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F R A N C IS B A CO N AND D EN IS D ID E R O T :
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P H IL O S O P H E R S O F S C IE N C E .

C o lu m b ia U n iv e r s ity , P h .D ., 1965
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P h ilo s o p h y
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U niversity Microfilms, Inc., A nn Arbor, M ichigan

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Copyright by
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Lilo Katrin Luxembourg
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1

FRANCIS BACON AND DENIS DIDEROT: PHILOSOPHERS OF SCIENCE

by
Lilo K. Luxembourg

I EW
EV
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Submitted in partial fulfillment of tbe requirements

for tbe degree of Doctor of Philosophy, in the
Faculty of Philosophy,
Columbia University
1965

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 1

ABSTRACT

FRANCIS BACON AND DENIS DIDDnOT: PHILOSOPHERS OF SCIENCE

Lilo K. Luxembourg

Although a century and a half separates the English phi­

losopher and statesman, Francis Bacon, from the French Encyclo­

pedist and philosophe. Denis Diderot, their names, as the etat

/
present in this investigation shows, have often been linked to­

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gether. An accumulation of proof through the years strongly sug­

gests that a comparative study of Bacon and Diderot could be at

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once thought-provoking and profitable. We have attempted to
carry out such an Inquiry.
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First the general influences of English ideas on the French

intellectual scene of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries

are discussed. These influences are, for the most part, philo-.
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sophical, scientific and literary. Then Bacon’s impact on seven-

teenth-and eighteenth-century France in general is examined be­

fore specific examples of Diderot’s interest in British thought

in general and that of Bacon in particular is taken into account.

The two men, here treated in their capacity as philosophers

of science, emerge as humanists with strong interests in common.

One of these is the process of learning. Each was convinced that

one way of improving the human condition was to gain power

through knowledge over the natural universe. Each was deeply dis­

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 2

satisfied with the prevailing status of the sciences in their

respective times. They were, moreover, strongly aware that im­

proving the condition of the sciences is a task that can be
achieved only in the succession of ages and not within the hour­

glass of one man's life. Both maintained that progress in scien­

tific endeavors can be attained solely through the application of
proper methods and procedures.

The majority of the philosophes. and especially Diderot,

advocated a considerable number of Baconian doctrines which served

certain fundamental purposes: to defeat scholasticism, to encour­

age new methods of investigation, and to uphold knowledge as a

source of power for the benefit of mankind.

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Affinities and divergencies within the diverse fields of

interest of these two philosophers of science are exposed. Their

I
relative positions on mathematics are examined, and, using a term
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common to both, their "interpretations of Nature" are defined.

For their concepts of nature, they adopted certain theories from
the ancient Greek atomists.
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Bacon and Diderot may have often differed in a number of

their concepts and notions, but they stood in agreement on gene­

ral aims and problems that touch on the mainsprings of human life.

In striving to demonstrate that this is the case, the present

study has offered arguments and evidence in confirmation of Di­

derot's oamlplfij.. knowledge of Bacon's writings, whether directly,

through intensive personal reading, or indirectly, through close

acquaintance with the work of such eighteenth-century contempo­

raries as Alexandre Deleyre. Yet, Diderot emerges as a not un­

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 3

critical disciple of his English predecessor. Although the

Renaissance was an age marked by a new awareness of man in the

universe, the intervening years nevertheless witnessed far greater

strides in the sciences than Bacon could have envisaged. Through

bold speculation in his works— here he was often inspired by

Buffon, among others— Diderot had not only benefited by these

advances, but he had also contributed to the future knowledge of

those sciences today recognized under the subdivisions of the

science of biochemistry.

The present study concludes by affirming that Bacon and

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Diderot were dedicated to the attainment of progress in the in­
terest of their respective generations, but both were also look­
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ing forward to the time when man, through his mastery over nature
in the world of science, would one day achieve mastery over the
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world in his political and social life as well.
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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

FRANCIS BACON AND DENIS DIDEROT: PHILOSOPHERS OF SCIENCE

PREFACE 3
INTRODUCTION 7
PART I

The Influence of English Thought on France and the 12

Bacon-Diderot Relation

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Ch. I The Influence of English Thought 13
on France during the Seventeenth
and Eighteenth Centuries.
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Ch. II Bacon in Eighteenth-century France, 29
Diderot's Interest in England.
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Ch. Ill The Bacon-Diderot Relation. Etat 44
Present.

PART II
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Bacon and Diderot, Pioneers in the History of Science 79

Ch. I Bacon's and Diderot's Concepts of 80
Progress, Knowledge and Learning in
the Interest of Science.
Ch. II Method and Procedures. 100

Ch. Ill Concepts and Interpretations of 14-3

Nature.
CONCLUSION 166

BIBLIOGRAPHY 172

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PREFACE

An accumulation of proof through the years strongly

suggests that a comparative study of Francis Bacon and
Denis Diderot— the one an intellectual giant of the English
Renaissance, the other a leading philosophe of the French
Enlightenment— could he at once thought-provoking and profit­
able. The aim of the present investigation is to determine
to what extent Diderot was receptive to Baconian ideas and,

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consequently, to establish a position on the Bacon-Diderot
relationship. In order to support any assumption in con­
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nection with the issue at hand, a general approach that,
among other things, would consider English influences on
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French thought might well be of moment. Then too, of great

pertinence would be a review of Diderot's interest in
England.
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Bacon and Diderot, here treated in their capacity as

philosophers of science, show, prima facie, sufficient af­
finities to invite a careful inquiry into their intellectual
activities, particularly in respect to scientific thought.
Shis examination will abstain from confronting any two spe­
cific works such as, for instance, Bacon's Novum Organum
and Diderot’s Pensees•sur 1'interpretation de la nature or
the De augment!s scientiarum and the Encyclopedia as bases
for comparing, contrasting and scrutinizing the ideas of the

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i;\ 4,

two philosophical thinkers, a technique that has generally-

been applied by certain previous commentators of a possible
Baconian influence on Diderot.

It might be added that the Bacon-Diderot nexus could

be explored in the light of a number of other subjects.
There immediately come to mind such topics as ethics, man
in society, and even in the light of recent scholarship,
1
"the political animal." Certain aspects of these should,
in some instances, be brought out in the present treatment.
But they deserve specific analysis in a separate study.

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Furthermore, this is perhaps as suitable a place as
any to state that within the past two decades an increasing
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number of studies has appeared to prove convincingly that
Diderot has come to be accepted as an important figure in
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the history of science during the French Enlightenment, and

hence in that of Western Europe. Evidence of this is over­

whelming when the reader is confronted by recent studies

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2
rich in suggestion, fact, and bibliographical material.

1
Bacon's political thought has time and again been
assessed by scholars. Only recently, however, has there been
a serious interest in Diderot's political thought. There is,
for example, Arthur Wilson's important article, "The De­
velopment and Scope of Diderot's Political Thought," Studies
on Voltaire and the Enlightenment, XXVII, 1871-1900;
Adrienne D. Hytier's "Le Philosophe et le despote," in
Diderot Studies V I , 55-87; and of equal significance, Paul
Verniere's Diderot, Oeuvres politiques (Paris, 1963), pp.
XLIV-523. ---
2
Four from many might be mentioned at this juncture.
There is the article by Jean Fabre. Its very title is sig­
nificant: "Actualite de Biderot," (Diderot Studies V T , 1963)
PP* 17-39- Then there is the article by Robert

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 But a divergence of opinion persists concerning the

importance of Bacon's contribution to the history of ideas

and, more specifically, that of science. If there are many

who pay tribute to his name, there are also those who view

his place in history with serious misgivings. One of these

is the late Morris Cohen who, notably in his article "Phi-

3
losophy and Scientific Methods" and "Bacon and the In-
4
ductive Method," has little that is favorable to say about

the author of De dignitate et augmentis scientarium'. Even

more severe is Professor Lynn Thorndike who, especially in

5

bluntly stated:
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volume VII of A History of Magic and Experimental Science,

adopts an extreme point of view with an over-all conclusion

"He [Bacon] was a crooked chancellor in a
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moral sense and a crooked naturalist in an intellectual or
6
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scientific sense. He did not think straight." The dis­

tinction of Diderot's place in European thought needs no

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Niklaus; its title is equally revealing: "Presence de

Diderot" (Diderot Studies V I , 1964), pp. 13-28. There is,
moreover, the monumental doctoral dissertation of Jacques
Sogerx Les Sciences de la vie dans la pensee francaise du
XVIIIe siecle (Paris, 1§65). 842 pp. And mention should
also be made of Jean Mayer's Diderot homme de science
(Rennes, 1950), 490 pp.
3
In Studies in Philosophy and Science, (New York,
1949), pp. 53-59.
4
In The Scientific Monthly, XXIII, 1926, p. 504.
5
(New York, 1958), 695 PP.
6
Ibid., p. 88.

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 defense, but if tbe negative position embraced by Pro­
fessor Thorndike were wholly valid, there would be less
Justification for the present inquiry.

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 IHTRQDUOTIQH

A. span of 152 years lies between Francis Bacon and

Denis Diderot, the two protagonists of this study. The

former was an "enlightened" man of the Renaissance, the

latter an "awakened" man of the Enlightenment. Casting

light on the Dark Ages was a principal concern of Francis

Bacon; helping to pave the road to the French Revolution

was a responsibility of Denis Diderot. Both were vitally

ertia of their respective times.

I EW
interested in bringing into play increased knowledge and

new methods the better to counteract the prevailing in­

Bent on the improvement

of man's lot in the world about him, each rejected all

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thought of preserving a status quo in the affairs of men,

which could lead only, to stagnation. In doing so, Bacon
and Diderot both wished to point the way to new, more
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challenging prospects.

Their ideals and aims were much the same; their

intellectual forum was perpetually open to fresh concepts;

both were men of new visions and exhibited a percipient
curiosity about practically everything. The Bacon-Diderot

relation offers a striking example in illustration of the

notion that is sometimes called "spiritual equality." The

milieux in which the two thinkers grew up differed greatly;

their intellectual backgrounds, social ambiance, conduct of

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 8

life as well as an Anglo-Saxon tradition on the one hand, and

a Gallo-Eoman tradition on the other, set them apart notably.
Francis Bacon was b o m on January 22, 1561 in London,
second son of Sir Nicholas Bacon, Lord Eeeper of the Great
Seal under Queen Elizabeth I. Sir Nicholas was exceedingly
praised for his sagacity and virtue, as well as for the in­
tegrity with which he served his country, and Bacon's
mother, Anne Cooke, the daughter of Sir Anthony Cooke, was
a woman of much culture. Grandeur was handed to Bacon
from the cradle. The court of the Queen was the "play­
ground" of precocious Francis who, if he grew up to become

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one of the important political figures of his time, became
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as well one of the great names in the history of science
since the renaissance.
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Bacon studied at Trinity College, Cambridge, it may
be recalled, and at the age of sixteen was admitted at
Gray's Inn to study law. Soon his political career, along
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with his ardent interest in science, dominated his life.

In 1605, he was knighted by James I, who had inherited the
English throne upon the death of Elizabeth I. Bacon was
successively made Solicitor General, Attorney General,
Lord Eeeper of the Great Seal, Lord Chancellor of England.
The title of Baron Verulam of Yerulam was also given him,
and finally he was created Viscount St. Albans. All of
these titles alone suggest a colorful and accomplished
career. Tet, as is only too well known, the glorious and
full life of this illustrious man was not free from blemish.

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 I el 1621, Bacon was tried and convicted of bribery and cor­
ruption. He lost bis position in Court and Parliament. But
after emphatic pleas for mercy, be received full pardon
shortly before King James I died in 1625. Duringtbatsame
year, Bacon's health began to decline. He nevertheless in­
sisted on working outdoors, and while experimenting with
snow for the purpose of preserving food, he caught a cold,
which lowered his resistance to such a degree that finally
he met his death on the ninth of April, 1626. It might be
said that the English statesman and philosopher paid for his

EW
craving for knowledge with no less than his life.
Denis Diderot was b o m on October 5, 1713, in
Langres, a town in the region of Champagne.He was the old­
est son of Didier Diderot, a master cutler of high standing
I
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whose family had been well-known and most respected in the

trade for several centuries. His mother, Angelique Ylg-
neron, daughter of a tanner, married Diderot's father rela­
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tively late in life, considering that in those times a woman

past thirty was "spent." She was about thirty five years of
age when she gave birth to Denis.
Diderot's childhood environment was a blend of theo­
logical influences by devout family members, and of the at­
mosphere in his father's cutlery workshop. Much was done
to intensify Diderot's interest in religion; he was sent
to a Jesuit school in Langres at an early age— he proved to
be a brilliant student— with the result that the tonsure
was bestowed on him when he was twelve years old. The

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 Jesuits were responsible in considerable measure for the
boy's desire to leave his father's house for the purpose of
1
pursuing higher schooling in Paris. In 1732, Diderot
earned the degree of maitre-es-arts at the University of
Paris. But his inquiring mind,his penchant for the sciences
made him an apostate from religion, and after futile at­
tempts to direct him toward ecclesiastic vocations, Diderot
was placed with a solicitor for the study of law. After
some two years, he abandoned this discipline and then chose
to lead the life of a bohemian. He frequented at times,

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what one calls, good company, and at others, he associated
with somewhat disreputable characters, in particular those
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of the Parisian stage. Little is known about Diderot's
whereabouts during the following four or five years, except
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that he taught mathematics, drew up sermons for missionaries,

and tutored the children of a financier. Interested in di­
verse fields of knowledge, accumulating experiences during
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diverse periods in his existence, Diderot was to devote

much of his life to his true love, studying. He was often
to beoome the victim of his progressive and imaginative

It seems that the nature of Diderot's formal edu­

cation remains obscure, since discrepancies of opinion con­
cerning schools involved are expressed by a number of com­
mentators. See: Arthur Wilson, Diderot: ffhe Testing years
1713-1759. pp. 14-16, Karl Bosenkranz. Uitlerot's Le'ben und
Werke. nT 12, Georges Doth, Denis Diderot. Correspondence.
I, 22, note 2, Jean Pommier. Avant Vincennes, p. S). franco
Venturi, La Jeunesse de Diderot, among others.

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 11

spirit, so much so that as early as 1748 he found himself

in prison at Vincennes. His literary fame was significantly
recognized by his contemporaries, who had "titled" him le
philosophe; but unlike Bacon, he did not live to see his
most important works published. As for Bacon, so with
Biderot, science was a lifelong religion worthy of the deep­
est homage. The man whom Voltaire called "pantophile"
spent only a little less than a fortnight in the house rue
Richelieu, which Catherine the Great had presented him for
his contribution to the knowledge of this world. He died

about to eat his dessert. EW

of a stroke on July 30, 1784, at the dinner table as he was

Bacon and Biderot, who gained some measure of re­

spect during their lives as intellectual leaders, but whose
I
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roles in the history of ideas have only begun to be properly

assessed in the second half of the twentieth century, were
unquestionably true pioneers of progressive thought.
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 12

PART I

THE INFLUENCE OF ENGLISH THOUGHT ON FRANCE

AND THE BACON-DIDEROT RELATIONSHIP

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 PART I

Chapter I

The Influence of English Thought on Prance during the

Seventeenth and ^eighteenth Centuries.

The seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries have

been a considerable showcase illustrating the significance

of English influence on French philosophic and scientific

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thought. Various general works point to the importance of
1
cultural relations between England and France.
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1
A number of studies on the subject— some taking
information from journals of the respective epochs— state
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as an accepted fact that England played an important role

in the development of French eighteenth-century thought.
Since the end of the seventeenth century, Anglomania in­
creased in France, an admiration which was first fostered
in the writings of the Huguenots who were exiled by the
revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685.
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Cf. Joseph Texte, Jenn-Jacauea Rousseau et les

origines du cosmopolitisms litteralre. Etude sur lea'
relations litteraires de la France et de l'Angleterre au
xVllIe siecle. (Also translated as: Jean-Jacques Rous­
seau and the Cosmopolitan Spirit in LiteratureJ .
And more specific works like, for example, R.
Loyalty Cru, Diderot as a Disciple of English Thought.
Charles Dedeyan, L'Angleterre dans la nensee de Diderot.
Alice Green Fredman, Diderot and 6terne. Jacqueline de
la Harpe, "Le Journal des savants et l'Angleterre, 1702-
1?89," California University Publications in M o d e m Phi­
lology. 'Then too, Susi Sillbura Sffros, in English In^
fluence on Eighteenth-Century Spanish Literature, dis­
sertation on microfilm, C-olumbia tJniversity, p. 58,
passingly gives renewed emphasis to the impact of England
on French thought.

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 14

During both, centuries, cultured French and English

travellers aided greatly in the exchange of intellectual
endeavors of the two countries. The impact of such seven­
teenth-century British giants as Hobbes, Locke and Newton
was soon to be felt in France, whereas the influence of
Descartes' methodical doubt, St. Evremond's urbanity,
Pierre Bayle's eclecticism in his writings, including the
Dictionnaire critique, as well as Fontenelle's great gift
for popularization as exemplified by the Pluralite dee
Mondes. for instance, became almost immediate in England.

EW
Qf equal significance in the history of Anglo-French
cultural relations was the debt incurred to British thought
by such figures of the Enlightenment as Montesquieu, Vol­
taire, Buffon, Condillac, Rousseau, and, of course, Diderot.
I
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This debt is revealed early and in striking fashion in

Voltaire's Lettres philosophiaues (1734-)* which had appeared
the preceding year in English under the title of Letters on
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the English Nation. Thanks to the author, the names of

Bacon, Shakespeare, Locke, Newton, Swift, and a host of
other eminent personages from across the channel, took on
new meaning for the French, or, at the very least, became
more familiar to them.
For France was fast becoming infatuated with English
ideas regardless of whether these were philosophical,
scientific, political, economic or literary. This trend,
moreover, resulted in eighteenth-century France acting as
intermediary between England and the rest of Europe. If

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 15

English works were tooponderous either In form or content,

France made them lighter and more lucid through adaptation,
abridgement and translation. In short, France became some-
2
thing of a clearing-house for British culture.
Among the English figures that emerged most clearly
and who had the greatest impact on the French Enlightenment
were, chronologically speaking, Francis Bacon, Isaac Newton,
and John Locke. The first influence from England, then,
came not through literature, but through science and philoso­
phy, although philosophy ran a close second to science, and

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Voltaire, in his Le Siede de Louis XIV. was to declare:
"C'est surtout en philosophic que les Anglais ont ete les
maitres des autres nations."3
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In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, articles
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on science and the philosophy of science were a most im­

portant source of intellectual stimulation for the culti­
vated man, for science itself had achieved new heights of
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popularity. Men like Fontenelle, Montesquieu, Voltaire,

Buffon, Maupertuis, and Reaumur— to name but a few— were,
in great measure, responsible for the popularization of the
sciences on various fronts. French Journals, many of which
were founded during the eighteenth century, promoted a new

2--------
% Of. Paul Hazar<J, La Pensee euroneenne au XVTIIe
siede. de Montesquieu a Lessing, II. p. £42.
3
Voltaire. Oeuvres historiaues. Bibliotheaue de la
Pleiade, p. 1024.

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 16

4
interest in science. With England to the fore, Prance
stood firmly in second place in the field of experimental
science.
The Royal Society of London played no small part in
developing an inclination for a scientific method of ob­
servation and experimentation in Prance. Moreover, as
Paul Hazard states with matter-of-fact brevity: "La
science serait celle de la nature; et en effet, l'histoire
naturelle fut mise an premier rang, la geometrie au second ."
The reputation of the Royal Society, adorned with

Prance already in the early seventeenth century.EW

important English scientists and men of letters, reached

the great Prench minds of the eighteenth century were ad­

Many of

mitted as members, for example Pontenelle, Montesquieu,

I
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Maupertuis; and Voltaire was elected a Pellow in 1743.

The Roval Society was the oldest scientific academy in
Europe and served as the model for scores of subsequent
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academies that were to spring up throughout the length and

-------- 5 --------
Gf. Minnie Miller, "Choix des anciens Mercures et
des autres jouraaux," PMLA. vol. XLV, p. 836. (A collection
published at Paris from 1757-1764 drew its material from
various periodicals of the 17th and the first sixty years
of the loth century). Among others, for instance, are the
Journal des Savants. founded in 1665, Nouvelles de la
jtepttbiiaue des Lettres. th$ Histoire des Ouvrages des
Savants, the Journal ae Trevoux. founded in 1701. the Jour­
nal Enc^rclopedique. founded in 1756. and the Mercure.
Paul Hazard, Pensee europeenne au XVIIIe siecle
. . . , I, p. 174. (Science would be a natural science,
and indeed, natural history took the first seat, geometry
the second in order of importance).

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 17

breadth of the continent. It originated, like many other

established learned institutions, from private scientific
circles. Nor should it be forgotten that, before 1645?
little or no official recognition was shown for great scien­
tific advances; for instance, the works of Galileo, Gil­
bert and Kepler were not made part of the curriculum of the
universities. But the ideas of these great men and their
new ways, namely systematic observation and experimentation,
became the means of advanced scientific investigation.
Those who represented this novel approach and those who ap­

EW
proved of it were responsible for the foundation of the
Royal Society. Robert Boyle, who favored some of Bacon's
ideas, was one of the intimates of the group gathered around
I
Dr. John Wilkins, who, in 1649, became director of Waaham
EV

College in Oxford. This group was composed of persons who

were warm believers in Bacon and the Experimental Philoso­
phy, and, according to a modem historian, Boyle confessed
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thatnhe was so Baconian, . . .that for a long time he de­

clined to read Gassendi or Descartes or even Bacon's own
Novum Organum. lest he should be seduced too early by lofty
6
hypotheses." Henri-Louis Habert Montmor, an erudite
Frenchman (1654-1679), was one of such science-minded in­
dividuals. He was the leader of a group, which soon de­
veloped into a body, known by the name of "academy of

£
Herbert Butterfield, The Origins of Modem Science.
p. 127.

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 18

Montmor." Some considered this ’’academy" as a stepping-

stone to a larger organization, and it is often claimed

that the "Montmor Academy" was the original source of the

7
Royal Society. The royal charter for the Royal Society
8
of London was officially registered on July 15, 1662.
Three years later, the Academiedes Sciences de
Paris was founded. Its beginnings weremuch like thoseof

the Royal Society. Meetings of eruditemen, private re­

unions of science-loving individuals, more or less regular

gatherings of savants, similar to Father Marin Hersenne’s
9 10
Academia parisiensis or the Cabinet Dupuy, led finally to

EW
the establishment of the Academie des Sciences under the
sponsorship of the French statesman Jean-Baptiste Colbert
until his death in 1683.
I
Both these important scientific bodies, The Royal
EV

Academy and the Academie des Sciences, have been connected

7
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Cf. Hareourt Brown, Scientific Organizations in

Seventeenth-Century France (1620-1680), p. 119.
8
This date marked the foundation of the Royal Society.
Lord Brouncker, who for several years remained its presi­
dent. was responsible for the institution of a second
charter which, as of April 22, 1663, changed the name of
Royal Society to The Royal Society of London for Improving
Natural Knowledge.
9
^ Cf. Histoire de la science. Encyclopedie de la
Pleiade, p.88.
10
Cf. Harcourt Brown, Scientific Organizations in
Seventeenth-Century France (1620-1680), pp.6-8.

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 with, ideas as expressed in Bacon's writings. A number of
critics go as fax as to claim Francis Bacon to be indirectly
one of the founders of the Royal Society. According to one
historian: "Un des ecrits de Bacon contribua a la fondation
de la Societe Royale. Les fondateurs et les premiers
membres de cette Academie des Sciences avaient pour 1*auteur
du Novum Organum une vive admiration. Ils executerent cer­
tains travaux en conform!te avec la methode et 1'esprit
11
baconiens." Another positive voice says: "L'influence
de Bacon se trouve d'ailleurs dans la fondation de presque

W
12
toutes les Academies scientifiques." Furthermore, as
early as 1667, Thomas Sprat, biographer of the Royal Society,
IE
recognizes that seventeenth-century France is nearest the
English institutions "in its zeal for the promotion of Ex­
EV

periments," adding: "In that Kingdom, the Royal Society

has maintain'd a perpetual intercourse, with the most eminent.
13
men of Art of all conditions." Other commentators treat
PR

n -------
Gaston Sortais, La Philosophic Moderns Depuis
Bacon Juscu'a Leibniz. I, p. 4-^0.
15
Francisaue Bouiller, L'Institut et les Academies
de province. 1879* p. 304— 320, etc. '. • (,as quo-bed by
Charles Adam in his Philosophic de Francois Bacon, p. 34-3)*
13
Thomas Sprat, History of the Royal Society.
London 1702, second edition, p. 155. (it should te noted
that only two years after Sprat's History. . .appeared
(1667), French editions had sprung up in Geneva and Paris.)

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