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This paper offers a close reading of texts of Francis Bacon, who stands at the origins of the mod... more This paper offers a close reading of texts of Francis Bacon, who stands at the origins of the modern conception of work as a problem to be solved by the advance of science and technology. From his earliest writings on natural philosophy, Bacon engages in a novel interpretation of the Biblical account of the Fall in Genesis. Bacon reads the work in the Garden (Genesis 2.15) to be a form of contemplation, thereby de-emphasizing labor and departing from both the classical view of contemplation and the Christian exegetical tradition on this Biblical passage.
This paper shows how Bacon operates with four implied concepts of work: Sabbath, God’s work of creation, the work of the corrupted and fallen intellect, and the work of the intellect corrected and guided by Bacon’s method. Sabbath is shown to be a state without the necessities of physical labor. Next, natural philosophy to date is explained as having followed the wrong pattern of intellectual work, being the activity of a corrupted mind trying to comprehend a deceptive natural world and seeking a false Sabbath. This view accounts for Bacon’s wholesale rejection of all existing scientific knowledge. Science must instead be modeled on God’s “arch-type” of creation in Genesis 1. The paper shows how Bacon follows this model which is the only hope for restoring us to the Sabbath Adam once enjoyed. The paper closes with a brief examination of Bacon’s vision presented in the New Atlantis, in which physical labor is unnecessary and scientific research into “the knowledge of Causes, and secret motions of things” enjoys a privileged status.

Book Reviews by Mike Kane

pourrichard.com

A humorous critique of Nassim Taleb's book, The Black Swan

Papers by Mike Kane

American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly, 1995

In his outline of Being and Time, Heidegger promises an analysis of Aristotle's essay on ... more In his outline of Being and Time, Heidegger promises an analysis of Aristotle's essay on time "as providing a way of discriminating the phenomenal basis and the limits of ancient ontology.,, Being and Time, as incomplete, does not contain this division. It does refer to the Aristotelian conception of time at different points in the text, most notably in §81, but this lacks the full dimension Heidegger intended to give to his reading of the fourth book of the Physics. Heidegger does however offer an interpretation of Aristotle's treatise on time in his lecture course of 1927, which has been published as The Basic Problems of Phenomenology. In this paper, we will examine Heidegger's reading of the Physics, Book 4.10-14 in relation to its importance to his problematic. The questions guiding our investigation will be: (i) Why does Heidegger find it necessary to set out the Aristotelian conception of time as a propaedeutic to his own examination of the phenomenon? (ii) What does Heidegger find in Aristotle's essay and how does he appropriate it? (iii) What bearing does Heidegger's exposition of Aristotle have upon the larger issue of fundamental ontology and the question of temporality?

American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly, 1995

In his outline of Being and Time, Heidegger promises an analysis of Aristotle's essay on time "as... more In his outline of Being and Time, Heidegger promises an analysis of Aristotle's essay on time "as providing a way of discriminating the phenomenal basis and the limits of ancient ontology.,, Being and Time, as incomplete, does not contain this division. It does refer to the Aristotelian conception of time at different points in the text, most notably in §81, but this lacks the full dimension Heidegger intended to give to his reading of the fourth book of the Physics. Heidegger does however offer an interpretation of Aristotle's treatise on time in his lecture course of 1927, which has been published as The Basic Problems of Phenomenology. In this paper, we will examine Heidegger's reading of the Physics, Book 4.10-14 in relation to its importance to his problematic. The questions guiding our investigation will be: (i) Why does Heidegger find it necessary to set out the Aristotelian conception of time as a propaedeutic to his own examination of the phenomenon? (ii) What does Heidegger find in Aristotle's essay and how does he appropriate it? (iii) What bearing does Heidegger's exposition of Aristotle have upon the larger issue of fundamental ontology and the question of temporality?

This paper offers a close reading of texts of Francis Bacon, who stands at the origins of the mod... more This paper offers a close reading of texts of Francis Bacon, who stands at the origins of the modern conception of work as a problem to be solved by the advance of science and technology. From his earliest writings on natural philosophy, Bacon engages in a novel interpretation of the Biblical account of the Fall in Genesis. Bacon reads the work in the Garden (Genesis 2.15) to be a form of contemplation, thereby de-emphasizing labor and departing from both the classical view of contemplation and the Christian exegetical tradition on this Biblical passage.
This paper shows how Bacon operates with four implied concepts of work: Sabbath, God’s work of creation, the work of the corrupted and fallen intellect, and the work of the intellect corrected and guided by Bacon’s method. Sabbath is shown to be a state without the necessities of physical labor. Next, natural philosophy to date is explained as having followed the wrong pattern of intellectual work, being the activity of a corrupted mind trying to comprehend a deceptive natural world and seeking a false Sabbath. This view accounts for Bacon’s wholesale rejection of all existing scientific knowledge. Science must instead be modeled on God’s “arch-type” of creation in Genesis 1. The paper shows how Bacon follows this model which is the only hope for restoring us to the Sabbath Adam once enjoyed. The paper closes with a brief examination of Bacon’s vision presented in the New Atlantis, in which physical labor is unnecessary and scientific research into “the knowledge of Causes, and secret motions of things” enjoys a privileged status.

pourrichard.com

A humorous critique of Nassim Taleb's book, The Black Swan

American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly, 1995

In his outline of Being and Time, Heidegger promises an analysis of Aristotle's essay on ... more In his outline of Being and Time, Heidegger promises an analysis of Aristotle's essay on time "as providing a way of discriminating the phenomenal basis and the limits of ancient ontology.,, Being and Time, as incomplete, does not contain this division. It does refer to the Aristotelian conception of time at different points in the text, most notably in §81, but this lacks the full dimension Heidegger intended to give to his reading of the fourth book of the Physics. Heidegger does however offer an interpretation of Aristotle's treatise on time in his lecture course of 1927, which has been published as The Basic Problems of Phenomenology. In this paper, we will examine Heidegger's reading of the Physics, Book 4.10-14 in relation to its importance to his problematic. The questions guiding our investigation will be: (i) Why does Heidegger find it necessary to set out the Aristotelian conception of time as a propaedeutic to his own examination of the phenomenon? (ii) What does Heidegger find in Aristotle's essay and how does he appropriate it? (iii) What bearing does Heidegger's exposition of Aristotle have upon the larger issue of fundamental ontology and the question of temporality?

American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly, 1995

In his outline of Being and Time, Heidegger promises an analysis of Aristotle's essay on time "as... more In his outline of Being and Time, Heidegger promises an analysis of Aristotle's essay on time "as providing a way of discriminating the phenomenal basis and the limits of ancient ontology.,, Being and Time, as incomplete, does not contain this division. It does refer to the Aristotelian conception of time at different points in the text, most notably in §81, but this lacks the full dimension Heidegger intended to give to his reading of the fourth book of the Physics. Heidegger does however offer an interpretation of Aristotle's treatise on time in his lecture course of 1927, which has been published as The Basic Problems of Phenomenology. In this paper, we will examine Heidegger's reading of the Physics, Book 4.10-14 in relation to its importance to his problematic. The questions guiding our investigation will be: (i) Why does Heidegger find it necessary to set out the Aristotelian conception of time as a propaedeutic to his own examination of the phenomenon? (ii) What does Heidegger find in Aristotle's essay and how does he appropriate it? (iii) What bearing does Heidegger's exposition of Aristotle have upon the larger issue of fundamental ontology and the question of temporality?