Francis Bacon: philosophy, science, and empiricism

Francis Bacon (1561-1626) was a politician, statesman, philosopher and scientist who is known, among others, as the founder of the inductive method in science. (the Reader's Digest Great Encyclopedic Dictionary 71) He was also the author of many famous publications and essays. Many of his concepts and works are still influential in the sciences today. Furthermore, he was an important thinker during the English Renaissance and advocated a new way of understanding the natural world known as "active science" which was to be widely influential.

Bacon was born in 1561 to Sir Nicholas Bacon, lord keeper to Queen Elizabeth I, and Lady Anne Bacon. He was the youngest of eight children. (Abbott xxxi) He developed important connections through his parents who were both highly positioned in society and he was to become intimately involved in the cultural, political and academic life of his times.

He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, and at Gray's Inn. ("Bacon, Francis, English Philosopher and Statesman") He was also deeply involved with the politics of Tudor England and became a Member of Parliament in 1584. However, his political life was not without turmoil; particularly when he opposed the tax policies of Queen Elizabeth I. He received a knighthood in 1603 and became attorney general in 1613. Bacon was appointed Lord Chancellor in 1618 and was created Baron Verulam in 1618 and Viscount St. Albans in 1621. ("Bacon, Francis, English Philosopher and Statesman") However, his fortunes changed when he was accused of bribery and was sentenced to the Tower of London. While his sentence was remitted it had a detrimental effect on his political career and he retired and concentrated on his writings. ("Bacon, Francis, English Philosopher and Statesman")

Francis Bacon's thought and philosophies were to be very influential for the development of science and the study of the natural world - especially in terms of scientific methodology. Of particular importance are his theories relating to empiricist philosophy in words such as the Novum Organum Scientiarum. Coupled with this is the importance to contemporary thought of his "doctrine of the idols" as well as the idea of a modern research institute, which he described in Nova Atlantis. ("Bacon, Francis, English Philosopher and Statesman") major contribution of his views and theories to philosophy and the sciences was his application of the inductive method, which has become an accepted part of modern science. In this regard, Bacon went against older deductive ways of understanding the world and "...urged full investigation in all cases, avoiding theories based on insufficient data." ("Bacon, Francis, English Philosopher and Statesman")

These views put forward by Bacon can be seen as a reaction to the state of learning and science in his time. Bacon was of the opinion that the state of science during the Tudor period was too narrow in its deductive form of reasoning. " From few data it launches itself into the construction of general principles. The principles then being regarded as true, deductively valid explanations were constructed and then protected against recalcitrant data in an ad hoc way." (McGreak 174)

Bacon was of the opinion that such theories were far too limited and limiting as they"...apply to a narrow range of particulars and have no observational consequences outside their original preserve." (McGreak 175) in other words, the older scientific method prevented the scientist or naturalist from making new and surprising discoveries. This is an insight that was to have great significance for the development of modern scientific methodology. Bacon therefore sought to use a more inductive form of reasoning in science which would "...discover the causally and thus explanatory relevant properties of nature." (McGreak 175)

Another importance facet of his views of science and methodology is to be found in Novum Organum, where he discusses that way that "idols" in scientific thought are developed and how they prevent and deter us from true insight into nature. There are four classes of 'idols' according to Bacon - for example the 'idols of the theater' which refers to various parameters or modes of thought that are the result of a dependence on false schools of thought. If fact much of bacons reputation as an innovative thinker rests on the 1620 publication of Novum organum or New Method.