Abstract

TOLEDO MARIN, Leonel  and  SILVA, Carmen. Francis Bacon and the Renaissance Therapies of the Soul. Diánoia [online]. 2020, vol.65, n.85, pp.73-107.  Epub Mar 19, 2021. ISSN 0185-2450.  https://doi.org/10.22201/iifs.18704913e.2020.85.1735.

In the following pages we view Francis Bacon's Reform of sciences as a therapeutic method for the improvement of the intellectual faculties. We broaden the scope of this interpretive line of Bacon's thought by distinguishing three competing therapies of the soul during the Renaissance (each of them proposing its own principles and aims for the care of the human soul): the Therapy of Eros, maintained by Renaissance (neo)platonic philosophers; the Therapy of skepticism, proposed by Michel de Montaigne, and the Therapy of Bacon himself, as stated in his The Advancement of Learning as well as in the Novum organum, Book I. We describe each of these theories, showing their main philosophical tenets and how they oppose to each other. Finally, by comparing these three Renaissance therapies of the soul we aim to achieve a better comprehension of Bacon's new method for human knowledge in its own intellectual contexts.

Keywords : Renaissance Platonism; Reform of knowledge; Renaissance natural philosophy; skepticism; Francis Bacon.

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