Francis Bacon and pre-Socratic philosophy

Before Socrates, philosophy was largely concerned with finding rational explanations for the natural world that made more sense than the narrative mythologies of Homer and Hesiod. It was more akin to what was later called natural philosophy and eventually became science, but paradoxically it was also mystical and written in poetry, so that it could be remembered. 

Socrates came along and changed everything to ethics, until the mantle of natural philosophy passed to Aristotle, who thought women had less teeth than men but didn't think to check. Aristotle, "that worst of sophists" in Bacon's words, effectively held the state of human knowledge in check until Bacon arrived and overthrew his authority. You can see God's providence here, actually retarding the course of human development until the proper time. Truth be told, even in Bacon's time men were not ready for the power of science.

In his campaign against Aristotle, Bacon naturally thought to thoroughly examine all he could find of the pre-Socratics, and he was well ahead of his time in his appreciation for them. Bacon himself, father of rational empiricism and final editor of the King James Bible, was also a mystic given to visions, but he never let it intrude into his scientific work, or his work on behalf of civil and religious authorities. 

Below is posted a file containing an article about Bacon and the pre-Socratics by Benjamin Farrington.

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