Did Francis Bacon See Democritus As a Mechanical Philosopher?

Abstract

Robert Kargon interpreted the pneumatism of the later works of Francis Bacon as vitalism; however, for him, the atomism of the early Bacon was mechanistic. Similarly, Graham Rees argued that pneumatism and atoms are incompatible; so, without making any distinction between the early and later Bacon, he thought that Bacon was never an atomist. Both Kargon's and Rees' claims rest on the false idea that atomism necessitates a mechanistic view of the world. In this paper, contrary to the generally accepted identification of mechanical philosophy with atomism, it will be argued that Francis Bacon saw Democritus, an atomist, as a vitalist philosopher.