Francis Bacon and the practices of measurement.

The instrumental character of Francis Bacon's natural and experimental histories was often noted, but never fully investigated. In this paper I aim to reconstruct the theoretical and methodological background which supports this feature. I claim that we can read large parts of the second book of Bacon's Novum organum as a guide to laboratory practices; and that it was read in this manner by some of Bacon's seventeenth century followers. Key to this guide is Bacon's theory of prerogative instances which, in turn, provides the grounding for a whole theory of instruments of detection and instruments of measurement. I show, in particular, how Bacon suggested that such instruments can be used for 'charting' virtues and powers; a process in which instruments of detection can be transformed into instruments of measurement. I also show that Bacon's views on instruments entail an elaborated conception of measurement which departs from the ethos of artisanal perfection. Instead of pursuing the 'best results', Bacon's instrumental natural and experimental histories aim to offer a large enough corpus of correlations, estimates and calculations which, taken together, can represent more or less accurately changes and variations of natural virtues and powers.

Committing Fallacies and the Appearance Condition.

This appearance condition of fallacies refers to the phenomenon of weak arguments, or moves in argumentation, appearing to be okay when really they aren't. Not all theorists agree that the appearance condition should be part of the conception of fallacies but this essay explores some of the consequences of including it. In particular, the differences between committing a fallacy, causing a fallacy and observing a fallacy are identified. The remainder of the paper is given over to discussing possible causes of mistakenly perceiving weak argumentation moves as okay. Among these are argument caused misperception, perspective caused misperception, discursive environment caused misperception and perceiver caused misperception. The discussion aims to be sufficiently general so that it can accommodate different models and standards of argumentation that make a place for fallacies.

Robert Veatch's Disrupted Dialogue and its implications for bioethics.

In his Disrupted Dialogue: Medical Ethics and the Collapse of Physician-Humanist Communication (1770-1980) Robert Veatch presents a scholarly tour de force of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Anglophone medical ethics to demonstrate how the easy communication between physicians and humanists in the Scottish Enlightenment progressively dissipated as medicine became detached from humanistic disciplines. In this paper I offer two comments-that the discourse of medical ethics in the Scottish Enlightenment was a discourse of Baconian moral science and that nineteenth-century medical ethics in the United States became detached from that discourse. The result was that a principal resource for physicians at the birth of bioethics, the American Medical Association's Principles of Medicine Ethics of 1957, did not equip physicians with the conceptual tools they needed to formulate and address the ethical challenges that became the agenda of bioethics. The paper opens with a brief portrait of Robert Veatch, the author's connections to him, and his little-known role as an impresario of the classical music of the Blue Ridge and Appalachia.

Technoscientific control of nature: The ultimate paradox.

The current interlinked environmental and socioeconomic global crises constitute the gravest threat to humanity's well-being, indeed survival, today. Studies of the historical roots and contemporary manifestations of the various elements of these crises-including accelerating environmental degradation, unfettered capitalist technoscientific/industrial expansion, overpopulation, and overconsumption-are plentiful. Also well-known is the influence of Francis Bacon's writings, particularly The Advancement of Learning (1605), Novum Organon (1620), and the utopian New Atlantis (1627), on the development of empiricism and the modern scientific method as well as the reform and organization of scientific research. Bacon's significance for the founding of the Royal Society of London (1660) and for the plan and structure of the Encyclopedie (1751-1772), coupled with his oft-cited aphoristic injunctions to study nature to control/dominate it, are staples in the lore and justification of technoscience. I argue that the enduring appeal of so-called Baconianism derives, in part, from a fundamental misappropriation of certain of Bacon's original ideas. Specifically, the complex ethical and religious framework within which Bacon situated his vision of scientific and technological development was discarded (or ignored) so that, by the early decades of the 18th century, Baconianism had come to be understood almost exclusively for its utilitarian role in society. This deracinated version became the familiar trope of technoscience's unlimited potential to transform nature (including human nature and behavior) in the service of an ideology of industrial/consumerist expansion since then. Linkage between the history of science/technology and addictive consumerism, apparent by the close of the 19th century, has been insufficiently examined. Such addictive consumerist behavior and continued virtually unregulated industrialization and production, were effectively removed from ethical scrutiny and a high degree of material acquisition and personal/societal rapaciousness became the norm rather than the exception in most countries. I suggest that further historical deconstruction of this denuded Baconianism will yield important insights in the search for viable solutions to the present global socioenvironmental crises.

'For Beauty is nothing but the barely endurable onset of Terror': Outline of a general psychoanalytic aesthetics.

Even close to 80 years after Freud's words that psychoanalysis "has scarcely anything to say about beauty" (Freud, Civilization and its Discontents, SE 21, p. 82) the question of a specific psychoanalytic aesthetic is still faced with a deficit in theory. Since aesthetics is related to Aisthesis, the Greek word for 'perception', a psychoanalytic aesthetic can solely emerge from a psychoanalysis of perceptive structures. The term 'kinaesthetic semantic' is introduced in order to exemplify via music how perceptive experiences must be structured for them to be experienced as beautiful. The basic mechanisms - repetition of form (rhythm, unification) and seduction (deviation, surprise) - are defined. With the help of these mechanisms an intensive contact between perceiving object and kinetic subject, the physical self, is established. The intensive relatedness is a requirement for the creative process in art and also for psychic growth on the subject's level. The described basic mechanisms of the aesthetic process in music can also be encountered in painting and poetry. By the means of a self-portrait by Bacon it will be examined how, in art, terror and traumatization are represented via targeted disorganization of beauty endowing mechanisms, hence finding an enabling form of confrontation and integration of fended contents.

Petrus van Musschenbroek and Newton's 'vera stabilisque Philosophandi methodus'.

According to a dominant view in the scholarly literature, Musschenbroek is to be considered a follower of Newton's methodology, i.e. as a natural philosopher who, although he occasionally departed from Newton's doctrines, aligned himself to Newton's methodological views. Few scholars have, however, explained in full detail what it means to claim that Musschenbroek followed Newton's method. The purpose of this essay is to get more grip on this matter.

The "Visual Shock" of Francis Bacon: an essay in neuroesthetics.

In this paper we discuss the work of Francis Bacon in the context of his declared aim of giving a "visual shock."We explore what this means in terms of brain activity and what insights into the brain's visual perceptive system his work gives. We do so especially with reference to the representation of faces and bodies in the human visual brain. We discuss the evidence that shows that both these categories of stimuli have a very privileged status in visual perception, compared to the perception of other stimuli, including man-made artifacts such as houses, chairs, and cars. We show that viewing stimuli that depart significantly from a normal representation of faces and bodies entails a significant difference in the pattern of brain activation. We argue that Bacon succeeded in delivering his "visual shock" because he subverted the normal neural representation of faces and bodies, without at the same time subverting the representation of man-made artifacts.

A Poética de Francis Bacon / The Poetic of Francis Bacon

A partir da perspectiva psicanalítica, a autora aborda a obra de Francis Bacon se utilizando de uma concepção estética que a reconhece como uma realidade ontológica. Dessa forma, considera que como obra de arte, são seus próprios elementos constitutivos, numa tensão interna, que são capazes de provocar efeitos ou as sensações que são o seu objetivo último conforme defendia Bacon. Em sua análise a autora examina e discute a dialética "tempo - espaço", revelada pelo poeta pintor, como sendo de especial interesse para a clínica psicanalítica na medida em que esclarece importantes questões relativas ao Real como impossível, tal como o compreendeu Lacan. A pintura de Bacon examinada como referência à "sublimação criacionista da pulsão de morte" permite, segundo a autora, vislumbrarmos o para além da cadeia significante. Conclui que a arte, assim como a clínica psicanalítica, supõe deslocamentos subjetivos que implicam corte - rompimento com a tendência unificadora e pacificadora de Eros.

From the psychoanalytic perspective, the author discusses the work of Francis Bacon by using a aesthetic conception that recognizes it as an ontological reality. Thus, consider that as a work of art, their own constituents, in internal tension, are capable of causing effects or sensations that are its ultimate goal as advocated by Bacon. In his analysis, the author examines and discusses the dialectic "time - space," revealed by the poet/painter, as being of particular interest to the psychoanalytic clinic once itt clarifies important issues related to Real as impossible, as Lacan understood. Bacon's painting examined by reference to the "creationist sublimation of the death drive" allows us, according to the author, to glimpse beyond the significant chain. The author concludes that art, like the psychoanalytic clinic, assumes subjective displacements implies in cutting - breaking with the trend of an Eros that unifies and pacifies.