Francis Bacon
Knowledge is power: science should start from careful observation and build up general laws, clearing away the prejudices that cloud the mind.
Placement
Knowledge is power: the inductive method and a critique of the “idols” that cloud the mind.
Key ideas
- Induction
- Doctrine of the idols
- Knowledge is power
Influence
Influenced by 3
Democritus
influenced by
Bacon praised the school of Democritus for dissecting nature rather than abstracting from it (New Organon, 1620) and discussed his atoms in On Principles and Origins (c. 1612). F. Bacon, Novum Organum (1620); De principiis atque originibus (c. 1612); SEP “Francis Bacon”
Evidence: also in InPhO · InPhO
Democritus › c. 460–370 BCE
Niccolò Machiavelli
influenced by
In The Advancement of Learning (1605) Bacon wrote ‘we are much beholden to Machiavel and others, that write what men do, and not what they ought to do’. F. Bacon, The Advancement of Learning (1605), Book II; SEP “Francis Bacon”
Evidence: AI draft
Niccolò Machiavelli › 1469–1527
Bernardino Telesio
influenced by
In On Principles and Origins (c. 1612) Bacon called Telesio ‘the first of the new men’ and discussed his heat and cold as principles revived from Parmenides. F. Bacon, De principiis atque originibus (c. 1612); SEP “Bernardino Telesio”
Evidence: AI draft
Bernardino Telesio › 1509–1588
Influenced 5
Thomas Hobbes
influenced ✓
Hobbes served Bacon as secretary in his last years, taking down his thoughts and helping translate Essays into Latin (Aubrey); how far Bacon shaped him is debated. J. Aubrey, Brief Lives, “Thomas Hobbes”; SEP “Thomas Hobbes”
Thomas Hobbes › 1588–1679
John Amos Comenius
influenced
Comenius praised Bacon’s Instauratio magna in the preface to his Physicae synopsis (1633) and took up its programme of renewing natural philosophy from the senses. J. A. Comenius, Physicae ad lumen divinum reformandae synopsis (1633), preface; F. Bacon, Instauratio magna (1620)
Evidence: AI draft
John Amos Comenius › 1592–1670
John Locke
influenced
Locke’s ‘historical, plain method’ of describing the mind’s ideas in the Essay (1689) follows the Baconian natural history practised in the early Royal Society, as P. Anstey argues. J. Locke, An Essay concerning Human Understanding (1689), Introduction; P. R. Anstey, John Locke and Natural Philosophy (2011); SEP “John Locke”
Evidence: AI draft
John Locke › 1632–1704
Giambattista Vico
influenced
Vico counted Bacon among his ‘four authors’ and modelled his oration On the Study Methods of Our Time (1709) on Bacon’s survey of the advancement of learning. G. Vico, De nostri temporis studiorum ratione (1709); Vita scritta da se medesimo (1725–28); SEP “Giambattista Vico”
Evidence: AI draft
Giambattista Vico › 1668–1744
Denis Diderot
influenced
Diderot credited Bacon in the Encyclopédie’s Prospectus (1750) and arranged its system of knowledge after Bacon’s division into memory, reason and imagination. D. Diderot, Prospectus de l’Encyclopédie (1750); Encyclopédie I (1751), Système figuré des connaissances humaines; SEP “Denis Diderot”
Evidence: also in InPhO · InPhO
Denis Diderot › 1713–1784
Criticism
Criticizes 1
Aristotle
criticised
Bacon charged that Aristotle had corrupted natural philosophy with his dialectic, and set against the syllogism a method of gradual induction (Novum Organum, 1620, I.63). F. Bacon, Novum Organum (1620), I.11–14, I.54, I.63; SEP “Francis Bacon”
Evidence: AI draft
Aristotle › 384–322 BCE
Works
- 1620Novum Organum
A new instrument of thought: induction instead of syllogism.
Position
Bacon called for a “great instauration”, a renewal of all knowledge. Knowledge is power: it should serve to improve human life by understanding and mastering nature. To achieve this, the old Aristotelian logic must be replaced by a new method, a careful induction that collects observations, compares cases and excludes false explanations step by step. Beforehand the mind must be cleared of its “idols” – the errors of the species, of the individual, of language and of philosophical systems. His utopia New Atlantis imagined a state-sponsored research institute. Bacon became the patron of the Royal Society and of empiricism.
Life & context
Born in London in 1561, Francis Bacon studied at Cambridge and trained as a lawyer. Under James I he rose to Attorney General and in 1618 Lord Chancellor, becoming Baron Verulam and Viscount St Alban. In 1621 the House of Lords, sitting as the highest court, found him guilty of accepting gifts from litigants, a widespread custom among judges of the time; he confessed, was fined and removed from office. He devoted his remaining years to his scientific programme and died in 1626.
Further main works
- Essays (1597)
- The Advancement of Learning (1605)
- New Atlantis (1627)
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