Aphorisms Concerning the Interpretation of Nature and the Kingdom of Man

Aphorisms Concerning the Interpretation of Nature and the Kingdom of Man

Francis Bacon (1561-1626) was a person of questionable character, at least when it came to politics. While he was Lord Chancellor of England (the highest judicial officer for Queen Elizabeth I), he was accused to taking bribes and was forced out of office. This same man, however, is generally regarded as the founder of modern science; he was one of the first philosophers to argue that science must become more honest through objective experimentation, and there is no indication that he was anything but honest when practicing science.

Indeed, one of his last acts in life was a scientific experiment. In order to determine whether ice could be used to preserve food, Bacon spent hours outside collecting snow. From his exposure to the cold weather, he caught a fatal case of pneumonia. Yet, he still completed his experiment. On his death bed, he wrote, 'The experiment succeeded, excellently well.'

The following selections from 'Aphorisms Concerning the Interpretation of Nature and the Kingdom of Man' (the first book of his Novum Organum) show his concern for developing an objective approach to science Although Bacon felt that it was crucial for science to become more objective, he was not, as  will be seen, naïve about the difficulty of achieving absolute objectivity. He despaired of any science in his own day in part because no one paid any attention to the ways in which the idols strangled thought, observation, and imagination.