Francis Bacon, The Advancement of Learning

Alexander Lash (Columbia University)
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Bacon sums up

The Advancement of Learning

by concluding that he has made, in this book, “a small Globe of the Intellectual World, as truly and faithfully as I could discover” (299). Just as a globe aims to represent the surface of the Earth as exhaustively as possible, Bacon’s book is meant to be a complete map of what can be known, in regards both to nature and to human affairs. Bacon often associates his hopes for a universal expansion of learning with the increased geographical knowledge gained by Europeans in the century following Columbus’ transatlantic travels, and here he intends to show all that remains to be discovered. A key impediment to the enlargement of the ‘Intellectual World’, as Bacon sees it, lies in writers constantly repeating what is already known, as…

1755 words

Citation: Lash, Alexander. "The Advancement of Learning". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 10 August 2015 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=1650, accessed 19 March 2024.]

1650 The Advancement of Learning 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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