| This definition of man is the same
| definition that we find in the
| magico-alchemical tradition which is
| in general refuted by Bacon. Paolo
| Rossi ("Bacon's idea of science", in:
| THE CAMBRIDGE COMPANION TO BACON, ed.
| by Markku Peltonen [1996], 25-46)
| gives the following comment:
|
| "Bacon condemned magic and alchemy on
| ethical grounds. He accused them of
| imposture and of megalomania. He
| refuted their non-participatory
| method and their intentional
| unintelligibility, their attempt to
| replace human sweat by a few drops of
| elixir. But he borrows from the
| magico-alchemical tradition the idea
| that man can attempt to make himself
| the master of nature. Bacon
| understands knowledge not as
| contemplation or recognition, but as
| VENATIO, a hunt, an exploration of
| unknown lands, a discovery of the
| unknown. Nature can be transformed
| from its foundations. Bacon's
| definition of man as "the servant and
| interpreter of Nature" is the same
| definition we find in the magico-
| alchemical tradition, for instance in