This study reconsiders Francis Bacon’s ideas on spirits, death, and the prolongation of life through a chronological examination of his works. His conception of death has often been considered unique because it presupposed a common material basis for the dissolution of inanimate things and the death of human beings. However, his focus on this commonality seems to have faded gradually – though not completely – as his works progressed, from De viis mortis to his later works, including Historia vitae et mortis. He became increasingly conscious of the difference between the inanimate and the animate. While De viis mortis insisted on the role of inanimate spirits in aging and death, Historia vitae et mortis tended to consider vital spirits as the chief cause of human death. My suggestion in this article is that as Bacon’s ideas developed, they came closer to traditional conceptions of aging and death.

中文翻译：

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弗朗西斯·培根的精神与生命的延长：无生命与有生命之间的共性与差异

本研究通过按时间顺序审视弗朗西斯·培根的作品，重新思考他关于精神、死亡和延长生命的观点。他的死亡概念常常被认为是独特的，因为它预设了无生命事物的消解和人类死亡的共同物质基础。然而，随着他的作品的进展，他对这种共性的关注似乎逐渐消失了——尽管不是完全消失。死后到他后来的作品，包括生与死的历史。他越来越意识到无生命和有生命之间的区别。尽管死后坚持无生命的灵魂在衰老和死亡中的作用，生与死的历史倾向于认为生命精神是人类死亡的主要原因。我在本文中的建议是，随着培根思想的发展，它们越来越接近传统的衰老和死亡概念。