Bacon’s program framed nature as a slave to be bound and constrained by science.

Evidence

The new man of science must not think that the “inquisition of nature is in any part interdicted or forbidden.” Nature must be “bound into service” and made a “slave,” put “in constraint” and “molded” by the mechanical arts. The “searchers and spies of nature” are to discover her plots and secrets. — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 670

Categorization

• XREF: The slave framing pairs with the larger ecojustice thread on how colonial and enslaved labor relations were mirrored in metaphors of controlling land/nature. — connects to: The organic utopias opposed Bacon’s exploitative science by observing and emulating nature — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology,…, 389; Bacon welded natural magic, mining, and patriarchy into an ethic of nature exploitation. — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology,…, 656; Bacon classified nature as free, erring, or bound, justifying constraint of wayward matter — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology,…, 677 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Bacon classified nature as free, erring, or bound, justifying constraint of wayward matter #expands (0.90) — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 677
• Bacon promised that mechanical arts would conquer and subdue nature #corroborates (0.90) — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 683
• Bacon grounded his entire philosophical project in achieving practical mastery over nature #corroborates (0.85) — Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, 1994
• Bacon’s utopia authorized the manipulation of living organisms for experimental gain #expands (0.75) — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 732