A philosophy written by a Lord Chancellor Francis Bacon on customs and laws of nature

MANZO SILVIA

Ciudad de México

Otro; Primer Coloquio Internacional Francis Bacon; 2017

Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Universidad Autónoma de la Ciudad de México. Instituto de Investigaciones Filosóficas

A famous anecdote reported by John Aubrey recalls that William Harvey derisively observed that ?Bacon writes philosophy like a Lord Chancellor?. In some senses, Harvey?s sentence can be considered true. One of them is the fact the Bacon?s approach to some central natural philosophical issues is informed by his legal training. This can be seen in his views on the regularity and the exceptions in nature. His natural philosophy distinguishes two kinds of regularities in nature: customs and laws. However, the precise meaning of this divide and its large implications are far from clear. By drawing attention to the legal terminology employed by Bacon to account for nature?s regularity and exceptions, this paper aims to shed some light on the ontological, epistemological, and operative aspects of its concepts of customs and laws of nature. This paper is divided in four sections. Section 1 outlines the distinction between physical and metaphysical causes. Section 2 examines the ontological and epistemic aspects of the kinds of nature?s regularities identified by Bacon: the customs and the laws of nature, by focusing on the legal sense of custom. The following section discuss the cultural sense of nature as related to human art. The last section highlights the operative implications of Bacon?s views on customs and laws of nature.