Bacon’s scientific imagery derives from courtroom and witch-torture interrogations of women.

Evidence

These social events influenced Bacon’s philosophy and literary style. Much of the imagery he used in delineating his new scientific objectives and methods derives from the courtroom, and, because it treats nature as a female to be tortured through mechanical inventions, strongly suggests the interrogations of the witch trials and the mechanical devices used to torture witches. — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 667

Categorization

• XREF: Connects the law/institutions thread — the legal framework of the witch inquisition gives the template for scientific method. — connects to: Bacon framed scientific method as the capture and enslavement of a female nature — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology,…, 676; Bacon welded natural magic, mining, and patriarchy into an ethic of nature exploitation. — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology,…, 656

Broader Connections

• Bacon framed scientific method as the capture and enslavement of a female nature #expands (0.92) — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 676
• Bacon welded natural magic, mining, and patriarchy into an ethic of nature exploitation. #expands (0.85) — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 656