WILLIAM PIERCE- FINAL REPORT BLOG-SIR FRANCIS BACON

Philosophy Final Blog Report:

Sir Francis Bacon

Sir Francis Bacon was a 17th-century philosopher who is remembered as an English lawyer, statesman, philosopher, and scholar. Born January 22, 1561, in London, he was the son of the lord keeper, Sir Nicholas Bacon, and responsible for the Great Seal of England.  He attended Trinity College in Cambridge yet poor health hindered his education. It was here where his learned and disputed Aristotelian philosophy.

In 1576 Bacon was invited to study at London’s Gray’s Inn, which was one of the four Inns of Court that served as institutions for legal education. He eventually worked his way up the “corporate ladder” so to speak, to become a member of the queen’s counsel and eventually the attorney general. He was very successful as a lawyer but the career path did not fulfill his philosophical and political aspirations. (Mid-term Blog post)

After Bacon’s fall from political power, he became fascinated with literacy and scientific discovery. Within the final five years of his life, he composed most of his work: The New Atlantis- regarding a vision for the future and The Great Instauration- a renewal of the scientific world.  Bacon was an empiricist philosopher who was fixated on the natural world. In contrast to the doctrines of Aristotle and Plato, Bacon's viewpoint emphasized experimentation and interaction, creating "the commerce of the mind with things.". Because of these experimentations, Bacon is partially notarized as one of the fathers of the Scientific Method. He also differentiated between duty to the community (an ethical matter) and duty to God (a religious matter).  Bacon states, “Humans tend to notice instances that confirm their prior superstitions and opinions and ignore ones that do not confirm.”

MID-TERM BLOG POST LINK https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iuYqeWCo944wbmAFVqMT2KaPznnwFfMWJX1wyY1vI_Y/edit