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system Aristotle's theory of matter as potentiality in contrast to form 

 emanating from the divine intelligence is, in Bruno's opinion, also incorrect; 

 matter is rather the essential in every thing, the "divine essence" out of which 

 all is evolved. In Bruno's view, Lucretius' atomic theory and the neo- 

 Platonic ideas of the unity of matter are combined into a vision of the world 

 at the same time mysteriously vague and grandly fantastic, as a single whole, 

 one with God and one with itself, a combination of all the contrasts which 

 human thought has speculated upon. It would take too long to discuss these 

 ideas in detail, all the more so as Bruno, strictly speaking, does not touch 

 upon any purely biological problems. His importance from the point of view 

 of world history lies in the fact that he for the first time worked out, or 

 perhaps rather guessed, the cosmic theory which has since come to be held 

 in modern natural research. His influence has been great and has been widely 

 felt through all the ages. 



While, then, in the cosmological sphere Bruno was the pioneer of the 

 new natural science, in a corresponding manner Francis Bacon (1561-1616) 

 paved the way in the sphere of pure laws of thought. His life's activities 

 and end were in all respects different from Bruno's. One thing, however, 

 they had in common: restlessness, that diversified seeking after knowledge 

 which was so characteristic of the Renaissance. Born in England in a refined 

 home. Bacon received a thorough education, but lost his father at an early 

 age and was not very successful in his official career, in spite of his brilliant 

 gifts and his ruthless ambition. It was not until later on in life that he re- 

 ceived higher appointments and eventually became Lord Chancellor in the 

 reign of James I, whom he knew how to flatter. But he was shortly after- 

 wards dismissed and condemned to pay a fine for bribery and corruption 

 when in office, and his last five years he spent in retirement. 



Bacon's reform of science 

 Even in his early years Bacon had planned to reform all human knowledge 

 completely. This reform was to have been carried out in a work of mighty 

 proportions entitled Instauratio magna. Bacon during his restless life found no 

 time to carry out even approximately the great task he had set himself; the 

 "great reform" remained but a fragment, of which the first two, and the 

 best-constructed, sections are called The Advancement of Learning and The New 

 Method. The latter section is that on which Bacon's fame principally rests; 

 its title is chosen as a direct challenge to Aristotle, for whose theory of 

 method, Organum, Bacon wished to substitute his own new method. Bacon's 

 Novum Organum takes the form of a collection of aphorisms, intended to 

 illustrate from various points of view the inaccuracy of the traditional 

 scholastic mode of thought and the correctness of the new theory of thought, 

 which it was necessary to set in its place. The defects of the Aristotelean 

 philosophy are criticized in a number of strongly worded and merciless 



