Summary
Bacon once again praises King James I for his endorsement of learning.
He moves on to distinguish between three types of learning, arguing that they align with man's own understanding: history is memory, poetry is imagination, and philosophy is reason. Each of these types of learning can be broken down even further (for example, Bacon distinguishes between civil history and ecclesiastical history).
Poetry, Bacon argues, is a means of feigning history in order to satisfy man's curiosity and imagination. While Bacon does not criticize poetry per se, he does argue that one should not dwell long in the "theatre," comparing poetry to a performance that only mimics real life.
In his discussion of natural philosophy, Bacon separates this genre of learning into two sub-genres: physical philosophy and metaphysical philosophy. Physical philosophy deals with qualities of nature that are inherent and metaphysical philosophy addresses concepts that are more abstract. He also notes that mathematics is generally considered a third genre of natural philosophy, but he includes it within metaphysical philosophy.
Bacon goes on to explain that knowledge associated with the human body can be divided into four types: health, beauty, strength, and pleasure. He finds merits in all these, but argues that physicians could be doing more to expand their knowledge of medicine.
Finally, Bacon argues that of speech and science – typically considered two opposing forms of knowledge – speech is the more deficient of the two, as it prioritizes rhetoric over experience. He argues that speech should be distilled into a science itself so that it can become more useful in the advancement of learning.
Bacon concludes by arguing that God himself encourages reason and learning in man. He argues that he has "made as it were a small globe of the intellectual world" (299), and anything one finds notable in the text should be credited to God and King James I.
Analysis
In Book Two of The Advancement of Learning, Bacon paints an elaborate portrait of seemingly every form of human knowledge one could imagine. Bacon's approach to knowledge is organized in many ways like a pyramid, in which broader forms of knowledge are then broken down into more specific forms.
Within this structure, Bacon establishes three forms of knowledge that encompass all others: history, poetry, and philosophy. While he spends time describing each of these forms, he is markedly partial to philosophy as the most significant one for human development.
Bacon sees history as useful, but is wary of its focus on the past rather than the present or future.
Likewise, Bacon acknowledges that poetry (or poesy) is a form of knowledge meant to fulfill man's imagination. Poetry is likely the form of knowledge about which Bacon is most critical, as he suggests that it is more attached to fantasy and whimsicality than engagement with the natural world. This is a significant criticism to lodge at this point in time, as poetry was appearing with increased popularity with the rise of the theatre. The Advancement of Learning was published in 1605, which was also what many would consider the height of early modern English drama (Shakespeare's Hamlet, for example, was first performed in 1601). Bacon's criticism of poetry as a medium of mimicry is one piece of evidence that might refute the long-held theory that it was Bacon who wrote some (or all) of the plays attributed to Shakespeare.
Through his elaborate map of the human mind, Bacon introduces two concepts for which is he best known, without ever actually using the terms themselves: empiricism and induction. Empiricism is a school of philosophy that maintains that knowledge is best gained through sensory experience with the natural world. One can see the foundations of empiricist thought in Book Two of the text, as Bacon argues again and again for man to remain dedicated to exploring, questioning, and engaging with his surroundings.
The second Baconian concept – induction – is a method of reasoning under empiricism. Baconian induction maintains that one must draw general conclusions based on specific facts or axioms, with the caveat that one must not generalize beyond what the facts support. Most critics consider Baconian induction an early incarnation of the scientific method. Even in terms of the structure of the text, one can see Baconian induction at work: he begins by asserting what is true and factual, and eventually branches out to describe what must also be true based on what readers have already learned. Thus, even at the level of the text itself, Bacon demonstrates for his reader his own processes for the acquisition of knowledge.
