Sir+Francis+Bacon

Date of birth: January 22,1561 Date of death: 9 April 1626 Birthplace: London
 * Done by: Ling Ying, Brillia Soh, Desiree, Caitlan and Madeline**
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Biography of Francis Bacon**

Francis Bacon was the Baron Verulam and Viscount St Alban. Being an English philosopher, writer, jurist, statesman and scientist, he expounded on the scientific method in the unfinished //The Great Instauration.//

At 12, he was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge. Four years later, he gained admission to Gray's Inn to study law. As he progressed in his education, he concluded that the methods and results of science then may have been far from the truth.. He also did not believe in Aristotelian philosophy, which he felt were wrong and unpurposeful in its objectives.

In 1577, he joined the suite of Elizabeth's Ambassador to France, remaining there until his father's sudden decease caused him to return in his eighteenth year to a 'narrow portion' and the need to fend for himself in the dog-eat-dog society and court of Elizabethan London. His strong ambitions and greed caused him to solicit the help of his influential uncle, Lord Burleigh, to gain an appointment in court.

In 1584, he finally entered Parliament. He then approached his powerful uncle for help, which fuelled his rapid rise at the bar. He met the 2nd Earl of Essex. He was a popular official who needed capable administrative help, and Francis filled that position. He later impressed the Earl so much that the latter endeavoured to get a public office for him. Due to his tactlessness, the Earl failed at this pursuit and instead presented him with valuable property, thus elevating Bacon's poor financial situation. Subsequently, Bacon severed all ties with Essex when the latter was charged and executed for treason, instead testifying against him. Bacon's reputation was affected when others accused him of being a sort of Judas.

In 1607, he became the Solicitor-General. In 1613, he became the Lord Chancellor and continued to influence the king greatly, resulting in his peers disliking him. In 1621, his public career terminated in disgrace when he was convicted of bribery. The validity of his confession, which according to Bacon was a forced one, continues to be questioned. Some have argued that Bacon did not look upon these gifts as bribes, since he almost always meted out severe punishment to the bribers anyway. Furthermore, it was a prevalent practice amongst Lord Chancellors and officials then. He was freed soon after and was pardoned in 1624.

He died in 1626 due to pneunomia. He was trying to investigate the possibility of using snow to preserve food when he caught a cold, coupled with a gentle fever. Though the experiment succeeded, he died 2 to 3 days later. Thus, he died in the process of experimentation and in the advancement of science.

__**Francis Bacon's Contributions and Works**__ **-** //The New Atlantis// (1627), whereby he describes a scientific utopia -The Essays, which were noted for the style and striking observations about life: E.G. //Colours of Good and Evil// (published in 1597) , //Meditationes Sacrae// (published in 1597) - //The Proficience and Advancement of Learning// (published in 1605), - //Novum Organum// also known //New Instrument//-- introduced the Baconian method (published in 1620)

- Bacon's contribution to philosophy was his application of the inductive method of modern science, also known as the Baconian method. (elaboration found below)


 * Scientific Method**

Bacon's main contribution was the not the development of new theories and ideas, but more so on the development and progression of the thought process and philosophical advancement towards science, religion and beliefs. Bacon urged full investigation on all cases, avoiding theories based on insufficient data, and reclassified knowledge into simpler and more digestible forms.. This new system of reason and scientific method is also known as the Baconian method, which was published with reference to Aristotle ’s Organon, as his philosophical work, Novum Organum.Even though philosophy then exercised the deductive syllogism to interpret nature, the Baconian method involved inductive reasoning in such a way: fact to axiom to law. This detailed and systematic classification displays the procedures for isolating form, nature and/or cause of a phenomenon, and including the new //method of agreement//, //method of difference//, and //method of concomitant variation//.

1. Draw up a list of all things in which the phenomenon you are trying to explain occurs, as well as a list of things in which it does not occurs. 2. Rank your lists according to the degree in which the phenomenon occurs in each one. 3. Deduce what factors match the occurrence of the phenomenon in one list and don't occur in the other list, and also what factors change in accordance with the way the data had been ranked. 4. From this Bacon concludes you should be able to deduce by elimination and [|inductive] reasoning what is the cause underlying the phenomenon.

E.g 1. If an army is successful when commanded by Essex, and not successful when not commanded by Essex: and when it is more or less successful according to the degree of involvement of Essex as its commander, then it is scientifically reasonable to say that being commanded by Essex is causally related to the army's success.

E.g. 2. In finding the cause of a//phenomenal nature// such as heat, one must list all of the situations where heat is found. Then another list should be drawn up, listing situations that are similar to those of the first list except for the lack of heat. A third table lists situations where heat can vary. The //form nature//, or cause, of heat must be that which is common to all instances in the first table, is lacking from all instances of the second table and varies by degree in instances of the third table.

Bacon also listed what he called the Idols of The Mind. He described these as things which obstructed the path of correct scientific reasoning. These "Idols" (idola) come in four sorts:

1. "Idols of the Tribe" (idola tribus), which are common to the race; 2. "Idols of the Den" (idola specus), which are peculiar to the individual; 3. "Idols of the Marketplace" (idola fori), coming from the misuse of language; and 4. "Idols of the Theatre" (idola theatri), which result from an abuse of authority. The end of induction is the discovery of forms, the ways in which natural phenomena occur.

Bacon contrasted his new approach of the development of science with that of the Middle Ages: "Men have sought to make a world from their own conception and to draw from their own minds all the material which they employed, but if, instead of doing so, they had consulted experience and observation, they would have the facts and not opinions to reason about, and might have ultimately arrived at the knowledge of the laws which govern the material world."

Bacon also thought that the understanding of the High Middle Ages and of the Rennaisance--that the study of nature would reveal God's, by disclosing the parallels between man's mind and God's--was wrong. Matters of faith, he felt, were appropriate to theology but matters of nature were different, with their own set of rules. Philosophy, therefore, had to dispense with theology and go back to the basics, examining the detailed findings of science and using those as the basis of further reasoning. (induction) This "marriage", between the human mind and nature, was the basis of the modern philosophical approach. Bacon's view had a major influence on the fledgling Royal Society, whic originally gravitated towards problems prompted by practical needs of public use.

__**Bibliography**__ [] [] [] [] [][] Watson, P. (2005) //Ideas,// Great Britain: Weidenfield and Nicolson. ​