entire book - Chris Hables Gray

The Uses of Science [ 79 ]
nections expressed by the founding fathers of modem science, men such as
Francis Bacon, it is not a hard case to make. Merchant shows how much
Bacon relied on the metaphor of torturing witches to present his vision of
science's relationship to nature. To quote Bacon himself in a passage addressed
to his king, James I, and referring to the king's famous persecution of
witches:
For you have but to follow and as it were, hound nature in her wanderings,
and you will be able when you like to lead and drive her afterward to the
same place again. Neither am I of the opinion in this history of marvels
that superstitious narratives of sorceries, witchcrafts, charms, dreams
divinations, and the like, where there is an assurance and clear evidence
of the fact, should be altogether excluded. . .. Howsoever the use and
practice of such arts is to be condemned, yet from the speculation and
consideration of them... a useful light may be gained, not only for a true
judgment of the offenses of persons charged with such practices, but
likewise for the further disclosing of the secrets of nature. Neither ought
a man to make scruple of entering and penetrating into these holes and
comers, when the inquisition of truth is his whole object—as your majesty
has shown in your own example, (quoted in Merchant, 1982, p. 168)
Bacon was only echoing a common theme. Sir Davy Humprey, one of
the first presidents of the Royal Society, has already been quoted at the start
of this chapter. In his book Witch Hunting, Magic and the New Phibsophy,
Brian Easlea (1980) has dozens of similar quotations from the founders of
modem science. These new philosophers often used images of torturing and
forcing nature (the experiment), in contrast to the approach of the scholastics,
followers of Aristotle, and the alchemists, who wanted merely to enter
into a conversation with nature. To further distance themselves from the
alchemists, whose rituals often resembled experiments, the new philosophers
stressed the absurdity of the alchemists' belief in impossible occult forces,
such as the moon pulling on the tides.
Robert Boyle noted that there were two reasons for studying nature: "For
some Men care only to Know Nature others desire to Command Her"
(quoted in Easlea, 1980, p. 247). Commanding is easier then knowing. Easlea
points out that the experimentalist natural philosophers rejected the persecution
of witches on the grounds that the occult didn't exist, there was no
magic. They believed this because their metaphysics was material and based
on Descartes' machine metaphor. Instead of there being witches, nature
would have the role of witch, and she would be tortured for knowledge and
power. "Knowledge is power" is Bacon's most famous insight. Or, as Foucault
(1986, p. 236) put it, "Knowledge is not made for understanding; it is made
for cutting."
The word science does probably come from "to cut," and knowledge traces