In their respective works, Francis Bacon and René Descartes both philosophise on existence and knowledge. However, their reasons for writing are different, as are the points they are trying to convey. This impacts the way they write, and specifically, how they use examples to further their arguments. Even if those examples share the common theme of bees, Bacon uses a scientific form of classification to highlight the bee, versus Descartes’ more sensual analysis of a ball of wax.
Francis Bacon, in his work The New Organon, opens his argument with the creation of a caste-system, dividing humanity first implicitly, with an entomological allegory, and then explicitly. First, the bugs:
The men of experiment are like the ant, they only collect …show more content…
It is very reliant on the senses, which is ironic when Descartes is specifically trying to condemn the senses as a reliable form of observation. He questions, “So what was there in the wax that was so distinctly grasped?...for whatever came under the senses has now changed, and yet the wax remains” (Descartes, 67). That is, even though its properties changed, the wax remains wax, not some other substance. This therefore causes him to postulate that “the perception of the wax is neither a seeing, nor a touching, nor an imagining...rather it is an inspection on the part of the mind alone.” He cedes that this inspection can be “imperfect and confused” but the mind is ultimately right, since it knew the wax was the same substance throughout the experiment, even through the faulty classifications of the senses (Descartes, 68).
In writing the Meditations, Descartes is reexamining what he has previously taken without argument to be true. The wax is a microcosm of this: Descartes’ contemporaries of philosophers and scientists have never taken to question whether there is any scientific or philosophical significance in the transformative powers of wax. In the same way, they have never questioned the possible transformative powers of the self and reality. Descartes is writing in an effort to correct both of these
Francis Bacon, in his work The New Organon, opens his argument with the creation of a caste-system, dividing humanity first implicitly, with an entomological allegory, and then explicitly. First, the bugs:
The men of experiment are like the ant, they only collect …show more content…
It is very reliant on the senses, which is ironic when Descartes is specifically trying to condemn the senses as a reliable form of observation. He questions, “So what was there in the wax that was so distinctly grasped?...for whatever came under the senses has now changed, and yet the wax remains” (Descartes, 67). That is, even though its properties changed, the wax remains wax, not some other substance. This therefore causes him to postulate that “the perception of the wax is neither a seeing, nor a touching, nor an imagining...rather it is an inspection on the part of the mind alone.” He cedes that this inspection can be “imperfect and confused” but the mind is ultimately right, since it knew the wax was the same substance throughout the experiment, even through the faulty classifications of the senses (Descartes, 68).
In writing the Meditations, Descartes is reexamining what he has previously taken without argument to be true. The wax is a microcosm of this: Descartes’ contemporaries of philosophers and scientists have never taken to question whether there is any scientific or philosophical significance in the transformative powers of wax. In the same way, they have never questioned the possible transformative powers of the self and reality. Descartes is writing in an effort to correct both of these