Political Philosophy of Sir Francis Bacon

Bacon was an important man in his time, not a philosopher who remained far from the fray but a man who constantly expressed himself in study, speech, and writing on the law and who served as a member of the learned council of Queen Elizabeth and of King James. Bacon gave lectures on the law, and as solicitor general and as attorney general, he was the official representation of the crown and made recommendations on behalf of the monarch and gave his opinion on the legality of action. As chancellor, Bacon rendered decisions, and before arriving at a decision he would determine the direction in which the law would go on the basis of that decision if the decision itself were used later as a precedent. He was always eager to simplify and codify the law, to analyze leading cases, to unite law and logic, and to understand why the law was as it was (Green 165).

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l, and these enable the human being to move and act in ways so complicated and refined that human behavior is marked off sharply from that of the animals. Human beings use this distinctive ability to produce knowledge through this "rational soul" and to communicate this knowledge and to produce philosophy and science, history, and poetry. The interplay of these faculties also produce and sustain society (Wallace 22). Human beings are free as they are able to make use of their faculties, but they are curtailed in society by the rule of law, just as in their lives they are curtailed by the rule of God's law. Interestingly, for all his dedication to political science and to achieving justice and perfection through political science, Bacon sees the science of politics as a secret science, meaning one that is in a sense shameful. The reason for this is that the science of politics may be destructive of much that men hold dear if it is not communicated with care and circumspection (White 383). Francis Bacon remains an important influence today in a number of realms, though his scientific thought and method is perhaps more readily acknowledged than his political thought. An examination of Bacon's political and legal thought, howev
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Approximate Word count = 3079
Approximate Pages = 12 (250 words per page)

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