Critical Analysis Of Great Place by Francis Bacon Essay

The essay Of Great Place written by Francis Bacon, a famous English philosopher and scientist whose aphorism Sciencia Potentia est is known to everyone in the world, represents a lot of interesting philosophical ideas. These ideas can be easily related to the present day principles and concepts. The philosophy of Francis Bacon is concluded in the fact that the major goal of scientific knowledge lies in providing benefit to the humanity. (Anderson, 1992, p.124)
My goal in this essay in to give a critical analysis of Francis Bacon’s philosophical work Of the Great Place.
The main idea of the essay is to show the readers the position of men in great places. Francis Bacon discusses the life, duties and behavior of those people who occupy high position in the society. He writes that all the people who live in great places are “thrice servants”. They are servants of the sovereign or state, fame and business. Moreover, they have no freedom although they enjoy power. It is a very interesting idea that powerful people have no liberty. But its true. They have power over other people who occupy a lower position in the society but they “lose power” over themselves.
Francis Bacon argues that it is very difficult “to raise into place”. People should be strong and self-confident to take a high position in the society. He writes that “by indignities men come to dignities”. Moreover, they can easily lose their position that is why they should be uncompromising in their goals and desires. Even in the old age great men should not change their manners.
As Francis Bacon is a great philosopher who not only knows a lot about human nature but also tries to teach others, to share his knowledge with people around him. In his essay Of the Great Place, Bacon touches upon the problem of other people’s opinion concerning “great men”. He writes that great persons should “borrow other men’s opinion” because they can get a lot of interesting and important things for them. The great men cannot judge themselves. They should learn what other people think of them in order to remain on the top of the ladder. (Bacon, 2006, p.4)
Bacon expresses a very interesting thought when he writes that the great men are “the first to find their own griefs, though they be the last to find their own faults”. He is sure that it is very difficult for those people who have money and power to find their own faults. They do not see their faults. It seems to them that they have no faults while they have a lot of them. Only other people can show them their faults. That is why the great men are interested in learning other people’s opinion. When Bacon says that the great people are the first to find their griefs, he means that they love themselves so much that cannot stand any trouble or misfortune. They have power and money and they do not want to have any griefs in their life. (Gaukroger, 2001, p.56)
Francis Bacon calls these people “strangers to themselves”. The great men are fully involved in their business that they “have no time to tend their health”, their body and their mind. The only things they are thinking about are power and money. Sometimes they simply forget about their health. And only when they get problems with health they come down to earth and realize that they are merely human beings.
The great philosopher also touches upon the theme of good and evil in his essay. He argues that “in place, there is a license to do good and evil”. Evil is curse. Only those people who do good will be able to have rest. Good thoughts are better than good dreams because the men have an opportunity to bring their good thought to life. Bacon writes that “merit and good works is the end of man’s motion”. Any men should learn to do good in his life in order to get award from God at the end of “the motion”. Any man can be “a partaker of God’s theater” but he should deserve it. (Bacon, 2006, p.5)
The author of the essay tries to explain the readers that any man has an opportunity to analyze not only his own actions but also the actions of other people in order to understand what is good and what is bad. They should “neglect the examples of those that have carried themselves ill”. They should follow only good examples. Moreover, the great people should be role models to other people. They should learn good lessons from their past life and take care of their future. Bacon writes: “Seek to make thy course regular, that men may know beforehand what to expect”. (Bacon, 2006, p.6)
The great philosopher also touches upon the theme of law. It is a very important question for him because the law in the society is a vital thing. He teaches “to preserve the right of thy place, but stir no questions of jurisdiction”.He also wants everyone to preserve the rights of other places.
Bacon argues that there are four major vices of authority. They are corruption, delays, roughness and facility. In order to overcome delay, the great people should be punctual. Bacon writes: “give easy access, keep time appointed”. (Bacon, 2006)
Special attention is paid to corruption. Bacon writes that the great people should be sincere to avoid corruption. In order to avoid roughness, it is necessary to be kinder. The facility is worse than bribery. It is necessary to be more careful.
Francis Bacon argues that the great men should respect other people even if they are no so powerful as they are. He writes: “If you have colleagues, respect them”. (Bacon, 2006, p.8)
The author of the essay wants those people who became great to have a change in their nature. He wants them to become another men. (Gaukroger, 2001, p.201)
Conclusion
In conclusion, it is necessary to say that such a wise man as Francis Bacon could not only show the strengths and the weaknesses of the great men of the society but also he could give them some recommendations concerning their way of life, their behavior and their principles. He was interested in investigation of the human nature. His natural philosophy was greatly appreciated because he represented absolutely new philosophical ideas concerning the essence of life. Francis Bacon’s essay Of Great Place is one of his bold philosophical works.