Francis Bacon and the Historiography of Scientific Rhetoric

1
Francis Bacon and the Historiography of
Scientific Rhetoric

• Originally published in Rhetoric Review 8(1), 1989

2
Essential Terms for Understanding Zappen

• Positivistic Science
• Democratic Science
• Institutionalized Science
• Plain Style
• Imaginative Style

3
Intellectual Structure

• Democratic Science in Bacon
• Democratic Science as an Ideology
• Democratic Science and the Plain Style
• Imaginative and Plain Styles in Bacon
• Zappen as advocate for democratic science

4
Zappens Interpretation
In offering his own interpretation of Bacons
rhetoric, Zappen suggests that the Plain Style
was more than a means for reinforcing
positivistic or institutionalized science.
Rather, he finds that Bacons scientific method
and style are multifaceted. That is, Zappen
believes that Bacon understood his rhetorical
context quite well and used style and method
according to his purpose.
5
Zappens Call for a new Rhetoric for a Democratic
Science

• Interactive Innovation for third world countries
  that includes input from experts and users.
• Metaphorical Language approach to promote
  democratic science
• Critical Analysis of Metaphoric Language
• Habermas theory of communication

6
Positivistic Science
Also known as empiricism, Bacons positivistic
science relies on sense perceptions that accrue
through the practice of sensible experiments . .
. and includes a distrust of hypothesis and
general analysis of inductive procedure (50).
7
Democratic Science
The term democratic science refers to Bacons
desire to create a more humanistic approach to
science. Historians believe that Bacon sought to
extend access to science and technology to
social groups traditionally excluded and to
foster greater responsiveness by science to
social needs (52).
8
Institutionalized Science
Rather than focusing on Bacon and his method of
presenting his positivistic method of science,
many 20th C. interpretations believe that Bacons
work is responsible for the development of
scientific communities--modern scientific
institutions, their disciplines or fields of
inquiry, represented by academic departments and
professional associations (51).
9
Plain Style
Zappens examination reveals that many scientific
historians and rhetoricians from the first half
of the twentieth century perceived Bacons Plain
Style as upholding or speaking to his
positivistic approach to science and his desire
to establish a standard form of scientific prose.
Since the 1960s, however, the view has changed.
Specifically, many agree that Bacons use of
Plain Style is much more complex as it served to
institutionalize science and create scientific
communities.
10
Imaginative Style
Imaginative Style, as described by Bacon, was
viewed as suitable for addressing the faculty of
reason. Used primarily to articulate the
scientific method of induction, it is also
designed to serve as an intermediary between
between sense and reason. More recently,
however, Imaginative Style (Figurative Style) is
viewed by some scientific and rhetorical
historians as being highly rhetorical in that it
is used for specialized, knowledge-seeking
fields and is often useful in solving the
rhetorical problems of a given scientific or
technical field (52).