The History of Scientific Thought

TimeLine

Unit Description

List of Scientists
     

Charboneau Learning Center

Greenfield, MA

Morning Pre-GED Class

 

 
The Prophet of Modern Science

The Apostle of “Doubt” and Critical Thinking

The Evangelist of Inductive Reasoning

 

Francis Bacon

Ranked #

1561 - 1626

England

Historical Background

The Northern Renaissance

(Elizabethan England)

The Time of Shakespeare

The Age of Absolute Monarchs

 

Jamestown founded - first permanent English Colony in North America (1607)

 

Pilgrims land at Plymouth Rock (1620)

 

Boston founded by Puritans 3 years after his death

Important Biographical Facts

 

He preached that good scientific methods would allow mankind to understand and control nature

 

He was a lawyer and court politician under Queen Elizabeth

 

Rose to be Lord Chancellor under King James I

 

Wrote the “Essays” (1597-1623)

 

Wrote the “Novum Organum”

 

Fell from power in 1621 (briefly imprisoned in The Tower of London)

 

 

Important Scientific Accomplishments and Discoveries

 

His writings lay the groundwork for a modern systematic approach to science.

 

He identified “fallacies” that undermine scientific thinking.  He called errors “Idols” and organized them into classes:

  1. Idols of the Tribe – the tendency to measure all things by human values may interfere with true observations. (Nature does not always take mankind into account)
  2. Idols of the Cave – the tendency to be “self” centered in judging and understanding nature  - can be a trap. (The “truth” may not always benefit you personally)
  3. Idols of the Market Place – social interactions (even language) can confuse or mislead us when it comes to natural laws.  Every day “short cuts” to communication can lead to bad thinking habits
  4. Idols of the Theater – The very systems we construct to understand reality can be confused with reality itself

 

He “wrote down” the principles of “Induction” (building theories based on facts and experiences)

 

His method of Induction was based on creating systems of classifying facts

 

His “Tables of More or Less” are known today as correlations.

 

 

Some people believe that Francis Bacon was the real author of Shakespeare’s plays

 

Link: The Essays of Francis Bacon

 

Profiled by Joe

 

3/17/2003

 

 

Notes:

 

 

The Age of Absolute Monarchy – In France and England, the Kings (at that time) often claimed to get their power directly from God.  Therefore, they could claim to be responsible to God only, not to any Congress or Parliament – and not to their people either.  (Their job, under God, was to guide their people, not be guided by them.

Absolute monarchy ended in England when James 1’s son, Charles I was beheaded by the Parliament.  Parliament later deposed James’ grandson (James II) in the Glorious Revolution of 1688.

 

Lord Chancellor – the highest civilian office in England at that time.  Nowadays, the Prime Minister runs the British government in the name of the Queen, but the Prime Minister is a member of Parliament and is answerable to his/her fellow members of Parliament.

 

 

Essays:  The essays that Bacon wrote were longer and more fancy than GED style essays.   He didn’t just write about science.  He also wrote about philosophy and politics. Some of his essay titles were: “Of Truth”, “Of Youth and Age”, “Of the True Greatness of Kingdoms”, and “Of Love.”

 

 

Novum Organum: - The “Organum” is the major book by Aristotle.  “Novum Organum” means “New Organum” and Bacon was boldly comparing himself to Aristotle.  The goal of his book was to completely reorganize scientific thinking.  He called this “the Great Reconstruction of Philosophy”

Some other books by Sir Francis Bacon were:

            Introduction to the Interpretation of Nature

            The Advancement of Learning

            Things Thought and Seen

            Natural History

            On Origins

The New Atlantis

 

 

Induction – “Inductive Reasoning”  - reasoning from “the bottom up”. Bacon stressed gathering “facts” and “evidence” first, and building theories later.  Nowadays scientific thinkers are more likely to admit that they are often guided by imagination, intuition and grand theories that they only back up with facts later.  But modern science is no longer dominated by religion they way it was in Bacon’s day (The Renaissance). Bacon waged war his whole life against too much “deductive” reasoning because he was born into an “Age of Faith” when knowledge was “official” only if it came from authorities like the Bible and Aristotle.

 

Deduction – Deductive Reasoning – reasoning from “the top down”.   Nowadays scientists will use a theory or a belief to tell them what the facts “should be”, but if it does become clear that the facts are not what a theory or a belief predicts, they will eventually change their theory or belief.  In the Middle Ages and the Renaissance the word of the Bible or Aristotle was “good enough”.  It could actually be dangerous to question the “Established Truth”.

 

Correlation – two things are positively correlated if one increases when the other does.  Two things are negatively correlated if one decreases when the other increases.  If the sale of ice cream  cones goes up as the temperature rises and goes down when the temperature falls, there is a positive correlations between cone sales and temperature.