Horace Craig Longwell

“ The time has hardly come when one can undertake seriously to write of the Philosophy of Roger Bacon. Such a work presupposes materials in a very different form from that in which we have them. Further, there is presupposed a study of our Author’s sources, with the purpose of making clear the influence of his predecessors in the shaping of his thought. And, finally, a better account of the life of Bacon is desirable, to indicate the influence of his contemporaries upon his philosophical and scientific activities. ”

“ If this theory is to hold at all here, it must be by the modified emission theory and not by the eduction theory of generation. The Sun, for example, has a generative heat but also a vital heat as well; and so its life-giving Species would generate life. But the life-giving element in the sun is not life, but heat; and no explanation lies in the combination of “generativam et vitalem” to account for the production of life out of heat. And in the case of the human being, the human soul of the parent is also auxiliary in producing this life. ”

“ Now the total Effect is a summation of such parts; accordingly the total Effect should be identical in essence in the several cases—if the Species is the “pars prima.” But the Species as “pars prima” is essential to his eduction theory. Therefore, here again some other notion is before his mind, namely, the emission theory.
If the Species is not mere Form, but Form and Matter inevitably in span, then change cannot be effected through Form alone; the Matter has also its part to play. So, then, the Species, as “pars prima assimilata” of the Patient, is both Form and Matter. ”

“ However, this irradiation of the Species from the Agent-part is not in such wise that it goes out from this part, but rather, as stated, it comes from the potentiality of the Patient—and yet too from the virtue and active potentiality of the Agent-part itself. The Agent is like a common point from which lines infinite in number are sent in every direction, and over which lines the Species are propagated like rays. ”

“ On the contrary, his works make it plain that he had pondered—and pondered deeply, shrewdly and seriously—the problems that engaged the thoughtful men about him; and that he had his own views, and very decided ones they were, concerning these problems. To be sure, that degree of system which characterizes the work of Thomas Aquinas we are not to expect; for only in Bacon’s Scriptum Principale could this have been furnished, and that great work, if ever consummated, does not exist for us now. ”

“ Bacon can reply only generally in these terms: The air about us is filled with the virtues of the Sun, and this air as assimilated to the Sun acts upon our physical bodies and changes them. In turn the body acts upon the soul and changes it. And so men are made to wish what they had not wanted to wish, and not to desire what they had previously desired. Here then the corporeal Species has in so far as it is the bona fide factor in the process of assimilation, become somehow spiritual. A parallelism has passed over into an interactionism, as it were. ”

“ Dissatisfied with what seemed to him the unfruitful method of inquiry then prevailing, he bent his efforts rather to preliminary Method than to formulated System, to the foundations of knowledge rather than to the completed edifice. The world, he thought, was quite too full of vain attempts to systematize; overburdened with specimens of plebeian and trivial knowledge. “It is easy,” as he says, [3] “for any man of learning to multiply without end truths that are paltry and commonplace, and to spin out and magnify what is of little value. ”

“ Under Theory of Mind is included Psychology and Epistemology; under Psychology, both the physiological and the analytical; under Epistemology, both Theory of Perception and Theory of Knowledge, with the implied Criteriology. ”

“ To ask now whether he presented his meaning clear of all ambiguities is therefore idle. It is plain that he could not do so. For he is seeking to combine, in full detail, the Aristotelian theory of eduction with the emission theory received through Arabian influence. One may ask: What theory did he succeed in presenting with clearness and force? And the reply can be given in a few words. In the first part of his treatise he presents an eduction theory of Species, and with admirable success, all things considered. ”

“ But his impatient dismissal of that learning is from no unworthy motive; [5] it arises rather from a pure and whole-hearted love of Truth—indeed, the man is carried away with the fine enthusiasm of the devotee of Truth “writ large.” “I am after the treasures of the Sciences,” he continues, [6] “the wonders of Truth whereof one excels a thousand of commonplace truths. I would diligently search out the dominion of the Sciences and of the Languages, and the other things needful to raise the edifice of Truth.” ”

“ We are now able to summarize with reference to the limitations of the activity of the Species, and the field of application of the theory. Within the field of the phenomena of qualitative change the theory of the propagation of species is universally valid; in so far as the change is really qualitative, we find no exception where this propagation is not valid. All substances are able to produce Species, and are continually doing so. ”

“ Change in quantity is either increase or diminution; while change in quality is alteration. Generation and decay may be added as a fourth kind of change. In a sense all change may be reduced to change in position; yet change in quality is to be counted as a second source. [21] The conditions for the process of change are as follows: contact between Agent and Patient, identity of Genus, and difference of Species. When Agent and Patient meet, the one is actually what the other is only potentially ”

“ The materials on which this study is chiefly based are the published works of Bacon as contained in the Brewer and Bridges editions above described; the latter contains the Opus Majus and the De Multiplication Specierum, while the former contains the Opus Tertium, Opus Minus, Compendium and the appended De Secretibus Artis et Naturae. Further, I have referred, here and there, to the editions of Steele above described, and to the printed (English Historical Review, July 1897) MS. (4086) found by Gasquet in the Vatican Library. In no case have I used any but published material. ”

“ His is not a mind that fits comfortably into the predominant tendencies of the thirteenth century, and it is therefore important that we should bear in mind throughout the type of mind with which we have to deal. ”

“ As such he conceives of them as passing from one individual to another. And again, [223] he conceives of these same vicious Species, when they come from venomous reptiles, as capable of being reflected by mirrors in the same way that rays of light are reflected by mirrors; with mathematical skill they can be directed at will, to work injury, for example, in an enemy’s camp.
It is plain then that there remained for the application of his theory the difficulty of interaction; and that with the details of the application of his theory he was less concerned than with the fixing of its outlines. ”

“ He seems to take it for granted that the Species of Species, being inherently weak, must produce effects which differ essentially from the Species’ Agent. And he probably thought that the reactive activity of the Patient’s Matter might therefore the more readily help in producing an effect essentially different from the Agent. But precisely how light can produce fire, and so putrefaction and so death or life, [206] he wholly fails to say. And possibly his unclearness concerning the Matter made this omission necessary. ”

“ The Jewish philosophers (as Avencebrol) laid stress upon its ontological aspect, while the Arabian philosophers (as Alfarabi and Avicenna) directed their attention more particularly to its dynamic aspect. For Bacon’s theory of Species, only the latter conception of this emanation is of significance; the emanation per virtutem as opposed to that per substantiam. [115] And the influence of Avicenna, elsewhere apparent, [116] may be seen here. The generation and propagation of Light, so essential to Avicenna’s philosophy, is fundamental for Bacon’s theory of Species. ”

“ On the other hand, if all substances could complete their Species, the entire order of things as we have it would be destroyed; for the Heavenly bodies are incomparably “nobler” than the terrestrial bodies, and spiritual substance than corporeal substance, and if there were a completion of the Species throughout, the lower order would be absorbed into the higher, and these in turn into the highest. ”

“ Moreover, essence and nature and virtue are but different aspects of the same thing; and the same is true of substance, potentiality and force. [46] While each of the others refers to one or another aspect, virtue refers to the operation ”

“ And he interprets Aristotle as never having intended to explain change by reference to Form alone. [101] Further, it is not a body, [102] although it may be corporeal [103] —and it may be spiritual too; [104] that depends upon the Agent which produces it. Bacon simply means with this to call attention to the fact, that Species from corporeal objects are not spiritual, and that as corporeal they occupy the space of that in which they exist. [105] Moreover, its action is not timeless, [106] since every finite “virtue” requires time to effect anything. ”

“ Among those things which thus actually produce Species, there is further limitation in the carrying of these to complete Effects. Only light and the four primary elements—or better the quality of light and the four elemental qualities—produce Species which can be really completed. ”

“ Here, then, is an important instance where his failure to explain the equivocal effects is serious. Further, how can a hot and dry sun so act upon man as to produce good character instead of bad, or a man of affairs rather than a student? ”

“ Its principles are Matter and Form, the latter immanent in the former; but they are united through an efficient cause working according to pattern. Active and passive potentiality are characteristic of Form and Matter respectively; thus following Aristotle's original distinction. Hence clearly he elaborates rather the notion of primary than of specific Matter. And on this basis he explains the eduction of the Forms from Matter. Bacon, therefore, in his theory of Species, remains more faithful to Aristotle. ↑ Bacon subscribes in a sense to this conception. Cf. ”