The Riddle of Bacon

Joseph Agassi*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

Abstract

From 1661 to 1831 the majority of the European thinkers and practically all those who were interested in natural science considered Bacon the father of the experimental method. It was common knowledge that experimentation is as old as humanity. What then was his contribution to it? They considered him the profoundest thinker of all ages except for Newton (Rees 2002, 379). Why? Bacon’s high reputation declined: ever more critics considered him a mystic and an obscurantist (he believed in magic). Today most historians of thought hardly appreciate him and none view him as nearly as important as he was once reputed to be. Some of them seek a balanced view by ascribing to him some familiar ideas, usually ones that he expressed contempt for (as will be described later on). How did it happen that one and the same writer was once at the height of philosophical esteem and then for a short while a target of rather harsh ridicule and then entirely forgotten?.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationBoston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science
PublisherSpringer Nature
Pages3-13
Number of pages11
DOIs
StatePublished - 2013

Publication series

NameBoston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science
Volume298
ISSN (Print)0068-0346
ISSN (Electronic)2214-7942

Keywords

  • Familiar Idea
  • Scientific Authority
  • Scientific Method
  • Seventeenth Century
  • Universal Language

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