In presenting self-preservation as the most general law of nature, set at the summit of the structure of the natural world, Francis Bacon characterized the universal appetite for self-preservation as an innate instinct which, in the case of living beings, is primarily associated with the emotion of fear. Bacon’s philosophy offers several techniques of self-care to manage the fear of accidents of fortune from which the existence and well-being of the self is under constant threat. This article reconstructs Bacon’s treatment of divinatory arts and their contributions to self-care. We will explore how he adopts traditional divinatory arts and reforms them: oneirocritics, physiognomy, and astrology. We will contend that Bacon’s approach to divinatory arts as techniques for self-care and the management of fortune shows some salient points shared with his natural philosophy: in both cases, the approach is hermeneutical, with the goal of exerting human power. With regard both to nature and to fortune, however, our power to modify the state of things extends only so far. The range of decisions we can make is not unlimited but encompasses only what is “in our power,” that is, what depends on us.

中文翻译：

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弗朗西斯·培根谈自我保健、占卜和自然与财富的区别

弗朗西斯·培根将自我保护作为最普遍的自然法则，置于自然世界结构的顶端，他将普遍的自我保护欲望描述为一种与生俱来的本能，就生物而言，它主要是与恐惧情绪有关。培根的哲学提供了几种自我保健的技巧来管理对命运意外的恐惧，自我的存在和福祉经常受到威胁。本文重构了培根对占卜艺术的处理及其对自我保健的贡献。我们将探索他如何采用传统占卜艺术并对其进行改革：占卜术、相术和占星术。我们将争辩说，培根将占卜艺术作为自我保健和财富管理技术的方法显示出与他的自然哲学共有的一些要点：在这两种情况下，该方法都是解释学的，目的是发挥人力。然而，就自然和命运而言，我们改变事物状态的能力仅限于此。我们可以做出的决定的范围不是无限的，而是仅包含“在我们的权力范围内”，即取决于我们的决定。