it has long been used and become familiar. ① Kachin pointed out that Aristotle once said: "Only when we know the cause of a thing can we say that we have scientific knowledge of it."See "Posterior Analytics," Volume 1, Chapter 2. ——Translator ② Kachin pointed out that these are the four reasons proposed by Aristotle, see his book "Metaphysica" The second chapter of the second volume of the book. - translator ③Kachin pointed out that the so-called theory of the generation of French forms refers to Plato's theory of ideas (or theory of transliteration).

Please refer to the relevant notes on Article 5 of Volume 1. - translator ④ These few words (and some words in the 120th article of the first volume) fully demonstrate Bacon's materialist position. - translator ⑤The original Latin version is paragraphos, and the English translation is clauses.Kachin pointed out that the terms of the so-called laws, especially the terms of the so-called formula, are very difficult to understand what they refer to; Article 20 of the second volume describes the formula of heat and places certain restrictions on motion as a category of heat. These restrictions are the terms of the hot program. - translator

A man's knowledge is not complete if he knows only the cause of certain properties (such as whiteness or heat) to certain kinds of substances; In the matter which is felt to produce this effect), his power is likewise incomplete.You know, if a person's knowledge is limited to active and material causes (both are unstable causes, and both are only means of transport or causes which only in certain cases lead to procedures), he may of course predict He made some new discoveries in some selected substances that were somewhat similar to each other, but he did not touch the deeper boundaries of things.But whoever knows the law, grasps the unity of qualities in the most dissimilar substances, and thereby can make that which has never been made, that which can never be caused by nature. The changes of nature, the efforts of experiments, and even the coincidences of chance, can detect and expose things that never come to people's thoughts.It can be seen from this that the discovery of French formulas can enable people to gain truth in speculation and freedom in action.

Four Although the two roads to human power and to human knowledge are closely adjacent and nearly merged, in view of the deep-seated and harmful habit of abstraction, it is better to start from those To establish and improve science on a basis in relation to practice, or to let the active part print and determine its model, the speculative part, itself as a stamp.We must then think of what kind of rule, instruction, or guidance a person would most like to obtain if he wanted to produce and add a quality to a given object; Express these in the least difficult language.For example, if one (noting the laws of matter) desires to add the color or weight of gold to silver, or the quality of transparency to opaque stone, or toughness to glass, or Wanting to add vegetative qualities to some non-vegetative plastids—if anyone wants to do this, I say we must think about what kind of rules or guidelines he wants most.

In the first place, he no doubt wished to be directed to such things as would not deceive him in the result, nor fail him in the attempt.Secondly, he must be willing to have such a rule, which will not bind him to certain means and certain modes of action.For he may neither have those means nor obtain them easily.For there may also be other means and other means (beyond those prescribed) within his reach to produce the desired properties, and he will be excluded from those means as soon as he is bound by the narrowness of the rules. They cannot be used outside of and methods.Thirdly, he must ask to be shown to him things which are not so difficult as what is proposed to be done, but are closer to practice.

A true and perfect guiding rule for action, then, should have three things: it should be certain, free, and tend or lead to action. And that is exactly the same thing as discovering the true formula.First, the so-called form of a quality is this: Once the form is given, the quality follows without fail.That is to say, if the nature exists, the formula must exist; the original meaning of the formula generally includes the nature; the formula is always attached to the nature itself.Secondly, the so-called formula is like this: once the formula is cancelled, the nature will disappear without error.That is to say, if the nature is absent, the formula must be absent; the original meaning of the formula includes the absence of nature;Finally, the true form is like this: it derives the given quality from some being attached to more qualities, which is more intelligible in the natural order of things than the form itself.In this way, to seek a true and perfect principle in knowledge, the guiding rules should be:

In order to find another quality besides the given quality, it must be a limitation of a more general quality, a limitation of the real species, which can be reversed with the given quality.We can now see that the above two instructions—the one pertaining to action, the other pertaining to speculation—are the same thing: that which is most useful in action is truest in knowledge. Fives There are two laws or principles about the transformation of objects.The first is to treat an object as a team or collection of pure qualities.In gold, for example, there are many properties that come together as follows.It is yellow in color; has a certain weight; can be stretched or stretched to a certain extent; cannot evaporate, and does not lose its substance under the action of fire; can be transformed into a liquid with a certain degree of fluidity. ; can only be divided and melted by special means; and other properties, etc.From this it follows that this principle acts out things from several forms of several simple qualities.As long as men know the formulas of yellowness, weight, extensibility, fixity, fluidity, disintegration, etc., and how to add these properties, their degrees and forms, they will naturally Take care to gather them on a certain object, which will transform that object into gold.This is the case with the first action on object transformation.To produce several simple qualities, the principle is the same as to produce a single simple quality; but the more produced it is required, the more you will feel tied in the action, because you have to work in the usual routine of nature. It is very difficult to forcefully combine these many properties that are not easy to gather together outside the way.But it must be pointed out that the way of this kind of action (focusing on some simple qualities in complex objects) is to start from the constant, eternal and universal things in nature, open up a broad road to human power, and provide human thought ( As it stands) a broad road that is not easily apprehended or envisioned.

The second principle of the transformation of bodies is concerned with the discovery of hidden processes, not with simple qualities, but with complex bodies (as we see them in the ordinary course of nature).For example, we want to inquire where gold or other metals or stones began, how and by what process it was formed, and how it went from the first molten state and the first shape to the complete mineral.In the same way, we can also inquire into the process by which some plants and trees come into being, how through continuous movement and natural multi-faceted and continuous efforts, from the sap that first congealed in the ground or from the seed to the formation. of plants.Similarly, we can also explore the development process of animal generation, from copulation to birth.In addition, the same inquiry can be made for other objects.

This investigation is not limited to the generation of bodies, but can be applied to other movements and actions of nature.For example, we shall investigate the whole course and continuous action of nutrition, from the initial ingestion to complete digestion.For another example, we want to explore the spontaneous movement of animals, and see how it progresses from the initial feeling of imagination to the flexion and extension of limbs and various activities through the continuous efforts of the spirit.For another example, we can also explore the movement of the lips, tongue and other organs, and see how it changes to finally produce a clear sound.The inquiries of this second kind above are also concerned with certain specific properties, and also with the synthesis of certain properties of a structure, but they are concerned with the so-called specific and special habits of nature, not with those sufficient to form a structure. Fundamental and universal laws of French style.It must be admitted, however, that this plan appears to be more convenient, closer, and provides more grounds for hope than the original plan. In the same way, the whole acting part corresponding to the thinking part, since it starts from the usual details of nature, can only reach things that are immediately close, or at most things that are not far away.As for any deep and fundamental action to be exerted upon nature, it depends entirely on primordial principles. Also, with regard to things which man can only know but cannot act on, say about the heavenly bodies (which man cannot act on, change or transform), we shall inquire whether this fact itself or The truth of this matter, just as the knowledge of cause and of assent, must be sought from those primordial and general principles of simple properties, such as those of spontaneous rotation, of attraction or magnetism. Principles, and principles concerning the nature of other things of more general form than the celestial bodies themselves.For one need not hope to decide whether the earth or the heavens are turning in the daily revolutions, unless they first understand the nature of the spontaneous rotation. ① Regarding the nature of the spontaneous rotational motion, and the related question of whether the earth rotates or the sky rotates, Bacon also discusses it in detail in Articles 36 and 48 (on the seventeenth type of motion) in the second volume .Here and there, Kachin points out, Bacon's statements here and there rejecting Coperney's system are patently absurd to us today; but, nevertheless, we must look back and remember that at the It is an almost universally accepted opinion, while Coperney's system is regarded as a mere hypothesis; it must be noted that the laws and principles which finally and permanently solve the problem did not appear until Newton discovered the law of universal gravitation. - translator six But the hidden process of which I speak is quite different from what the preconceived minds readily imagine.By occult process I do not mean certain measures, certain marks, or several steps one after another that can be seen in the process of a body; unperceivable. For instance, in all the generation and transformation of bodies we must inquire what is lost and gone, what remains and what is added; what expands and what diminishes; what joins and what separates; what continues what cuts off; what pushes and what hinders; what prevails and what recedes; and various other details. Again, not only in the generation and transformation of bodies, but also in all other changes and movements, what comes first and what comes last; what is faster and what is slower; what produces motion and what Manage Movement; and the like.But in the present state of science (which is extremely crude and useless in its structure) all these points are unknown and unaddressed.This is because man sees that every natural action depends on things infinitely small, or at least too small to impress the senses, so that no one can hope to govern or change until they are properly known and observed. nature. Seventh, it is also a new thing to investigate and discover the hidden structure in the object ① as well as to discover the hidden process and program.Because up until now, we have only wandered in the outer court of nature, and have not prepared ourselves the next way to enter the inner chamber of nature.But no one can ever ascribe a new quality to a given body, or transform it successfully and properly into a new body, unless he has acquired sufficient knowledge of the body to be so changed and transformed.Otherwise he would have gone to methods which, if not useless, were at least difficult, wrong, and inappropriate to the nature of the object in question.Therefore, it is clear that a way must also be opened and paved with regard to the discovery of hidden structures. ②①The original Latin text is latetisschematismi, and the English translation is latent configuration.Bacon's use of this term has complex meanings and is not clear enough.Some people simply understand it as the arrangement or relative position of molecules in an object, which is tantamount to saying that it is completely like Democritus' atomism, and this is exactly what Bacon disagrees with (see Volume 2, Article 8).Kachin said in the commentary that it is difficult for people to agree with Bacon that distillation is one of the methods to investigate the hidden structure of objects, because distillation belongs to the scope of chemistry, and the object of chemistry is the materials that make up molecules of objects rather than their components. The structure or combination method; this is to firstly identify the so-called hidden structure as the combination method or arrangement pattern of molecules in the object, so that the example of distillation method is incompatible, which seems to lose the original meaning.Note: Bacon said here that the distillation method, which combines several homogeneous molecules of a compound object, is one of the methods for dissecting the hidden structure, and he was also afraid that this action of refining by fire would mess up the properties of the object; The first says that for every object it is necessary to investigate the essence (although this concept is very old and grotesque) and the various situations of tangible essence; the third says that the real organization and structure of an object is all the hidden qualities and so-called species in things. The nature and morality of the genus are attached to it, and it is also the law of every powerful change and transformation; the four theories must use reasoning and true induction, supplemented by experiments, and other methods to dissect and decompose objects. The method of comparing bodies also requires the reduction of composite bodies to a number of simple properties and their several forms; To the real molecules, as they really are: from these statements one can glean the complex meaning of Bacon's so-called hidden structure, which is different from the simple atomism.Kachin commented that Mill gave some illustrations when discussing his similarities and differences (see "Logic", Volume 3, Chapter 8, Section 1), which can be used as a good example to illustrate Bacon's so-called discovery covert structures and apply this knowledge to covert structures.Mill mentions the manufacture of quartz crystals, by flushing water with silica particles, storing them in vials, and letting them stand for a few years; After the material is melted, it is allowed to cool.These are, so to speak, applying covert processes to covert structures.For we must first analyze the constituent molecules of, say, quartz crystals or mica, and then apply this knowledge to create hidden structures by imitating the actions of natural processes.Bacon sketched some movements in his book "New Atlantis" that were quite similar to the above. - translator It is true that in the anatomy of organic objects (such as man and beast), people have worked hard, and have received good results; this seems to be a subtle thing, and it is also a good study of nature.But this dissection is limited to sight and senses, and has room only in organic bodies.Besides, this dissection is a simple and easy matter compared with another.There are bodies which are supposed to be uniform in organization; especially those which have the properties of a species and which have parts, as iron, stone, etc.; Blood, flesh, bone, etc.; the real dissection of their hidden structures is not so superficial and easy. But even in the latter dissection, man is not entirely incapable of effort; he applies distillation and other forms of analysis to the decomposition of homogeneous bodies, in order to bring together several homogeneous molecules of complex bodies. It is precisely this dissection that aims at revealing its complex organization.This dissection is also useful and leads to the object we are looking for.This dissection, however, is often erroneous in its results, because many properties which are in fact new, added by fire and heat, and other methods of decomposition, are supposed to be the result of dissection alone. , it is believed that it originally existed in the composite object.After all, this dissection is but a very small part of the work of discovering the real structure in composite objects; which is a much finer and more subtle thing. However, if you only rely on actions such as fire refining, it will only mess it up instead of exposing and clarifying it. ①In Bacon's time, people only considered certain things to belong to the natural species, and everything else was considered to be elemental; for example, rubies were considered to have species properties, while ordinary stones or rocks were only considered to be earth. The variant of the element.The so-called "species virtue" is the virtue endowed by the species characteristic of a thing, which exceeds the attributes of the elements contained in a thing. ②The Kachin commentary says that regarding the application of fire, there are too many praises to say.Fire has done more than any other means to aid in the discovery of chemistry, and to improve the art of life.An instance of the so-called "newly derived properties added by the decomposition of fire and heat" is that it is believed that there exists a hypothetical substance called phlogiston, which is said to be absolutely light, Once melted, it escapes from the iron; in fact, the iron gains weight due to the absorption of oxygen from the air.So Bacon is wrong in his condemnation of the use of fire and heat, notwithstanding his warnings with good reason.Fire and heat are the most valuable instruments of experimentation, though like all instruments they have their faults which require careful correction. - translator It follows that we must dissect and decompose bodies, not by means of fire, but by reasoning and true induction, supplemented by experiments; by comparison with other bodies; By reducing the composite body to several simple qualities and their several forms assembled and mixed in it.In a word, if we wish to reveal the true organization and structure of bodies--that is to which all the hidden qualities and so-called generative qualities and virtues of things cling, and to which every powerful law of change and transformation follows. Out——, we must change from the God of Fire① to the God of Craft②. For example, for each object we have to inquire how much of the essence is in it, and how much of the tangible essence.Regarding the essence of essence, we must also inquire whether it is plump and puffy or thin and thin; Whether it is strong or weak; whether it is advancing or retreating; whether it is intermittent or continuous; whether it is consistent with or inconsistent with what is around it; and so on. With regard to the tangible essence (which admits no less of a difference than in the essence), we shall also inquire into its skin, fibers, and tissue types.Moreover, the disposition of the spirit throughout the framework of this entity down to its pores, channels, veins, and cells, and the first form or first effort of the organic body, should likewise be investigated.But in these investigations, as well as in all the discoveries of hidden structures, the real and clear light can be seen only from the primordial principle, which completely dispels all darkness and obscurity. ①Vulcan, the god of fire and metal craftsman in the minds of the Romans, is equivalent to Hephaestus in the minds of the Greeks; in mythology, he has a furnace under Mount Etna to make thunder and lightning for the gods. - translator ②Minerva, the goddess of craftsmanship in Roman mythology, is equivalent to Athena in Greek mythology. - translator Eight But we are not to be led from this to atomism, which implies the two assumptions of void and immutability of matter (both assumptions are false); ① we should be led only to the real molecule, as they actually exist.We also have no reason to panic at the subtlety of the research, as if it were unsolvable. On the contrary, the closer the research is to the simple nature, the easier and more obvious everything becomes; the work changes from complex things to simple things, from incommensurable things to measurable things, From infinity to non-infinity, from infinite and vague things to finite and definite things, the plot is just like the letters in the alphabet and the notes in music.It should be pointed out that the investigation of nature will have the best results if it begins with physics and ends with mathematics.Note also that one need not fear extremely large numbers or extremely small fractions.For in dealing with numbers the thousandth is as easy to remember and dispose of as the one, and the thousandth of a whole number is as easy to think of and dispose of as the whole itself. ① Regarding Bacon’s statement that there is no void, Kachin pointed out that please refer to the six or six articles in the first volume. - translator ② Kachin commented that the exact meaning of this sentence is still puzzling.A free translation can be: "When a physical discovery is converted into a mathematical theorem, the exploration of nature will have the best results."For example, several of Kepler's laws have been expressed mathematically, and that's it.Another example is in optics, after a proper investigation of several cases, some mathematical formulas are derived to replace some physical facts, and a great deal of certainty is obtained.Another example is that mathematics explores the central forces on the basis of physical experiments. It not only obtains previously unknown results in nature, but also makes the simplest expression for all the laws that physical phenomena follow. This understanding is correct.Bacon once discussed the relationship between mathematics and natural philosophy in a volume of ninety-six articles, affirming that mathematics can give natural philosophy certainty, but said that it does not attempt to germinate or produce natural philosophy, so if mathematics alone will corrupt natural philosophy.It is said here that the exploration of nature begins with physics and ends with mathematics, that is to say, the natural knowledge obtained by physics starting from physical facts and based on physical experiments, that is, the natural philosophy produced, is finally formulated by mathematics , endowed with mathematical certainty and certainty, that is of course the best result. - translator