'SENSIBLE AND PLAUSIBLE ELOCUTION': RHETORIC AND THE SHAPE OF KNOWLEDGE IN BACON, BROWNE AND HOBBES

The dissertation proposes to account for the diverse and compelling form of seventeenth-century prose, and its peculiarly argumentative use of rhetorical figures, from definition to metaphor, which often bear the full burden of articulating the significance of an idea. Yet it is difficult to explain these features with a theory premised on the imitation of stylistic models alone, or one premised on 'scientific' denotation or modern notions of utility, which would seem to preclude 'figured' expression. The crux of critical disagreement lies in disparate readings of Bacon's own theories of knowledge and discourse: in these, and the intellectual ferment of the Renaissance, a source of both stylistic diversity and coherence may be found.;The growth and revision of knowledge in the Renaissance provoked a sceptical reaction in its thinkers, with consequences not only for the substance of philosophy and theology, but its communication. If ideas are suspect or open to misconstruction, then discourse as the medium of ideas becomes equally fallible and uncertain in its effects. Yet the very revolution which precipitates this sceptical vogue, also requires that its insights be propounded. Thus the dissertation addresses the novel difficulty of communicating sceptical views in discourse: how does such a writer preserve his ideas from the dogmatic distortions inherent in language and the reader's mind, while giving them vivid and credible expression?;The answer to Bacon's phrase is "sensible and plausible elocution," in which verbal form serves as a mode of cognition, at once articulating and interpreting ideas. This method Bacon expressly adopts from the rhetorical theories of Aristotle and Cicero: Both assume the contingent or probable nature of ideas and discourse, and seek within that limit to communicate knowledge intelligibly and persuasively, using the repertoire of rhetorical forms. When every aspect of expression conforms to the character of ideas, then discourse takes on all the variety and nuance of its subject. Moreover, in the seventeenth century, it also becomes an implicit commentary on the method and validity of knowledge and language itself, a point exemplified by Bacon's Advancement of Learning, Browne's Religio Medici, and Hobbes' Leviathan.