ABSTRACT
The lure of method lies in its putative logic. It offers us a system and a way into the world. The Oxford English Dictionary traces the word to its Greek root, which signified the pursuit of knowledge. It draws the distinction, however, between this meaning and its sixteenth-century descendant, rhetoric: ‘Methode hath beene placed, and that not amisse in Logicke, as a part of Judgement; For as the Doctrine of Syllogismes comprendeth vppon that which is inuented. So the Doctrine of Methode contayneth the rules of Judgement vppon that which is to bee delivered’ (Francis Bacon, 1605 (Advancement of Learning, II, xvii)). So in this Enlightenment version of method, the pursuit of knowledge is conflated with legitimation, the ability to justify the pursuit and its findings to others. The point is made cogently in this OED citation of Charles Hutton, in the context of mathematics: ‘Method is the art of disposing a train of arguments in a proper order to investigate either the truth or falsity of a proposition, or to demonstrate it to others when it has been found out’ (Charles Hutton, 1837 (Course Math, I, 3)).
