Bacon and Baconian Science

Related lecture: Kampis, G. (2002):  Facets of Causation , MidSouth Philosophy Conference, Memphis, Tenn., Feb.16.

This is the title page from Bacon's Instauratio Magna (1620)
which contains his Novum Organum ( http://www.gmu.edu/departments/fld/CLASSICS/bacon.html )
which is a new method to replace that of Aristotle.

My summary:
science is essentially causal;
causality is a property of activity and action,

so (my conclusion):
to equate science with descriptions (or "theories" - the propositional or "text mode" of science) is fundamentally wrong (see below)




The image is of a ship passing through the pillars of Hercules, which symbolized for the ancients the limits of man's possible explorations. The image represents the analogy between the great voyages of discovery and the explorations leading to the advancement of learning. In The Advancement of Learning Bacon makes this analogy explicit. Speaking to James I, to whom the book is dedicated, he writes: "For why should a few received authors stand up like Hercules columns, beyond which there should be no sailing or discovering, since we have so bright and benign a star as your Majesty to conduct and prosper us." The image also forcefully suggests that using Bacon's new method, the boundaries of ancient learning will be passed. The Latin phrase at the bottom from the Book of Daniel means: "Many will pass through and knowledge will be increased."

Bacon saw himself as the inventor of a method which would kindle a light in nature - "a light that would eventually disclose and bring into sight all that is most hidden and secret in the universe."

This method involved the collection of data, their judicious interpretation, the carrying out of experiments, thus to learn the secrets of nature by organized observation of its regularities. Bacon's proposals had a powerful influence on the development of science in seventeenth century Europe. Thomas Hobbes served as Bacon's last amunensis or secretary. Many members of the British Royal Society saw Bacon as advocating the kind of enquiry conducted by that society.