Probability and Certainty in Francis Bacon: the case of Law

MANZO, SILVIA

Bucarest

Conferencia; Conferencista invitada por New Europe College, Institute for Advanced Studies, Bucarest.; 2009

New Europe College, Institute for Advanced Studies

The convergence of the legal tradition with the early-modern epistemic categories of natural science has become a shared view among historians of science. With different nuances and from diverse analysis, historians agree to maintain that the interaction of law and natural philosophy contributed to originate distinctive conceptual categories such as facts, certainty, and probability during the early-modern period.  From this historiographical account, Francis Bacon  has been highlighted as one of the most influential authors who merged legal thinking with natural science. His idea of natural history and his project of a restored natural philosophy are undoubtedly permeated with legal overtones. Bacon was both an active professional jurist, engaged in the legal debates of the day, and a philosopher, deeply committed to the renovation of natural philosophy. Notwithstanding, despite that this double character of Bacon as a jurist and Bacon as a natural philosopher has attracted the attention of several scholars,  relatively little has been said about the concrete ways in which Bacon’s legal training played as background of the particular epistemic notions involved in his scientific program. The aim of this paper is to find out the notions of certainty assumed in Bacon’s jurisprudence by dealing with the concept of the certainty the of law entailed in Bacon’s law reform project, and exhibiting how he put his attempts to make law certain into practice.  (Versión preliminar de la primera parte del paper presentado en el MPIWG el 15 de diciembre de 2009)