vior. Bacon offers a classification of knowledge in The Advancement of Learning and De Augmentis Scientiarum and so reflects the problem of the acquisition of knowledge and of how that knowledge is used. Bacon asks a series of questions: From what do we learn? What are our sources of knowledge and behavior? He answers that we learn from God and from each other. How do we learn? He answers that we learn through the faculties of the mind by rational methods applied to understanding natural phenomena. We learn by revelation about things divine, and we do so through the divine spirit of the soul. How do we use our learning? Bacon answers that we use our learning for speculative purposes, such as for the sake of theoretical knowledge, and to understand ourselves in relation to God and nature. We further use our knowledge for practical purposes such ad to control natural forces as much as we can and to live with one another in harmony and virtue. Bacon says he is more interested in knowledge for practical use than for its own sake, but he is primarily concerned with our ways and methods of knowing (Wallace 11-12).
Bacon classified learning in terms of the faculties and powers which were utilized by human beings to come to grips with reality and with human behavior, and Bacon declared that his classification system was also the best of such systems. He stated that human learning was derived from the three faculties of the rational soul, which he identified as the seat of all learning. History relates to the Memory, poesy relates to the Imagination, and philosophy relates to Reason, and all doctrines are derived from the human soul. Under the heading of Philosophy Bacon placed moral and civil knowledge, or ethics and politics, and he linked these with the faculties of will and appetite. Bacon also spoke of "the use and objects" of human faculties as found in "the logical and ethical sciences," or the behavioral sciences, and h...