[Eugene Volokh, March 29, 2007 at 10:15am] Trackbacks
A Subtitle to Live By:

From the cover page of a 1733 edition of The Philosophical Works of Francis Bacon:

WITH

OCCASIONAL NOTES, to EXPLAIN what is Obscure

Steve Donohue (mail) (www):
I've always loved the titles Nietzsche gave to his chapters in Ecce Homo: "Why I Am So Clever" Why I Write Such Good Books" are two that I remember of the top of my head.
3.29.2007 11:24am
M (mail):
Even better would have been to clear in the first place and thereby be able to leave the notes out!
3.29.2007 12:11pm
Anderson (mail):
In fairness to Bacon, the interval in time may have made his language obscure to those in 1733.

Nowadays, you would need a note to explain the subtitle.
3.29.2007 1:04pm
Perry (mail):
Wonder how Leo Strauss would read that. Especially w/ the capital letters.
3.29.2007 2:18pm
MBS (mail):
Was that comment from the original or just a note from Spedding and Ellis? Take a look at the De Augmentis, particularly the section on "acroamatic" writing.
3.29.2007 3:10pm
Thales (mail) (www):
Steve, the other fabulous titles in Ecce Homo are "Why I Am So Wise" and "Why I Am A Destiny". Just to make this on topic, Nietzsche had some interesting things to say about Francis Bacon and his style of writing, and what explanations of the obscure he chose to give. See Laurence Lampert, "Nietzsche and Modern Times" for an interesting synthesis of N, Bacon, and Rene Descartes.
3.30.2007 1:36pm