Francis Bacon (1561-1626) was an English philosopher who was a founder of Western science along with Galileo and Descartes. He did this by adding induction to Greek science.
While many thought that Aristotle and Holy Scripture already had all the answers, Bacon saw that man was only at the beginning of what he could know.
Bacon laid out his ideas for the future of science in two books: “De Augmentis Scientiarum” (1623) and “Novum Organum” (1620).
The “Novum Organon,” or New Organon, was his master work. The old Organon was a book by Aristotle in which he laid down the rules for thought and science.
Aristotle said that one starts out with facts and axioms. An axiom is a statement whose truth requires no proof because it is self-evident. It becomes the starting point for all other proofs. By applying his rules of thought to these you can prove other statements true. These in turn can be used to prove yet other statements true. And so on.
This is called deduction. It sounds wonderful but Bacon said it was not enough. For example, it cannot prove whether the sun will rise tomorrow.
Therefore Bacon added induction: if two things always seem to go together, like night and day or smoke and fire, then if one exists you can conclude that the other exists too. So if it is night, then you can conclude day will follow.
Bacon drew up induction tables to show when an induction was a good one.
Induction is not as certain as deduction, but neither is it as limited: you can find out a lot more using induction. And even if it was not the royal road to truth, Bacon believed it would get you close enough as a starting point.
With induction the knowable becomes what you can see or make happen over and over again. This led to the experiment becoming the heart of science. It also led in time to intellectuals like Hume and Jefferson doubting the existence of miracles.
With induction science moves from seeking the whys of nature to predicting and later controlling nature. Bacon said that knowledge is power, its purpose “the relief of man’s estate.”
Bacon was a hero to Hooke, Boyle, Comte, Jefferson and even Kant. He was later attacked by Joseph de Maistre.
While later ages justified Bacon’s faith in science, in his own day he was regarded chiefly as a king’s minister who was a good writer, famous for his books of wordly wisdom like his “Essayes” (1597) and “De Sapientia Veterum” (1609).
But even in his time he made science respectable among philosophers and fashionable among gentlemen. His book “Nova Atlantis” (1626) gave such gentlemen the idea of forming the Royal Society.
Bacon did not believe in Copernicus: he could not see the earth moving through space like that.
Francis Bacon is no relation of Roger Bacon, an English philosopher of the 1200s.
His best books:
- “Essayes” (1597)
- “Novum Organum” (1620)
See also:
Abagond 
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