Talk:Francis Bacon

Birthday

His birthday is given as January 22 (not 21) in Wikipdia for January 22.

I don't know who added the unsigned comment above, but I just found the same thing myself - in fact every non-Wikipedia source I can find says January 22, so I've changed it. Andrewa 14:16, 5 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Language in 1593 subsidy text?

I don't understand the following sentence:

The House of Commons duly information on state necessities, assented to a double subsidy and appointed a committee to draw up the requisite articles.

The phrase "duly information on state necessities" doesn't seem to be grammatical. If "duly" is an adverb, there should be a verb in the clause, and it should probably be set off by commas (e.g., "duly informed on state necessities"). If the whole expression (including "The House of Commons") is a committee title, something still seems wrong (at least to my American eyes). I don't know the history, so I can't fix it. Could someone look at this? -- Jeff Q 09:01, 9 May 2004 (UTC)[reply]

Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia

The incredibly long encyclopedia entry added to this Talk page doesn't really serve the purpose of a Talk page, does it? Shouldn't it be moved to Wikisource? -- Jeff Q 09:01, 9 May 2004 (UTC)[reply]

Well it looks like User:Mackensen has removed the text now. At first I couldn't see the point of just deleting potentially useful information and considered restoring it to a subpage here. On the other hand we don't keep text dumps of the 1911 Britannica lieing around, just in case someone wants to use it. Perhaps the best solution is to give the link to the source here;

For additional PD source material on Francis Bacon, see Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia (1911)

Or seeing as how some of the material has been used, the link could be put into the References section of the main page. -- Solipsist 08:04, 15 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Best known for scientific revolution?

If Francis Bacon "has become best known as an advocate and defender of the scientific revolution", shouldn't there be something more in this very lengthy article about his contributions, rather than just this tiny statement? If I knew them myself, I'd add some text, but I'm in learning mode on this topic. ☺ -- Jeff Q 09:21, 9 May 2004 (UTC)[reply]

Oops! I spent so much time reading about Bacon's life, I forgot there was another paragraph (well, sentence, really) at the top that had a link to the Baconian method. I grudgingly concede that this serves the purpose I was after. ☺ -- Jeff Q 09:27, 9 May 2004 (UTC)[reply]

"Page here appears to have been missed in the scanning" note (and cleanup)

I'm not sure what this refers to, unless it's to text that was somehow lost from the 1911 Britannica (although not much in the text as it stands appears to match the 1911 sentence for sentence). Nevertheless, in my research, I didn't see many details in the philosopher's life that were left out in this mysterious "missing" section, so I filled in what I could find about the years 1600-1603 (a couple of sentences, at most), and I removed the "page here appears to have been missed in the scanning" note. ffirehorse 05:55, 8 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Listing on cleanup

I'm listing this on cleanup because the article seems to have a tone and focus problem. In addition to concentrating from his political life, copied from the 1911 encyclopedia, it has a few bizarre statements under "rumors" which are ambiguous and unencyclopedic in tone. Cool Hand Luke 06:45, 27 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Removed Rosicrucian links

I removed the following links, mainly because they have little to do with the actual person Francis Bacon.

PRiis 20:57, 16 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Interlanguage links are fixed

Halló! See GlobalWPSearch Francis Bacon by de:Benutzer:Aka and Wikipedia:Template:Interwikiconflict.

I like this: "Little or nothing is known of their married life: modern scholars speculate that he may have been a homosexual. — Others reserve that he had been a Negro." — Maybe this is also a speculation. At least it is an opinion Best regards Gangleri | Th | T 00:21, 2005 Apr 15 (UTC)

Did Bacon write Shakespeare's plays?

Possibly, and possibly not. It is a legitimate question, but any discussion here should largely move a reader to read the more rounded discussion at Shakespearean authorship.

Recently an anon author has twice introduced a paragaph [1] to discuss the question which has a number of problems.

) Firstly it is too POV in favour of Bacon being a likely author when there are several other candidates.
) It uses weasel words such as 'Some have theorised', rather than attributing the theory to known authors.
) It contains statements of fact that are incorrect. The phrase the first word of the manuscript of The Tempest (Boteswaine) has Francis Bacon's name around the B contains at least three errors. There is no known manuscript of The Tempest, the statement should refer to the printed text of the first folio edition. 'Boteswaine' is not the first word of The Tempest, it is the first spoken word. Bacon's name is not written around the initial capital 'B', at least not in clear text as is implied. It is possible to say that the name is encoded in a complex cipher involving the letter near the opening capital B. See http://home.att.net/~tleary/bote.htm which looks like a more credible source and includes a scan of the First Folio text.
) It pushes a link to sirbacon.org, when this is far from the most useful web site on the question. A more balanced collection of links is presented in Shakespearean authorship article.

It looks like there is a fair amount of dispute on the Shakespearean authorship page, but I don't think we need that POV war to spill over here. -- Solipsist 22:51, 24 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Scientific method

Some material has been added to the History section if the scientific method article concerning Bacon. If someone here has a chance to look over it I would be gateful. Chris 08:04, 11 May 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Homosexual

Modern writers have theorized just about every historical character "possibly may have been gay", but I don't think fairly baseless 'accusations' should be given prominence in an encyclopaedic article, nor should he be categorized as a "Gay Writer". But I think the fact he was married, and never tied to anybody in a homosexual tryst, should pretty much write off Bacon. Sherurcij June 29, 2005 07:15 (UTC)

As a history of science undergrad, I've long understood Bacon to be gay. A quick trawl of the web turned up this, which references some pretty clear documents, assuming they're real - http://www.infopt.demon.co.uk/baconfra.htm I know I first read of it in an academic text about him, though - I'll have a look for it asap, because if his homosexuality is as clear as I casually understood it to be, it's kinda dishonest not to mention it in the article. Athenemiranda 09:22, 8 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

King James Bible editor

There is no mention in the article King James Bible that Francis Bacon was on the committee which did the final editing. Because the statement in the FB article goes even further, stating he was the sole final editor, I have removed it pending the provision of some documented evidence. --Blainster 19:49, 17 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Psychological views

Could someone explain and discuss the psychological views and developments Francis Bacon had and led/added to? --Cyberman 15:49, August 23, 2005 (UTC)

Rosicrucianism and Freemasonry

Other than identifying Bacon as a freemason at the beginning of the article their is no other mention of his connection with the mystical 'secret societies'. Numerous sources suggest that he was a high initiate or indeed even the founder of the Order of Rosicrucianism, so I think this at least deserves mention in the article. Can somebody implement some information regarding Bacon's relationship and influence within these societies? Panentheon 15:07, August 25, 2005 (UTC)

The writers of the article on the Rosicrucians clearly hold Bacon's involvement to be speculative at best, so unless you can produce authoritative sources detailing his involvement, I would be inclined otherwise Athenemiranda 15:02, 28 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Triboluminescence

Supposedly Bacon is the first person in history to record the phenomenon of triboluminescence in Advancement of Learning while he chopped a block of sugar at night. However I cannot find the refrence. Does anyone know where it is in this book? --Deglr6328 20:21, 3 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

BACON!

Mmmmmm I like Bacon! lol Sorry I couldn't resist. I really do like Francis Bacon though, philosopher, nobleman, atheist, bacon, what's not to love? Seriously though I'm sure this is in the article but was bacon named after him or was he named after bacon or is it coincidental? --LucaviX 02:52, 5 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

No, Bacon (food) was named after Francis Bacon. Before Francis became famous bacon (food) was called smalle porke. --bodnotbod 02:12, 15 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

This seems extremely implausible. The Oxford English Dictionary has attestations of bacon as a noun meaning 'The back and sides of the pig' dating back to c.1330. Sorry to spoil a good story. Oldhamlet 21:34, 17 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

It turely would make the greatest story, along with the Earl of Sandwich inventing the Sandwich. Y control 10:23, 20 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Death

Replaced

Francis Bacon's death had a considerable element of irony.

with

The cause of Bacon's death is notoriously comic.

Irony is the (usually comic) occurrence of something unexpected, given the situation. Stuffing a chicken with snow and subsequently catching pneumonia, whilst amusing, is not ironic. Soobrickay 00:19, 29 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Isn't it Ironic don't you think - As comic as it is, could it be argued that this is ironic; he was trying to prevent death and illness from food poisoning, and died whilst attempting this. Y control 23:28, 29 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Name

I've moved this page back to Francis Bacon, because he's by far the best known carrier of that name. Mackensen (talk) 01:27, 22 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Instauratio Magna

This, as his most important philosophical work, deserves its own entry, even though or even more so as Novum Organum has one. I'd be willing to do a stub on which others could and should expand. Anyone interested? Maybe write on my talk page, then. Gwyndon 19:24, 8 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Slashdot linkage

Heads up, folks. This article has been listed on Slashdot. --CoderGnome 05:34, 11 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Link please? Mikker ^(...) 10:04, 11 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Ask, and you shall receive: http://developers.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/04/10/1919216 CoderGnome 22:03, 11 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, I would like to add an external link to the World of Biography entry

Francis Bacon Biography probably the most famous portal of biography to this article. Does anybody have any objections?