Speaker: Sir Francis Bacon was born in 1561 and died in 1626. He was an English scientist consider the father of empiricism. During his life, he attended the University of Cambridge for law and science, worked as a lawyer, was knighted, and honored as a chancellor. He is most famous for the Baconian method, known today as the scientific method. His re-evaluation of scientific philosophy rejected Aristotle's ideas from Ancient Greece. He died of pneumonia without any heirs.
Author Bio: See Above.
Date/Context: This work was written in 1620. This places it in the midst of the Scientific Revolution occurring during the Early Modern Period. Basically, an emphasis was placed on education as many people strove to make advancements in science, math, and other areas. Bacon's work greatly influenced the period, as the scientific method that he devised is still used today. The start of the Scientific Revolution is generally believed to be with the publication of Copernicus's On the Revolutions of Heavenly Spheres in 1543. This revolution takes part in a greater movement known as the Enlightenment, which was a social movement of the time. This movement placed an emphasis on reason, analysis, and individualism over conventional power in Western Europe.
Summary: Bacon's excerpt states that he focuses purely on the facts of nature, in which he has developed a relationship between empirical and rational thoughts since the division between the two caused confusion. He has looked at both empirical and rational studies to correct their errors and learn from them. And, the states that he learns more from experiments than instruments alone. Experiments are more important for inquiry because they answer questions and create judgments using data without opinions. People that choose to look for reason and information must search for facts in the natural world. To conclude, Bacon states that he has created a foundation for science to build upon using his methods.
Important Quotations:
"And so those twin objects, human knowledge and human power, do really meet in one; and it is from ignorance of causes that operation fails."
Bacon was well-versed in a wide range of disciplines - a true Renaissance man. He emphasized the importance of study as a means of bettering both the individual and society.
ReplyDelete"To the immediate and proper perception of the sense therefore I do not give much weight; but I contrive that the office of the sense shall be only to judge of the experiment, and that the experiment itself shall judge the thing."
Bacon perceived science as a way to better understand God and sought to remedy the two areas. From an earlier notable work, "The Advancement of Learning:"
"Natural philosophy is, after the word of God, at once the surest medicine against superstition and the most approved nourishment for faith; and therefore she is rightly given to religion as her most faithful handmaid, since the one displays the will of God, the other his power."