Early Greek Philosophy

9. Bacon’s Third Sailing: The “Presocratic” Origins of Modern Philosophy

John C. McCarthy 9 S Bacon’s Third Sailing The “Presocratic” Origins of Modern Philosophy I. Introduction Notwithstanding his legendary interpretations of Aristotle and his protracted engagement with Plato, Heidegger was not in any obvious sense of the word a dialectical thinker. His philosophizing does not typically proceed, zigzag fashion, in an ascent from and descent back to that which Socrates and his successors regarded as first for us, philosophers and nonphilosophers alike, namely, the twilight world of common or reputable opinion. From the heights or depths of the Seinsfrage, in truth, the starting point of classical dialectic is hard to distinguish from Uneigentlichkeit, das Gerede, and das Verfallen des Daseins. And yet the philosopher from the Black Forest would never have risen to the public prominence that was his for so much of his career had he not managed on occasion to speak not only about, but also to everyday human cares and conceits. Consider his preoccupation, especially visible in his later years, with “the question concerning technology.” What greater proof could there be of the relevance of his philosophy to common life? Admittedly, there is nothing in the least common-sensical about his tracing of the origin of the modern technological state to the metaphysics of Plato and Aristotle, or his appeal to the Presocratics for help in facing up to its dangers. But then we cannot reasonably expect a philosopher, no matter how respectable or commonplace his point of departure, simply to endorse the common point of view. 157 I gratefully acknowledge my debt to the Earhart Foundation for its generous financial support of my work. 158  John C. McCarthy Heidegger’s interest in Greek philosophy amply attests, in any case, to his need for philosophical interlocutors. Hence the extensive use he makes of the literary form of the commentary, virtually unrivalled by any other modern philosopher of the first rank. Especially notable in this regard are the efforts Heidegger expended upon exegesis of the earliest of the Greek thinkers. For while there is undoubtedly matter enough in their notoriously fragmentary literary remains to occupy philologists and historians for generations to come, a reader might well wonder how a thinker of his stature could have hoped to find in such shards anything of philosophical worth equal to the great many pages he lavished upon them. Not that his attention to the Presocratics is entirely without modern precedent. In writing a history of philosophy from the standpoint of his absolute spirit, Hegel was clearly bound to consider them. And even if Nietzsche shared almost nothing of Hegel’s progressivism, he maintained an interest in the birth and first growth of Greek philosophy long after he abandoned his Basel professorship in classical philology. Still, it is difficult to think of another modern thinker for whom the Presocratics hold such philosophical promise as they do for the author of Being and Time. That the name of Francis Bacon might plausibly be advanced in this context is more than a little ironic. For of course in Bacon, technology —or as he would have it, the scientific domination of nature for “the relief of man’s estate”1—finds not merely an eloquent herald and apologist , but also, if we are to take him at his word, its philosophical founder. Evidence of Bacon’s interest in early Greek thinking is not hard to come by. Allusions to, anecdotes about, paraphrase or quotations from, and exposition and analysis of various Presocratic philosophers turn up in almost all of his writings, published or unpublished, from all periods of his career. And although a few figures earn the lion’s share of his attention, an impressive number would merit multiple entries in a complete index of Bacon’s works, with not only Democritus, Heraclitus, and Parmenides, but also Anaxagoras, Anaximenes, Empedocles, Leucippus , Philolaus, Pythagoras, Thales, and Xenophanes all making re1 . The Advancement of Learning (henceforth AL), edited by Michael Kiernan, The Oxford Francis Bacon (henceforth OFB), vol. IV, 32. For Baconian writings not yet available in the OFB edition, references will be to Spedding, Ellis, and Heath’s The Works of Francis Bacon (henceforth SEH). I have occasionally modified the translations of Bacon’s Latin writings appearing on the facing page of OFB volumes, as also of the translations in the SEH edition, for which I also provide the appropriate volume and page references. Presocratic Origins of Modern Philosophy   159 peat appearances.2...