Bacon's work is less centered on the individual himself as the center of reality and of the mechanism of understanding reality. His rational explanation of the world focuses on nature. His preface of Novum Organum gives some interesting details about his perception of the Nature as the common denominator of understanding reality, the basic premise and concept of all subsequent understanding. Similar to the understanding of Nietzsche and Darwin related solely on the individual, Nature is also very difficult to pinpoint, shouldn't be dogmatized through its unpredictability and capacity to remain a differentiated entity.

Bacon proposes a method that includes "determining certain degrees of certainty" and, a definite element of rationality, using the mind as the main instrument of identifying and understanding the reality surrounding us, although the senses are also something that should be taken into consideration into the equation of understanding reality. Thus, through Nature, using his mind and senses, the individual is able to understand the realities around him, but also to understand himself as an entity fully part of this environment.

Plato's work "The Republic" centers more the understanding of reality on the political and social life within an Ancient Greek city. This is obviously so, since the perception of the ancient philosophers was also limited to the realities they were dealing with in day-to-day life. Further more, because a city was relatively small, the life of the citizens was very intertwined and the form of direct democracy, by which they directly participated to the decisions of the city, was characteristic during that time. Rationally, this was so because the same citizens would need to fight, pay taxes and thus would be...

Obviously, the premise for this is to start from the political understanding of reality and work one's way towards being able to integrate a philosophical perspective and notions going from the immortality of the soul to justice and universal belief.
The role is also to facilitate the rational understanding of reality by connecting it to something very familiar to individuals, at least during that time: the political life and framework. As previously mentioned, individuals participated fully to the political life of the city, which meant that this was a familiar way to allude to themes of more profound and less reality-based notions, such as the soul.

As we can see, the absence of a Supreme Being from the discussion around understanding the reality around us leads to the necessity of finding another point of reference. In some cases, this point of reference is the individual (Nietzsche, Darwin), in others, it is the existing society (Plato) or nature itself (Bacon). It is from different perspectives that all these writers and philosophers attempt to understand and describe the same surrounding realities. The differences most likely comes from the different instruments used.

Darwin, Charles. 1871. Descent of Man. On the Internet at http://www.infidels.org/library/historical/charles_darwin/descent_of_man/chapter_01.html.Last retrieved on September 17, 2008

Bacon, Francis. 1620. Novum Organum. On the Internet at http://history.hanover.edu/texts/Bacon/novorg.html.Last retrieved on September 17, 2008