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SUMMARY:Francis Bacon and the art-nature distinction - Sophie Weeks (Homer
 ton College and Department of History and Philosophy of Science)
DTSTART:20070125T163000Z
DTEND:20070125T180000Z
UID:TALK6078@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Stephen John
DESCRIPTION:Commentators generally expound Bacon's position on the art-nat
 ure relationship in terms of how much it retained or departed from traditi
 onal conceptions. This paper argues that an appreciation of the Baconian m
 eaning of the terms 'art' and 'nature' requires a close examination of his
  wider cosmogonical speculations. Bacon's cosmogonical account moves from 
 a state of unbridled chaos to the relatively stable system for which the t
 erm 'nature' is normally used. The fundamental principle lying at the hear
 t of Baconian cosmogony is an enriched and appetitive matter: eternal\, un
 changing\, and the plenipotentiary source of all things. Successive limita
 tions of matter's absolute power produced a lazy and habitual nature\, whi
 ch Bacon labelled 'nature free'. To shift nature from this otiose conditio
 n\, the Baconian operator recapitulates the original binding of matter. Ba
 con designated the systematic procedures of binding nature the science of 
 magic. Magic is Bacon's human counterpart to the original cosmogonical pro
 cess which gave rise to the current system of nature. In Bacon's cosmogony
  all possible worlds unfold out of matter: the function of art is to shake
  out nature's hidden folds. Hence\, the distinction between _naturalia_ an
 d _artificialia_ maps onto the distinction between actual and potential. N
 ature free is without purpose but art – nature bound – knowingly bring
 s into being an alternative nature designed for human utility. Bacon's goa
 l\, I shall argue\, was to access the occult storehouse of matter's powers
  by means of the artful manipulation of matter itself.
LOCATION:Seminar Room 2\, History and Philosophy of Science\, Department o
 f
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