It is impossible to talk about knowledge in modernity without quoting Francis Bacon. That's because he is considered one of the foundations of the knowledge scientific that emerged in the 16th century. Bacon took care to show the flaws of an extremely metaphysical thought that impeded the look at the immanence of earthly things, which hindered scientific development. He also took care to show how the more empiricist view (from the Aristotelian tradition) could also fall into the hurdle.
Read too: Rationalism - epistemological theory based on the inductive method
Francis Bacon Biography
Francis Bacon born into a London family socially well positioned on the day January 22, 1561. His father, Sir Nicholas Bacon, was an English jurist and lord, having participated in the political scene of his day. Bacon studied at Cambridge and entered Trinity College at just 12 years of age. too was a member of Gray's Inn, one of the four brotherhoods belonging to the select English group The Fours Inn (a kind of brotherhood that formed the most qualified lawyers to act in court).
In 1584 Bacon was elected to the House of Commons of England (institution with reduced powers at the time due to the english absolutism, which grew since the beginning of the Tudor dynasty), which demonstrates the influence of the young thinker in the political milieu of his time. In addition, Bacon was attorney general, fiscal, seal guard and chancellor of the British crown. At 58 years of age, he was named Baron de Verulam and, at age 60, Baron de Saint Alban.
After an accusation of corruption, Bacon was sentenced to pay a fine and banned from holding public office, ending his career for the crown. While exercising the attributes of his public functions, he wrote and published some works that have gone down in the history of understanding nature, human knowledge and the sciences. The most important work was published in 1620: the “Novum Organom” (which begins its most successful phase from the Instauratio Magna compendium). Bacon died in 1626, victim of pneumonia.
bacon and theempiricism
Francis Bacon was a great critic of Aristotelian ideas that paved the way for the recognition of the importance of understanding the world through practical experience. Remember that criticizing does not mean abandoning, on the contrary, criticism here is something positive. For the English philosopher, Aristotle was right to recognize the primacy of the empiricism, however developed a wrong method when applied to the natural sciences. The Aristotelian method was sufficient to understand the logic and language, but insufficient for a correct understanding of nature.
Modernity was marked by the scientific revolution, driven by names like Galileo Galilei and Isaac Newton. We need, however, to recognize the importance of Bacon in this movement. The English philosopher proposed a critique of Aristotelian empiricism to the point of reorganize the knowledge bases, proposing a complex method. The considerations proposed by Bacon were taken into account by Galileo for the formulation of its scientific method.
See too: Scholasticism - philosophical production that took place in the Middle Ages
Bacon Theory (teria of íidols or çidol ritual)
Francis Bacon produced a critique of what he called the “idols” of thought as a starting point for establishing his method. His critique of idols (or theory of idols) recognizes two major areas of action in Philosophy:
the natural conception, which studies the natural sciences, logic and metaphysics;
the anthropological conception, which deals with themes related to human coexistence, such as politics and ethics.
![Trinity College, institution from which Bacon graduated. [1]](/f/afeff74a9241174b6d6ff205880be819.jpg)
Human beings have at their disposal a set of intellectual tools that provide them with the domain of nature. In fact, this domain of nature is a common theme in modernity. The central idea of idol criticism is the overcoming the old bases of knowledge, based on Aristotelianism, by a new conception that allows for the greater development of science, to the point of guaranteeing human control over nature.
In all this movement, there are idols what make it difficult O Our way in arrive at the most complete and true knowledge. The four idols appointed by Bacon are presented below.
Tribe Idols: they are part of the human tribe because they belong to our nature. There is a human tendency to seek an understanding of the phenomena around them, in fact, this is what drives the will to dominate nature. For Bacon, there is a tendency to establish causal links through observation of the universe that leads us to create a false causality. As an example, we can cite the act of being born from the Sun. The Sun appears to us every day, a movement we call the “rising” of the Sun. We then create a causal link that says the sun will rise every day.
Cave idols: we have an individuality that surrounds all people and imprisons us: a cave, which is our own body. When Bacon resorts to the image of the cave, he is referring to the allegory of Plato, who thought the body and its senses as a cave that deceives us. We are then impelled by an urge to blindly trust the body's senses.
Forum idols: we have and nurture a public life that is part of the human conception of life. This public life is governed by the rules of a kind of language game, which, in turn, can be as an obstacle to true knowledge of nature, as we tend to buy the speeches offered in the forum.
Theater idols: morals, customs, tradition, religion and an expressive amount of elements surround the social relations of humanity. This is the human theater, and the unconditional respect for this theater stands as a kind of barrier to true knowledge.
inductive method
We have tried so far to show how Bacon criticized Aristotelian philosophy and tried to support new pillars for the further development of science in modern times. What Bacon criticized in Aristotle was, above all, his way of knowing the world (which borders on empiricism and the inductive method, but runs in a looser and less methodical way).
Bacon proposed, to successfully complete his task, a new inductive method, which uses empirical knowledge and uses the criticism of idols, having in them the perception of what not to do. The Baconian method is based on four steps that accompany the work of those who want to know nature with greater certainty and veracity:
a) observe the environment in an orderly manner and collect data from the observation experience;
b) organize the observed results;
c) formulate hypotheses based on the data obtained;
d) carry out experiments that prove or discard the hypotheses.
Note that this method is present in much of the research work in the natural sciences. scientists seek to proceed through inif method to induce a response (hence the inductive name), as it starts from an observational clipping (one observes part of the whole) to formulate a theory that is intended to be general (which encompasses the whole).
Works by Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon's most significant, substantial, and complex work was actually a set of books that remained unfinished after his death. Bacon aimed to publish even more books of his Magna Instauratio, a sort of compendium of philosophical treatises that aimed to replace the bases of traditional knowledge with new knowledge that would allow for advancement.
The main volume of the set of Instauratio was the book Novum Organon. The “New Organon” would replace Aristotle's “Organon” (his body of works on logic). Recognizing the need for a fracture of thought was fundamental to understanding that the evolution of human thought in the world needed a new direction to blossom the tree of knowledge and allow it to produce new and good fruits. That was the job of Instauratio and, above all, of the Novum Organon. Many writings were removed from the set of Instauratio, like The Interpretation of Natureand, as said, the total project of the Instauratio it was not finalized before the philosopher's death.
Francis Bacon's Phrases
"All colors agree in the dark."
“Reading brings fullness to man; the speech, security; and writing, precision."
"There is nothing that makes a man so suspicious as the fact that he knows little."
"Consciousness is the structure of virtues."
"You can only conquer nature by obeying it."
Image credit
[1] Rafa Was / commons
by Francisco Porfirio
Philosophy teacher
Source: Brazil School - https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/filosofia/o-pensamento-francis-bacon.htm