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Article ID: CBB467830858

Francis Bacon on Self-Care, Divination, and the Nature–Fortune Distinction (2023)

Early Science and Medicine: A Journal for the Study of Science, Technology and Medicine in the Pre-modern Period
Volume: 28
Issue: 1
Pages: 120-147
Publication date: 2023
Language: English

URI: https://brill.com/view/journals/esm/28/1/article-p120_6.xml

DOI: 10.1163/15733823-20230067

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Natural philosophy Hermeneutics Astrology Physiognomy Divination; prognostication Risk management Self-perception Self-help; self-care 16th century 17th century Bacon, Francis, 1st Baron Verulam

In presenting self-preservation as the most general law of nature, set at the summit of the structure of the natural world, Francis Bacon characterized the universal appetite for self-preservation as an innate instinct which, in the case of living beings, is primarily associated with the emotion of fear. Bacon’s philosophy offers several techniques of self-care to manage the fear of accidents of fortune from which the existence and well-being of the self is under constant threat. This article reconstructs Bacon’s treatment of divinatory arts and their contributions to self-care. We will explore how he adopts traditional divinatory arts and reforms them: oneirocritics, physiognomy, and astrology. We will contend that Bacon’s approach to divinatory arts as techniques for self-care and the management of fortune shows some salient points shared with his natural philosophy: in both cases, the approach is hermeneutical, with the goal of exerting human power. With regard both to nature and to fortune, however, our power to modify the state of things extends only so far. The range of decisions we can make is not unlimited but encompasses only what is “in our power,” that is, what depends on us.

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Article Steven Vanden Broecke; Jonathan Regier (2023) Special Issue Introduction: Individuality, Self-Care, and Self-Preservation in Late Medieval and Early Modern Science. Early Science and Medicine: A Journal for the Study of Science, Technology and Medicine in the Pre-modern Period (pp. 1-7). unapi

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