Roger Bacon : essays contributed by various writers on the occasion of the commemoration of the 7th centenary of his birth / collected and edited by A.G. Little.

Andrew George Little

Date:: 1914

Credit: Roger Bacon : essays contributed by various writers on the occasion of the commemoration of the 7th centenary of his birth / collected and edited by A.G. Little. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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$stands at present the work consists of [six] parts/ of which the contents are as follows : ‘ Part I is an exposition of the causes which have hindered the progress of true philosophy among the Latins. These Ojfendictda, as Bacon calls them, are four in number: (i) Dependence on authority [fragilis et indignae auctoritatis exemplum); (2) Yielding to established custom {consuetu- dinis diutur7iitas); (3) Allowing weight to popular opinion {vulgi sensus imperiti); (4) Concealment of real ignorance with pretence of knowledge {propriae ignorantiae occultatio cum ostentatione sapie^itiae apparentis). As Bacon bitterly says, the prevailing mode of argument in his time was : “ this is affirmed by our superiors ; this is the customary opinion ; this is the popular view ; therefore it must be admitted.” It may seem but a small thing for a writer to reject authority, but one must reflect on what that meant in Bacon’s time. It meant absolute revolt against the whole spirit of scholasticism; it was the assertion of freedom of thought, of the claim of science to push forward to its conclusions, regardless of fancied consequences, with im- plicit trust in the grand law that all truth is ultimately harmonious. Over and over again Bacon dwells upon the baneful influence of authority, and speaks of it in terms that remind one strongly of his namesake. He points out that the Fathers, after all, v/ere men, and used the same faculty of reason that men now possess. He implores his contemporaries to consider that their authorities not only fall into error, but spend great part of their labour in refuting one another, which would not be the case if they were in- fallible. And Anally generalizing his argument, he makes the weighty observation, that authority may compel belief, but cannot enlighten the understanding {credimus auctoritati, sed non propter earn intelligimus). He is willing that all honour should be paid to the ancients ; but, as he says, those who are younger in order of time, enjoy the labours of those who have gone before them ; Quanto juniores, tanto perspicaciores, a maxim which, it seems to me, may rank with Francis Bacon's famous apophthegm, antiquitas seculi, juventus mundi. ‘ This strong opposition to Authority extends itself to all that rests on custom or popular opinion. Bacon, indeed, * Part VII, on Moral Philosophy, was first edited by Bridges in 1897.$