"The word is old, but the thing is ancient": Rereading Bacon's Essays after Pierre Hadot

AsPro Matthew Sharpe (Deakin University )

This paper proposes that Bacon's Essays (1597, 1612, 1625) can best be understood as a document in the long tradition of Western philosophical self-cultivation, a tradition which it aims to selectively amend.  Existing readings which focus on their language alone, or protest the "immorality" of Bacon's alleged advice, both are differently partial.  The first part (On Form) will make the case that the essays, born out of Bacon's commonplace notebooks, are rhetorically crafted to provide forms of prescriptive counsel with the maximum condensation, vividness and force, in order to facilitate their memorisation and use. This part will be conducted in light of Bacon's often-misuderstood assessment of rhetoric in The Advancement of Learning (1605), and its place in what he terms the "Georgics of the mind".  The second part (On Content) will challenge Zeitlin's famous claims alleging the heartlessness of Bacon's ethical positions, situating the different essays as "Councils, Civil and Moral", in line with Bacon's larger proposals for the reforms of practical philosophy to redress the absence of texts attending to the business of conversation and negotiation.  

Public Transport: Trams: 109 (to Box Hill), 12 (to Victoria Gardens): Tram, stop 13 (Landsdowne St. ACU).

Buses: From City: 302, 303, 304, 305, 309, 318, 350, 905, 906, 907, 908. Stop: ACU.

Nearest Train Station: Parliament Station. Exit Macarthur St, go north until Victoria Parade, Turn right, 400 metres (CTC building corner of Victoria Parade and Eades St, - the Southern Side of Vic Parade, located across from what was until very recently - the Dallas Brooks Hall).

Parking along Vic Parade and at the ACU (on Young St).