Francis Bacon, Violence, and the Motion of Liberty: The Aristotelian Background

The elucidation of Francis Bacon’s new approach to nature calls for constant comparison with Aristotle’s terminology, the common starting point for Bacon and his contemporaries. What Bacon called “the violence of impediments” is only understandable in relation to Aristotle’s technical use of the term “violence,” as distinguished from other common uses of this word. Bacon’s “impediments” do not violate nature but reveal its latent possibilities, for “violence” starts within nature itself, as a dramatic nexus of conflicting forces whose release results in the “motion of liberty.” Subtle co-optation of this natural violence can transform and control nature.