The Novum Organum, (or Novum Organum Scientiarum - "New Instrument of Science"), is a philosophical work by Francis Bacon, originally published in 1620. The title is a reference to Aristotle's work Organon, which was his treatise on logic and syllogism. In Novum Organum, Bacon details a new system of logic he believes to be superior to the old ways of syllogism. This is now known as the Baconian method.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain (...) in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant. (shrink)

This book is a translation of Zubiri's lectures, published posthumously and partially edited by Zubiri for publication. This translation was made possible by a grant from the Spanish Ministry of Culture and is the product of three experts in the thought of Zubiri.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain (...) in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant. (shrink)

Thomas Fowler (1 September 1832 - 20 November 1904), was an English academic and academic administrator, acting as President of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford. From Preface: These pages represent an attempt to exhibit a scientific conception of morality in a popular form, and with a view to practical applications rather than the discussion of theoretical difficulties. For this purpose it has been necessary to study brevity and avoid controversy. Hence, I have (...) made few references to other authors, and I have almost altogether dispensed with foot-notes. But, though I have attempted to state rather than to defend my views, I believe that they are, in the main, those which, making exception for a few back eddies in the stream of modern thought, are winning their way to general acceptance among the more instructed and reflective men of our day. (shrink)

The history of Zubiri in North America began with his visit to Princeton University in1946. Initial scholarly interest in Zubiri’s philosophy was the product of work by RobertCaponigri and Frederick Wilhelmsen in the 1960s and 70s. Thomas Fowler learned aboutZubiri from these gentlemen and began his work of translation and publishing in the1970s. Caponigri’s translation of Sobre la esencia and Fowler’s translation of Naturaleza,Historia, Dios were published in the early 80s. Others including Nelson Orringer, GaryGurtler, and Leonard (...) Wessell had been investigating Zubiri, and the four met at the I Congreso Xavier Zubiri in Madrid in 1993. Later Fowler decided that a focus for Zubiri studieswas needed for North America and the English-speaking world, and he established the Xavier Zubiri Foundation of North America in 1997. Shortly thereafter he completed and theFoundation published his translation of Inteligencia sentiente. The Xavier Zubiri Reviewwas launched in 1998, with papers on Zubiri presented at the XX World Congress of Philosophy. The journal is now in its sixth volume. Interest in Zubiri’s work continues togrow, and now many more people in North America are investigating his thought. NelsonOrringer’s translation of Estructura dinámica de la realidad was published in 2003, bringthe four the number of published translations of Zubiri. Joaquin Redondo has translatedZubiri’s theology trilogy and is now at work on other Zubiri translations.La historia de Zubiri en América del Norte empieza con su visita a la Universidad dePrinceton en 1946. El interés erudito inicial en la filosofía de Zubiri resulta del trabajo deRobert Caponigri y Frederick Wilhelmsen en los años sesenta. Thomas Fowler sabe de Zubiri de estos señores y empieza su trabajo de traducción y publicación en los años setenta.La traducción de Caponigri de Sobre la esencia y la traducción de Fowler de Naturaleza,Historia, Dios se publicaron a principios de los años ochenta. Otros incluso Nelson Orringer, Gary Gurtler, y Leonard Wessell estaban investigando la filosofía de Zubiri, y los cuatrose encuentran en el I Congreso Xavier Zubiri en Madrid en 1993. Después Fowler decideque un enfoque para los estudios de Zubiri es necesario para América del Norte y el mundoangloparlante, y con la ayuda de la Fundación Xavier Zubiri en Madrid, establece la XavierZubiri Foundation of North America en 1997. Dentro de poco él complete y la Fundaciónpublica su traducción de Inteligencia sentiente. La Xavier Zubiri Review se lanzó en 1998,con ponencias sobre Zubiri presentados al XX Congreso Mundial de Filosofía. El periódicoestá ahora en su sexto volumen. Interés en el trabajo de Zubiri continúa creciendo, y ahorahay muchos más personas en América del Norte que están investigando su pensamiento.La traducción de Nelson Orringer de Estructura dinámica de la realidad se publicó en 2003,y con esto ya hay cuatro traducciones al inglés de Zubiri publicadas. Joaquín Redondo hatraducido la trilogía de teología de Zubiri y sigue traduciendo otras obras de Zubiri. (shrink)

In Begegnung mit der Philosophie Uwe Meixners führt Thomas B. Fowler in das Werk des – im deutschen Sprachraum bislang noch unentdeckten – spanischen Philosophen Xavier Zubiri ein. Fowler betont vor allem die Parallelen zwischen der Metaphysik Zubiris und Meixners. Angelpunkte seiner Darstellung ist der gemeinsame historische Bezug zu Hume und ein ausgeprägtes Interesse an der Revision gängiger Kausalitätstheorien.

Zubiri was especially keen on unde rstanding what mathematics is, and what literature is,not in the operational terms often employed to describe them, but as knowledge about reality. Through his philosophy of sentient intelligence, he came to understand that in bothcases, a new reality is created which is then explored, and the essential ingredient ispostulation. This insight was only possible because Zubiri recognized that reality is not azone of things, but formality. Zubiri’s notion of postulated reality can be extended to (...) a thirdarea, political theory, where analysis reveals that key realities are postulated by the action of politically empowered entities, usually states. However, postulated reality in thisarea differs in some important ways from mathematics and literature. Zubiri tuvo gran interés en entender qué es la matemática, y qué es la literatura, no ensentido funcional, sino en sentido de saber acerca de la realidad. Por su filosofía de inteligencia sentiente, llegó a entender que en ambos casos, se crea una realidad nueva que seexplora después, y el ingrediente esencial es la postulación. Tal percepción solo fue posibleya que Zubiri se dio cuenta de la realidad no es una zona de cosas, sino formalidad. Su noción de realidad por postulación se puede extender a un campo tercero, la teoría de la polí-tica, donde el análisis revela que las realidades claves son postulados por acción de entidades autorizadas políticamente, en general, estados nacionales. Pero, la realidad postuladaen este campo difiere de la matemática y de la literatura en sentidos importantes. (shrink)

Causality has been a key concept throughout the history of philosophy. One of its main uses has been in securing proofs of the existence of God. A review of the history of causality discloses five distinct phases, with major changes to the uses and understanding of causality, with the last ending in a very confused idea of causality. Zubiri pointed out that there are really three elements conflated in the common idea of causality: real production of effects, functionality, and power (...) of the real. By sorting these out, and recognizing that causality in the majority of cases is merely a type of functional relation between "cause" and "effect", many problems are greatly clarified. The type of functionality involved varies greatly, and can involve notions unknown to Aristotle, Hume, or Kant. But especially important is the case of causality involving human beings, since knowledge of direct production of effects is available there that is absent elsewhere. Combined with understanding of the. (shrink)

“Naturalism” has been used as a means to distinguish the scientific from the non-scientific.Methodological naturalism emphasizes the fact that only natural entities can be employedin scientific theories. Metaphysical naturalism goes beyond this and affirms that only thosethings that are naturalistic are real. In fact, naturalism is the product of two more fundamental notions: the canon of reality and the scientific method. Since neither of those canbe defined in an unambiguous and unchanging manner, naturalism also is fundamentallyblurry. There is therefore no (...) hard-and-fast distinction between the category of naturalisticand that of non-naturalistic; they blend together in a complex manner, even if, in particularcases, with respect to particular entities, they are functionally quite distinct“Naturalismo” se ha usado como un medio para distinguir lo científico de lo no-científico.El naturalismo metodológico da énfasis al hecho de que sólo pueden emplearse entidadesnaturales en teorías científicas. El naturalismo metafísico va más allá de esto y afirma quesólo las cosas naturalistas son reales. De hecho, el naturalismo es el producto de dos nociones más fundamentales: el canon de la realidad y el método científico. Puesto que ninguno de aquéllos puede definirse de una manera inequívoca y inmutable, naturalismomismo también queda fundamentalmente borroso. Por consiguiente no hay ninguna distinción dura la categoría de naturalista y la categoría de no-naturalista; ellos mezclan juntos de una manera compleja, aun cuando, en casos particulares, con respecto a las entidades particulares, ellos sean funcionalmente bastante distintos. (shrink)

Zubiri introduced the concept of reality by postulation in order to explain the reality ofmathematical objects and literary characters. But the idea flows naturally from his view ofreality as formality rather than a zone of things. It can readily be extended to other areas,including political reality. In this study, we will examine how science postulates reality,and how this new understanding of science can resolve longstanding issues and providenew insights into: the scientific method; paradigm shifts in science; science fiction; and expression (...) of scientific laws. With respect to the laws, we noted that reality ispostulated in two senses: direct and emergent. The emergent sense is associated with thenotion of probability and stochastic processes, now an integral part of many areas of science. We observed that the emergent reality may be related to the reality field, instead ofindividual objects, since probability refers to aggregates of things and not individuals. Finally, we note that Zubiri’s approach resolves the longstanding problem faced by realistphilosophers, of why scientific theories can be used to describe reality at all.Zubiri introdujo el concepto de realidad por postulación para explicar la realidad de objetos matemáticos y los caracteres literarios. Pero la idea fluye naturalmente de su vista derealidad como formalidad en lugar de una zona de cosas. Puede extenderse fácilmente aotras áreas, incluyendo la realidad política. En este estudio, examinaremos cómo la cienciapostula realidad, y cómo este nuevo entendimiento de la ciencia pueden resolverse problemas antiguos y pueden proporcionar nuevas visiones en: el método científico; elcambio de paradigma en la ciencia; la ciencia ficción; y la expresión de leyes científicas. Con respecto a las leyes, notamos que esa realidad es postulada en dos sentidos: directo y emergente. El sentido emergente es asociado con la noción de la probabilidad y losprocesos estocásticos, ahora una parte íntegra de muchas áreas de ciencia. Observamosque la realidad emergente puede relacionarse al campo de realidad, en lugar de los objetosindividuales, desde que la probabilidad se refiere a los agregados de cosas y no los individuos. Finalmente, notamos que ese el acercamiento de Zubiri puede resolver el problemaantiguo enfrentado por los filósofos realistas, de por qué pueden usarse teorías científicaspara describir realidad en absoluto. (shrink)

Belief in the “unholy trinity” of reductionism, nominalism, and naturalism is at the rootof much anti-religious thought, whether consciously or not. Taken together, these doctrines, in the extreme form in which they are usually held, preclude any belief in the spiritual, and thus any type of theistic interpretation of science, such as theistic evolution.There are two basic approaches to resolving the science-religion conflict posed by the unholy trinity. The first involves rejection of branch or conclusion of science, as is done (...) byCreationists. The second is to deny the scope implicitly assumed for science by the unholytrinity. This is done at the direct observational level by those such as the Intelligent Designschool, and at a deeper, more indirect level by most advocates of theistic evolution. But theunholy trinity itself has many serious problems, both with respect to science and philosophy. It tends to channel scientific thought and procedures into certain directions, and keepthem from others, quite independently of empirical evidence, thus imposing an intolerableburden on science, which can operate quite well on much weaker metaphysical assumptions. The unholy trinity also rests on erroneous assumptions about the nature of the real,about epistemology, and about metaphysics. Utilizing the philosophy of Xavier Zubiri, it ispossible to clarify the nature of those assumptions, and why they are wrong.Creencia en la “trinidad impía” de reduccionismo, nominalismo, y naturalismo es la ra-íz de mucho pensamiento anti-religioso, si conscientemente o no. Tomadas juntas, estasdoctrinas, en la forma extrema en la que normalmente se sostienen, evitan cualquier creencia en lo espiritual, y así cualquier tipo de interpretación teística de la ciencia, como la evolución teística. Hay dos caminos para resolver el conflicto ciencia-religión basado in la trinidad impía. El primero requiere un rechazo de una rama o conclusión de ciencia, comohacen los creacionistas. El segundo es negar el alcance asumido implícitamente para laciencia por parte de la trinidad impío. Esto se hace al nivel de observacion directa por laescuela del Designo Inteligente, y a un nivel más profundo, más indirecto por la mayoría delos partidarios de evolución teística. Pero la propia trinidad impía tiene muchos problemasserios, con la ciencia y con la filosofía. Tiende a encauzar el pensamiento y los procedimientos científicos en ciertas direcciones, bastante independientemente de evidencia empí-rica, así imponiendo una carga intolerable sobre la ciencia, que puede operar con suposiciones metafísicas mucho más débiles. La trinidad impía también rebasa sobre suposiciones erróneas en torno a la naturaleza de la realidad, sobre la epistemología, y sobre la metafísica. Utilizando la filosofía de Xavier Zubiri, es posible clarificar la naturaleza de esassuposiciones, y por qué ellos están equivocados. (shrink)

Causality has been a pivotal concept in the history of philosophy since the time of the Ancient Greeks. After David Hume, however, many have questioned whether there is any metaphysical meaning of causality, or valid inferences based upon it. Xavier Zubiri has rethought and reformulated the question of causality in light of its historical roles, well-known criticisms, and relevant contemporary knowledge. In doing so, he has achieved a unique perspective on the subject which should be of great interest to those (...) concerned with causality and any of its applications. (shrink)

Hume's analyses of human apprehension and of causality were the most penetrating up to his time and continue to have great influence. Contemporary Spanish philosopher Xavier Zubiri has examined both and identified three underlying errors: the failure to recognize that there are three stages of human intellection, and especially that the first, primordial apprehension, has quite unique characteristics; the attempt to place an excessive burden on the content of impressions while ignoring what Zubiri terms their 'formality of reality'; and the (...) failure to recognize that functionality, not causality, is the basis for most of our knowledge. Causal chains in general cannot be adequately known, and therefore are not and cannot be the basis of our knowledge of the external world. Only in the area of persons and morality does causality play a critical role. (shrink)

Rapid advances in computer technology and what is termed ‘Artificial Intelligence’ in the past 70 years have led to speculation about the ultimate capabilities of electronic devices, including speculation about whether they will make humans obsolete at some future time. Zubiri’s distinction between sensible intelligence and sentient intelligence can be applied to understanding of the limitations of AI. Machines can only operate on the sensible intelligence paradigm, which entails limits. Sentient intelligence allows humans to carry out functions that sensible intelligence-based (...) devices can never do. Sensible intelligence-based devices, including AI, will therefore be restricted to amplifying human (i.e. sentient intelligence) capabilities, but never replacing them. Historically, extravagant claims for AI have not been borne out, despite many orders of magnitude increase in computation speed and memory capacity. Theoretical arguments, based on Godel’s Incompleteness Theorem, also confirm this. (shrink)

The contemporary Spanish philosopher Xavier Zubiri developed his philosophy in constant dialogue with the past. Zubiri believed that there are fundamental flaws with classical philosophy that require a fresh approach. His critique of classical philosophy falls into three areas: conceptual, factual, and scope. The first is treated in this paper with respect to five subjects. Zubiri believed that the structure of human intellection is incorrect in classical philosophy. This error contributes in large part to two key errors which he termed (...) "entification of reality" and "logification of intellection." Closely related are errors concerning essence and the relationship of truth and reality. (shrink)

A través de un análisis histórico, se muestra que hay una visión tradicional de la causalidad, establecida por Aristóteles y elaborada por los filósofos árabes y medievales, que se conserva casi completamente intacta hasta el tiempo de Hume, y que sigue teniendo gran influencia. Sin embargo, un análisis riguroso pone en evidencia que esta visión ha fracasado completamente y no puede servir de base ni de la metafísica ni de la epistemología ni de la ciencia. Zubiri crea una nueva visión, (...) reemplazando la causalidad tradicional con algo más profundo y general. La causalidad tradicional se conserva solamente en el caso de la moralidad humana. (shrink)