Francis Bacon, The Advancement of Learning

Alexander Lash (Columbia University)

Ed. by J A Roe, University of York
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.03: English Writing and Culture: Renaissance (Elizabethan and Jacobean periods) , 1485-1625.
Vol. editors: William M. Hamlin (Washington State University), J A Roe (University of York), Virginia Mason Vaughan (Clark University), Ema Vyroubalova (Trinity College Dublin)

Domains

Philosophy (any)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1605

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Treatise

Resources

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Bacon sums up

The Advancement of Learning

by concluding that he has made, in this book, “a small Globe of the Intellectual World, as truly and faithfully as I could discover” (299). Just as a globe aims to represent the surface of the Earth as exhaustively as possible, Bacon’s book is meant to be a complete map of what can be known, in regards both to nature and to human affairs. Bacon often associates his hopes for a universal expansion of learning with the increased geographical knowledge gained by Europeans in the century following Columbus’ transatlantic travels, and here he intends to show all that remains to be discovered. A key impediment to the enlargement of the ‘Intellectual World’, as Bacon sees it, lies in writers constantly repeating what is already known, as…

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1755 words

Citation: Lash, Alexander. "The Advancement of Learning". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 10 August 2015 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=1650, accessed 03 December 2024.]

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