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Francis Bacon: The New Organon and Related Writings

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Francis Bacon's "The New Organon" is one of those books that entirely too few people sit down and read. That is a shame becuase if the lessons that he wrote down in this book were to be followed there would be considerably less strife when it comes to figuring out what's science and what is pseudoscience. I cannot state this enough it is a must read for anyone looking to review information on today's most pressing medical/science debates.

Francis Bacon (1561-1626) was a Christian lawyer who made his mark on history by writing the "Great Instauration" which included "the New Organon". "The New Organon" (1620) and the rest of the "Great Instauration" was to be one of his last contributions to man and it was to be one of his greatest critiques of knowledge, and it's inefficiency from the time of the ancients til then on acquiring information on natural phenomenon, at the time aside from his other critiques of knowledge such as "The Advancement on Learning" and others found in Francis Bacon: The Major Works (Oxford World's Classics). The knowledge that he was critiquing was the knowledge of nature ("Natural Philosophy" was the common term up to the 20th century) or as it is called today, "Science". (the word "Science" comes from the Latin word "scientia" literally meaning "knowledge")

"The New Organon" is the "Scientific Method", or inductive reasoning, and its variants. After the publication, knowledge of nature was to be formally derived from experiences of the senses via systematic experiments, systematic inquiry, formation of efficient axioms, and organized to further increase inquiry and increase certainty for controlling and understanding nature. Also, according to Francis Bacon, studying nature and natural phenomenon was fulfilling God's purpose in man and nature - to discover and increase in knowledge, or as he called it, "The Divine Providence". Read Roger Bacon's (1214-1294) Opus Majus of Roger Bacon, Part 1 and Part 2 along with Isidore of Seville's Etymologies: Complete English Translation, Volume I and Volume II and earlier manifestations from ancient sources to see earlier and similar views of "scientific methods" through time. For further research on excellent scientific advancements through time from Ancient to Medieval times please read some primary documents found here: A Sourcebook in Medieval Science (Source Books in the History of the Sciences) and The Mathematics of Egypt, Mesopotamia, China, India, and Islam: A Sourcebook and Greek Science of the Hellenistic Era: A Sourcebook.

The book includes his vision for the structure of the "Great Instauration", "the New Organon", "Description of a Natural and Experimental History" and "Catalogue of Particular Histories by Title". The eloquent 1863 translation brings out Bacon's original voice with the power and the fury of the philosophers and the Christian rationalists.

The New Organon is divided into two books. Here is a summary of what you will find in Bacon's work on the "Scientific Method' and its variants:

Book 1 (Basically, Critiques of Knowledge):

Critiques of letting pure reason be the guide to acquiring knowledge of nature and redirecting to letting nature be the guide to interpreting nature; consider more than just anticipations in nature; the 4 Idols of understanding that give men false understanding, error, speculation: Idols of the Tribe, Cave, Marketplace, and Theatre (XXXIX-LXII); critique of Aristotle's manipulation of nature to suit his philosophy and lack of experimentation; full blown critiques of problems in the 3 classes of Rational Schools of Philosophy: Sophistry [dependence on wit] , Empirical [big claims, little evidence, dogmas], Superstitious [mixing weird theology and philosophy] (LXII-LXV); making a science of the Book of Genesis [in context of his time, Bacon saw this useless because there was no way to verify the origins of the universe, let alone archeology to validate stories in Genesis] (LXV); stupid ways of experimentation used up to his time, using God's creation of light in Genesis as a lens on how to enlighten and buffer the sciences via conducting 2 types of experimentation : Experimentation of Light and Fruit (LXX); things that distracted men from focusing on natural philosophy; benefits of discovery; bad memories of conflict between natural philosophy and religion, and Bacon's defense of compatibility between natural philosophy and religion (LXXIX); science being hindered the greatest by men thinking things impossible [plea for optimism in science for sake of discovery using Columbus as an example] (XCII); applying mathematics to nature; increasing natural knowledge fulfils Biblical prophecy from the Book of Daniel [Divine Providence] (XCIII); building axioms upon axioms as way of increasing knowledge of nature; examples of benefits of discovery in terms of technology (CX); applying the Scientific Method on politics, ethics, memory, etc. (CXXVII); comparative analysis; emphasis on history to further knowledge of nature and more.

Book 2 (Basically, Controlled experiments and examples of applications of his methods of induction in analysis of information):

Types of systematic inquiry for interpretation of nature; investigating the nature of a spirit (VII); 2 kinds of axioms: Metaphysical and Physical (IX); experiments from axioms and axioms from experience; comparative tables of instances with similar, dissimilar, and missing natures; short procedures to try on these natures and things with similar and dissimilar natures to compare quality of substances; 27 Prerogative Instances that aid in interpreting nature carefully and correctly [divided into 2 parts: Operational aspects of science and Informational aspects of science]; with examples and wanderings of inquiry from Bacon on the nature of magnets, light, liquids, heat, and so on.

Overall, this is truly one of the greatest accomplishments in the realm of inquiries of nature and lays science where it belongs as true philosophy spliced with a bit of empiricism. Modern scientists and engineers can learn a lot from this work in terms of how to be humble and reasonable via experiments which are, in turn, based on experience via the senses and in the case of history, on the testimony of historians. Bacon's naturalism is not a metaphysical naturalism, but is instead a physical naturalism where his belief in God, the Bible, and nature are not in conflict, but are instead complementary and desires for naturalists to be cautionary when interpreting both nature and Holy Writ. His criticism on empiricism should be worth buying the book. Science is more than just direct physical evidence, in fact science is metaphysical to be exact. Knowledge. Science includes indirect evidence, method, speculation, reasoning, interpretation, curiosity (not skepticism), and just basic philosophizing as well. But, ultimately, searching for consistency of ideas in hopes of reflecting nature's tendencies as best as possible is the main goal science. It is an attempt to simulate reality from using our minds and gathering information from nature just as we do when we smell organic compounds such as food or when we look at effects of heat on a candle.

It should be remembered that Science, Nature, and Technology are not the same thing nor are they synonymous to each other since Nature is superior to both Science and Technology. Nature is "physical" since nature gives only "raw" information. Science and Technology are both overwhelmingly "metaphysical" with a bit of empirical support since they both involve modeling and explanations.

For further reading on the nature of science and the methods please read: The Structure of Science: Problems in the Logic of Scientific Explanation (2nd edition), The Structure of Scientific Theories, Theories of Explanation, Four Decades of Scientific Explanation.