Quotation
Last reviewed:
“Knowledge itself is power.”
Francis Bacon · Empiricism · Renaissance · 1597
What does it mean?
Knowing, on the usual reading of the Latin sentence, is a capacity to do rather than a decoration, and Bacon will later build a method on the hope that the right knowledge gives humanity new power over nature. A rival reading keeps the 1597 religious meditation in view: the line stands in a discussion of heresies and of divine knowledge, not in a laboratory note, and the English proverb drops that setting. Both the later programme and the original context belong in an honest use. The Latin itself is his.
Did Francis Bacon really say this?
The library’s label is Paraphrase or translation. The Latin sentence is Bacon's, in the Meditationes Sacrae of 1597, in the piece on heresies, not in the Novum Organum. The English proverb drops a religious context about God and the uses of knowledge. A related idea appears in the later scientific works. This English is a translation of the Latin.
Where it comes from
Meditationes Sacrae (1597), 'Of Heresies': ipsa scientia potestas est
Approximate date: 1597.
How to use it
A tenants' group in Tottenham learns from a planning portal which clause lets a developer shorten consultation, and that knowledge changes what the group can do and for whom. The proverb is often repeated as if information were simply status. The clause confers status only because it can be used, and asking whom the power serves is the part the slogan regularly forgets.
A mindset reading
The line is not a claim that being informed is a rank one holds over neighbours. In Bacon, power is the effect of a method that also warns against the idols distorting judgement. Knowledge that cannot be aimed, or that only flatters the knower, is not yet the power either the meditation or the later method is concerned with.
Understand the philosophy
Bacon's programme of inquiry is inductive, collaborative, and aimed at works rather than at commentary alone. The key term in the famous English is power, a capacity produced by knowledge, not a synonym for political office. The Latin sentence stands in the sacred meditations, in the piece on heresies, and a related hope reappears in the scientific writings. Cut off from his account of the idols, the proverb is more reckless than he left it.
- knowledge
- power
FAQ
What does it mean?
Knowing, on the usual reading of the Latin sentence, is a capacity to do rather than a decoration, and Bacon will later build a method on the hope that the right knowledge gives humanity new power over nature. A rival reading keeps the 1597 religious meditation in view: the line stands in a discussion of heresies and of divine knowledge, not in a laboratory note, and the English proverb drops that setting. Both the later programme and the original context belong in an honest use. The Latin itself is his.
Did Francis Bacon really say this?
Paraphrase or translation. The Latin sentence is Bacon's, in the Meditationes Sacrae of 1597, in the piece on heresies, not in the Novum Organum. The English proverb drops a religious context about God and the uses of knowledge. A related idea appears in the later scientific works. This English is a translation of the Latin.
Which work is it in?
Meditationes Sacrae (1597), 'Of Heresies': ipsa scientia potestas est Approximate date: 1597.