Bacon classified nature as free, erring, or bound, justifying constraint of wayward matter

Evidence

Nature existed in three states—at liberty, in error, or in bondage: … She is either free and follows her ordinary course of development as in the heavens, in the animal and vegetable creation, and in the general array of the universe; or she is driven out of her ordinary course by the perverseness, insolence, and forwardness of matter and violence of impediments, as in the case of monsters; or lastly, she is put in constraint, molded, and made as it were new by art and the hand of man; as in things artificial. … The first instance was the view of nature as immanent self-development, the nature naturing herself of the Aristotelians. This was the organic view of nature as a living, growing, self-actualizing being. The second state was necessary to explain the malfunctions and monstrosities that frequently appeared and that could not have been caused by God or another higher power acting on his instruction. Since monstrosities could not be explained by the action of form or spirit, they had to be the result of matter acting perversely. Matter in Plato’s Timaeus was recalcitrant and had to be forcefully shaped by the demiurge. Bacon frequently described matter in female imagery, as a “common harlot.” “Matter is not devoid of an appetite and inclination to dissolve the world and fall back into the old Chaos.” It therefore must be “restrained and kept in order by the prevailing concord of things.” “The vexations of art are certainly as the bonds and handcuffs of Proteus, which betray the ultimate struggles and efforts of matter.” — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 677

Categorization

• DEFINE: Bacon’s three-state taxonomy of nature (liberty / error / bondage) is the operative conceptual framework in this passage and a reusable definition for the course.
• XREF: Bacon’s female ‘harlot’ matter and Proteus handcuffs tie to the mechanical worldview’s view of passive, guilty matter — structural link to earlier chapters’ claims about dead passive matter sanctioning exploitation. — 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’s program framed nature as a slave to be bound and constrained by science. — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology,…, 670 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Bacon framed scientific method as the capture and enslavement of a female nature #expands (0.85) — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 676
• Bacon justified domination of nature as recovering man’s lost right from the Fall #expands (0.80) — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 738
• Bacon grounded his entire philosophical project in achieving practical mastery over nature #expands (0.75) — Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, 1994
• Mechanism removed the moral barrier that had made controlling nature seem impious #expands (0.75) — Val Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, 419