人类自古以来就没有停止过对自然本源及其运行规律的探索。生活在各个历史时期的人们对这个问题也形成了不同的见解。在中世纪末期和近代初期的西欧社会，人们解读自然的重点发生了一次重要转向，弗朗西斯•培根的自然观集中体现了这一趋势。对其自然观的产生背景、主要内容与历史影响的把握将有助于我们更好地理解历史、反思现状。然而长期以来，人们的研究兴趣主要集中在其归纳法与科学观方面，培根的自然观并没有得到后人应有的重视。直到生态女性主义思潮兴起之后，这一局面才得以改观。生态女性主义者从妇女和生态的视角反思近代早期的社会，指出以培根为首的近代科学事业的先驱提倡一种机械的自然观，他们之于人类社会的贡献必须加以重新评估。与此同时，另有一些学者加入到“保卫培根”的行列之中，从不同角度阐发了各自对培根的认识与理解。本文正是从双方的论述中受到了启发，希望把培根的形象置于历史的进程之中，去寻找他的思想与现实之间的互动轨迹，在历史的语境中理解他的自然观。这将有助于我们更深刻地理解自己的自然观，从而为形成一种新的自然观提供借鉴。 我们考察培根的自然观，首先应将其放在当时的历史条件之下，并了解他所熟知的思想文化背景。在对培根所处时代的历史与文化背景进行分析之后，我们了解到培根的自然观得以建立的基础，并且发现他所处的时代和所接受的教育都给予了他在诸多思想源头中寻求平衡与综合的倾向与能力。接下来，本文在自然观念的演变历程中，从微观、宏观以及隐喻这三个层面分析培根的自然观，最终得出对它的基本认识：培根的自然观是一种人类中心主义的、功利主义的自然观，其中既含有生机论的因素，又具有机械论的倾向，它体现了历史上人类自然观的重要转变。在随后的部分中，通过分析培根在《新大西岛》中为我们描述的自然、科学与社会，得出他的自然观对现代社会的兴起具有潜在的影响。最后，本文进一步探讨了培根的自然观在向培根式自然观的转变过程中所经历的几个关键步骤，从而说明这种自然观究竟以何种面貌、在何种程度上发挥了它的历史影响。基于以上分析，本文对培根的自然观做出了新的解读，从而对生态女性主义者的批判作出了回应，并形成了对培根的自然观的历史认知。

Humans have never stopped thinking about the origin and the laws of nature since the ancient time. People living in different ages have formed their own opinions about this question. In the society of the late medieval and the early modern west Europe, there is an important transition of the tenor in the explication of nature. Francis Bacon’s idea of nature exactly represents this trend. If we grasp the context, content and influence of his idea of nature, we can better understand the past and rethink the present. However, for a long time, researches have been always focused on his induction and his opinion of the science. Bacon’s idea of nature failed to catch enough attention than it should have done by the posterity. This phase didn’t change until the rise of the thought of the eco-feminism. Eco-feminists review the early modern society from a feminine and ecological angle, and argue that the forerunners of the modern science, among whom Bacon takes the lead advocate the mechanical view of nature, and that their contribution should be reappraised. Meanwhile, other scholars who affiliate themselves with the enterprise to “defend Bacon” explain their own reading and understanding of Bacon at different aspects. The dissertation is rooted in the inspiration of the discussion from each side, and intends to locate Bacon’s reputation in the course of the development of history, to find out the track on which his mind and the reality interact. Thus we can reach an understanding of his idea of nature in the context of the history. And this will help us catch on our own attitude towards nature, and then inspire a new one. When reviewing Bacon’s idea of nature, we should first locate it in the historical conditions and discover the intellectual and cultural traditions that he is familiar with. After analyzing the historical and cultural background of his time, we realize the foundation of his idea of nature and find out that both the time and the education have transfused his tendency and the ability of seeking the balance and the synthesis from the origins of many ideas. In succession, we analyze Bacon’s idea of the nature on three levels which are microcosmic, macroscopical and metaphorical in the development of the idea of nature. Then we elicit the essence of it: Bacon’s idea of nature is anthropocentric and utilitarian, which contains both the factors of the vitalism and the tendency of the mechanism, and it represents the great transition of the idea of nature in the human history. In the next part, we infer from the analysis of the nature, science and society which are described by Bacon in his New Atlantis that his idea of nature may have a potential influence on the rise of the modern society. Finally, there is a discussion that further analyzes some important steps of the transition from Bacon’s idea of nature to Baconian one, thus we can explain in which aspect and to what degree does this kind of idea influence the development of history. Based on the analysis mentioned above, a new explication of Bacon’s idea of nature has been formed, thus a response to the criticism made by the eco-feminists has been worked out, and a historical comprehension of it has been developed.