[close] While he didn't exactly invent science, Francis Bacon is its best-known early promoter. The Advancement of Learning is his 1605 argument in favor of natural philosophy and inductive reasoning, and it is still vigorous and cogent today. Though using the language of Shakespeare, the book remains largely accessible to modern readers--still, a bit of classical knowledge is helpful. Shaking off the centuries-old domination of Aristotle, Bacon advocated building scientific theories on facts and observations rather than pure reason; little has changed in our approach to understanding the world since then. Of greatest interest to historians and philosophers of science, the book will also appeal to those curious about the underpinnings of today's naturalistic thinking.

`Kiernan is especially good in tracking classical and contemporary allusions; in situating Bacon on the social and political map of his day; and in discussing Bacon's understanding of humanism, rhetoric, dialectic, and moral philosophy.' Sixteenth Century Journal, XXXII/2

`the commentary offers the reader a store of treasures' Sixteenth Century Journal, XXXII/2

`Kiernan is especially adept at providing classical and scriptural sources; at connecting the passage in question to others found elsewhere in Bacon's works; at providing historical information and references to texts written by others in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; and at glossing difficult language ... Some of the notes offer exceptionally fine and concise accounts of Bacon's slants on history' Sixteenth Century Journal, XXXII/2

`Kiernan shares a rich fund of knowledge about Bacon's life, contemporaries, works and seventeenth-century reception; but he is also informative about scholarship on Bacon both old and recent. And even though the textual history of the Advancement is reasonably straightforward, Kiernan offers a fascinating account of the evidence for the processes of proofreading this text' Sixteenth Century Journal, XXXII/2 [close]