Sir Francis Bacon (1561–1626) was a successful English lawyer, politician, scientist, orator and philosopher. His works were enormously influential during a scientific revolution, in which Bacon proposed a great reformation of all process of knowledge. He popularized a scientific knowledge, often called the Baconian method, based only upon inductive and careful observation of events in nature. Bacon came to believe that our mind is obstructed with 4 false images (Idols) and we should avoid them before we start any knowledge acquisition.

  1. The Idols of the Tribe. The human understanding in general is like a false mirror which distorts the nature of things.
  2. The Idols of the Cave. Every individual may have his own perception of things formed during his education and conversation with others whom he esteems.
  3. The Idols of the Marketplace. The false measure of nature is also due to confusions in the use of language.
  4. The Idols of the Theatre. It is all about prejudices that have their origin in dogmatic philosophy or in wrong laws.

Thus, Bacon assumes that there is an external world through which we gain knowledge. Since language, class, race, sex, human interests all affect perception and judgement, we do not receive images of nature as they are. To keep the eye steadily fixed upon the facts of nature, one should have an immaculate perception void of Idols which beset men’s minds. Bacon concludes that there are three types of men who handle sciences: men of experiment (ants), the reasoners (spiders) and those in the middle (bees). The men of experiment only collect and use dogmas. The reasoners make cobwebs out of their own substance. Finally, the bees gather its own material from the flowers of the garden, but transforms and digests it by a power of its own. For Bacon, this method between the experimental and the rational is the true business of philosophy. It is not solely relied on the powers of the mind nor on the external sources, but is based on the understanding altered and digested. Bacon hopes that a pure and unmixed philosophy will replace tainted and corrupted ones so that we could expect any great advancement in science.

Bibliography:

  • Bacon, The New Organon (1620) in The Scientific Background to Modern Philosophy, Selected Readings, Edited by Michael R. Matthews, Hackett Publishing Company, Indianapolis/Cambidge, 1989.