The Philosophy of Roger Bacon

Jacob Hamm

Intro to Philosophy - H03

Oct. 10, 2018

Roger Bacon, who was born in 1214 and died in 1294, was a 13th Century English
philosopher, scientist and Franciscan friar of the medieval period.

Bacon was influenced by the works of early Muslim scientists like Avicenna. They were
associated with the advent of empiricism - Avicenna was one of the first to argue that
knowledge is attained through empirical familiarity with objects in this world, from
which one abstracts universal concepts, which can then be further developed through
a method of reasoning. Bacon relied on trains of thought like this for his work in science
and philosophy.

He is sometimes credited as one of the earliest European advocates of Empiricism and
the modern scientific method; but later studies have emphasized his reliance on occult
and alchemical traditions. It should be understood that this probably was to be expected,
as he was a fairly eccentric scientist that was way before his time. There is a reason he
has often been viewed as a “harbinger of modern science” more than 300 years before it
came to prosper.

Bacon also argued that, under the prevailing scholastic system, (which were essentially
attempts to reconcile the philosophy of the ancient classical philosophers, particularly
Aristotle, with Christian theology) that science was not carried out by experiment, but
by arguments based solely on tradition and prescribed authorities, rather than by the
initial collection of facts before deducing scientific truths as Aristotle had taught. He
was skeptical of hearsay claims and was suspicious of rational deductions (holding
to the superior dependability of confirming experiences) through experimentation.

Bacon called for a radical reform of theological study, with less emphasis on the minor
philosophical distinctions that scholasticism pursued, and more of a return to the study
of the scriptures and the classical philosophers in their original languages. Bacon was
fluent in several languages (unlike most of his contemporaries) and lamented the
corruption of the holy texts and the works of the Greek philosophers by numerous
mistranslations and misinterpretations.

He urged theologians to study all sciences closely, and strongly championed
experimental study over-reliance on authority, and was an enthusiastic proponent
and practitioner of the experimental method of acquiring knowledge about the world.
Always direct and outspoken, he openly criticized his much-admired contemporaries
Alexander of Hales and Albertus Magnusas (who is credited with preserving most
of the modern western knowledge of the works of Aristotle, although with a theological
spin in line with the church’s views) as mere preachers who had not fully studied the
philosophy of Aristotle.

Bacon's most important work was the "Opus Majus" (Latin for "Greater Work"),
written in Medieval Latin at the request of Pope Clement IV in 1267. This was
a major 840-page treatise in seven main sections, ranging over all aspects of
natural science, from grammar and logic to mathematics, physics, and philosophy
(and particularly his views on how the philosophy of Aristotle and the new
science could be incorporated into a new theology). It contains detailed treatments
of mathematics, optics, alchemy, the manufacture of gunpowder, astrology and
the positions and sizes of the celestial bodies. It anticipates later inventions such
as microscopes, telescopes, spectacles, flying machines, hydraulics, and steamships.

However, it should be remembered that Bacon was also a Franciscan monk,
and the work was also a plea for reform addressed to the Pope, and was
designed to improve training for missionaries and to provide new skills to be
employed “in the defense of the Christian world against the enmity of non-Christians
and of the Antichrist”.

Bacon performed and described various experiments which were, for a time,
claimed as the first instances of true experimental science, some five hundred
years before the real rise of science in the west, and his popular image is as
an isolated figure in an age supposedly hostile toward scientific ideas.
However, this interpretation (of both Bacon's work and of the prevailing
medieval attitudes to science) has been challenged more recently, and
he has been portrayed more as a brilliant and combative (if somewhat
eccentric) scholar, endeavoring to take advantage of the new learning
which was just then becoming available, while still remaining true to traditional
notions and attitudes, and not as isolated as had been supposed.

Bacon represents a historically important (and incredibly early) expression of
the empirical spirit of experimental science, even though his actual practice of
it seems to have been exaggerated to some degree.

QUIZ

1.What is Scholasticism?

2. What was the main difference between Bacon and Albertus Magnusas?

4. What was the title of Bacon’s major work?

5. Under which pope was this work written for?

Discussion Questions

• Do you think that the idea of Scholasticism can work? Or is it just inherently

bad “to change the definition” of a previous school of thought to fit in with

a new school of thinking?

• Should science be defined by how it fits within our religion, and can they coexist?
• Is it fair to criticize a scientist of this magnitude of theorizing about what we

know now as pseudoscience, like alchemy, when so much of what he theorize

is used today, like his “import” of gunpowder?

Useful Links:

https://www.philosophybasics.com/philosophers_bacon_roger.html

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Roger-Bacon