History of Technology

There is a very large literature on Bacon and his proposals for scientific enquiry, but so far no one has studied carefully his style of writing, his method of communicat- ing upon which he laid so much emphasis.Professor Stephens here presents and analyses in four chapters the style that Bacon found appropriate for scholarly and scientific writing.First he deals with the problems facing Bacon, and his debt to Aristotle in creating a neo-Aristotelian stylistic.The second chapter is concerned with his theory of the relation of style to science and how style should not only engage the imagination but should also dispel preconceptions; these ideas can be traced from 1603 to 1623.In the third and fourth chapters Stephens discusses Bacon's own style and the methods he employed, including the intellectual games he played with his readers.By his various techniques he hoped to match the success of poets and prophets.This scholarly study is by no means complete, but the author hopes it will inspire others to extend it.It certainly will be of great interest to historians of seventeenth- century science and medicine and can be strongly recommended to them

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