What is the summary of 'Of Studies' by Francis Bacon?

Answer 1

Studies provide anyone with a high degree of pleasure and enjoyment. Studies enhance our capabilities, our skill, competence and even power. We become further educated, we gain wisdom. Do not study to be argumentative but to explain and teach others and to influence to greater advantage and good of your fellow men. Simple men become wise through studies, wise men make good use of them

Their chief use for delight is in privateness and retiring, for ornament, is in discourse, and for ability, is in the judge.

It is an essay written to inform us of the benefits of studying. He tells us that natural abilities are like natural plants that need pruning by study. Studying is applying the mind to learning and understanding a subject, especially through reading, which is perhaps why by 'studying', Sir Francis Bacon mostly refers to reading. He said read is not for discussion 'but to weigh. In his short essay, he strives to persuade us to study, and tells us how to study if we are to make the best of what we read.

"Of Studies" by Francis Bacon

The purpose of this work is to analyze Sixteen Century Francis Bacon's essay "Of Studies" by summarizing its main points and the relevance of its statements to this day. Francis Bacon was an English Philosopher and writer best known as a founder of the modernempirical tradition based on the rational analysis of data obtained by observation and experimentation of the physical world. The main focus of Bacon's essay rests on explaining to the reader the importance of Study knowledge in terms of its practical application towards the individual and its society. His first analysis is an exposition on the purposes or uses that different individuals can have by approaching Study -"…for delight, ornament, and for ability"- And how certain professions are better served by individuals with study knowledge. As he mentions the virtues of Study he also points out its vices: -"To spend too much time in study is sloth…" Also, howStudyinfluences our understanding of Nature, and in opposition, how our experience of Nature bounds our acquired knowledge. After that, the Authorpresents the concept of how different individuals with differentmental abilities and interests in life, approach the idea of studying-"Crafty men contemn studies…"- and offers advice on how study should be applied: -"…but to weight and consider"- Then Bacon goes into expressing his ideas in how the means to acquire Study knowledge, books, can be categorized and read according to their content and value to the individual. The benefits of studying are Bacon's final approach. Benefits in terms of defining a "Man" by its ability to read, write or confer, and in terms of being the medicine for any "impediment in the wit" and by giving "receipts" to "every defect of the mind". Certainly, some of Francis Bacon's insights in this subject are of value after 400 years of societal evolution. We can ascertain this when we read the phrase "They perfect Nature, and are perfected by experience…" Nevertheless some of the concepts expressed in his Essay have to be understood through the glass of time. By this I mean Society values and concepts were different altogethers to what we know today. By that time Society was strongly influenced by the idea of literacy and illiteracy (relatively few were educated and could read and write). Only educated people had access to knowledge and by that, to social status and opportunity. Nowadays would be difficult to accept ideas which relate skills or professions towards an attitude to approach Studying. Today, a skilled machinist or carpenter can certainly be a studied person. Nowadays most people in our Society have the possibility to read and by that, to obtain knowledgeindependently of what our personal choices are in terms of profession. Also we must consider how today we value thespecialization of knowledge which in the past, characterized by amore generic and limited access to knowledge, wasn't a major factor into the conceptualization and understanding of study knowledge as to the extent we see it today. Finally, it is doubtful that the benefits of studying can be approached as a recipe for any "intellectual illness". We now know that the real illnesses are related to mental conditions and notnecessarily to our mental skills, abilities or lack of them and by that Imean that Bacon's solutions to those conditions are substantially naïve under the actual understanding of Human psychology. Concepts and ideas evolve at the same time as the Humancondition changes in all social, scientific, political and economic aspects. By looking through the glass of time and comparing the past to the present we come to the realization of the universality and endurance of some concepts and the fragility and impermanence of some others.

Bacon explains how and why study - a.k.a. knowledge - is important. He lays out the valluue of knowledge in practical terms. Bacon considers to what use studies might be put. He is less interested in their theoretical promise than in their practical utility. His writing is direct and pointed. It avoids the meandering find-your-way free form of other essays. Francis gets to the point in his opening sentence, "Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability." He then elaborates on how studies are useful in these three ways. And he wastes no words in detailing the uses of "studies" for Renaissance gentlemen.

One of the attractions of Bacon's essay is his skillful use of parallel sentence structure, as exemplified in the opening sentence and throught "Of Studies." This stylistic technique lends clarity and order to the writing, as in "crafty men condemn studies, simple men admire them, and wise men use them," which in its straightforward assertiveness exhibits confidence and elegance in addition to clarity and emphasis.

Pasttimes in Privateness and Retirement, Ornaments for discourse, and for the ability in judgement.