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Unit 3: Francis Bacon—Of Studies: Detailed Study and Critical Analysis

exercises beget growth and development, the different branches of studies cures the in capability Notes
of logic, wondering of wit, lack of distinguish etc. Bacon emphatically concludes that every defect
of the mind may have a special receipt and remedial assurance.
His first analysis is an exposition on the purposes or uses that different individuals can have by
approaching Study –”…for delight, ornament, and for ability”- And how certain professions are
better served by individuals with study knowledge. As he mentions the virtues of Study he also
points out its vices: –”To spend too much time in study is sloth…” Also, how Study influences our
understanding of Nature, and in opposition, how our experience of Nature bounds our acquired
knowledge. After that, the Author presents the concept of how different individuals with different
mental abilities and interests in life, approach the idea of studying.
”Crafty men contemn studies…”- and offers advice on how study should be applied: –”…but to
weight and consider”- Then Bacon goes into expressing his ideas in how the means to acquire
study knowledge, books, can be categorized and read according to their content and value to the
individual. The benefits of studying are Bacon’s final approach. Benefits in terms of defining a
“Man” by its ability to read, write or confer, and in terms of being the medicine for any “impediment
in the wit” and by giving “receipts” to “every defect of the mind”.
Certainly, some of Francis Bacon’s insights in this subject are of value after 400 years of societal
evolution. We can ascertain this when we read the phrase “They perfect Nature, and are perfected
by experience…” Nevertheless some of the concepts expressed in his Essay have to be understood
through the glass of time. By this I mean Society values and concepts were different altogethers to
what we know today. By that time Society was strongly influenced by the idea of literacy and
illiteracy (relatively few were educated and could read and write). Only educated people had
access to knowledge and by that, to social status and opportunity. Nowadays would be difficult to
accept ideas which relate skills or professions towards an attitude to approach studying. Today, a
skilled machinist or carpenter can certainly be a studied person. Nowadays most people in our
Society have the possibility to read and by that, to obtain knowledge independently of what our
personal choices are in terms of profession. Also we must consider how today we value the
specialization of knowledge which in the past, characterized by a more generic and limited access
to knowledge, wasn’t a major factor into the conceptualization and understanding of study knowledge
as to the extent we see it today.
Finally, it is doubtful that the benefits of studying can be approached as a recipe for any “intellectual
illness”. We now know that the real illnesses are related to mental conditions and not necessarily
to our mental skills, abilities or lack of them and by that I mean that Bacon’s solutions to those
conditions are substantially naïve under the actual understanding of Human Psychology.
Concepts and ideas evolve at the same time as the Human condition changes in all social, scientific,
political and economic aspects. By looking through the glass of time and comparing the past to the
present we come to the realization of the universality and endurance of some concepts and the
fragility and impermanence of some others.
Self-Assessment

1. Choose the correct options:
(i) Of Studies was published in ............... .
(a) 1597 (b) 1600
(c) 1585 (d) 1590
(ii) Of Studies is the ............... essay of the first collections of ten essays.
(a) Second (b) First
(c) Third (d) Fourth

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