Francis Bacon: The New Organon
(Cambridge Texts in the History of
Philosophy) by Francis Bacon
The Historical Work On The "Scientific Method"
Francis Bacons New Organon, published in 1620, was revolutionary in its
attempt to give formal philosophical shape to a new and rapidly emerging
experimental science. It challenged the entire edifice of the philosophy and
learning of Bacons time, and left its mark on all subsequent discussions of
scientific method. This volume presents a new translation of the text into
modern English by Michael Silverthorne, together with an introduction by
Lisa Jardine that sets the work in the context of Bacons scientific and
philosophical activities.
Personal Review: Francis Bacon: The New Organon (Cambridge
Texts in the History of Philosophy) by Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon (1561-1626) was a Christian lawyer who made his mark on
history by writing the "Great Instauration" [called the "Great Renewal" on
this edition] which included "the New Organon". "The New Organon"

(1620) and the rest of the "Great Renewal" 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 he had done a
few critiques of knowledge already 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" or "natural philosophy" or as it is called today,
"Science".
"The New Organon" is the "Scientific Method", or inductive reasoning, and
its variants. After the publication, knowledge of nature was to be 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 nature and fulfilling God's
purpose in man and nature - to discover and increase in knowledge or as
he called it, "The Divine Providence".
The book includes his vision for the structure of the "Great Renewal", "the
New Organon", and his "Outline of a Natural and Experimental History".
This translation is helpful for the footnotes, but it's pretty stiff in terms of
translation and does not bring out the eloquence he intended. At times this
translation sounds slightly corny and doesn't flow smoothly. I recommend
you read the other version: Francis Bacon: The New Organon and Related
Writings, which has the eloquent 1863 translation (without the footnotes)
which brings out Bacon's original eloquent 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, Examples of applications of the 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 and
empirical via some experiments which are, in turn, based on experience
via the senses, and in terms of History the experiments are testimony of
people of the past. Experience has it's weaknesses when considering
history and other areas of study, though. Bacon's naturalism is not a
metaphysical naturalism, but is instead a physical naturalism and his belief
in God and the Bible are not in conflict, but are instead complementary, but
cautionary, not to cross the boundaries of what Holy Writ mentions and
interprets natural phenomenon and human interpretation of natural
phenomenon, according to Bacon. His criticism on empiricism should be
worth buying the book. Science is more than just direct physical evidence.
Science includes more commonly indirect evidence, speculation, and just
basic philosophizing, but ultimately searching consistency if ideas in hopes
of reflecting nature's tendencies as best as possible.
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.

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