Spiders, Ants, and Bees: Francis Bacon and the Methodology of Natural Philosophy

Journal of Early Modern Studies 9 (2):27-51 (2020)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

This paper argues that the methodology Francis Bacon used in his natural histories abides by the theoretical commitments presented in his methodological writings. On the one hand, Bacon advocated a middle way between idle speculation and mere gathering of facts. On the other hand, he took a strong stance against the theorisation based on very few facts. Using two of his sources whom Bacon takes to be the reflection of these two extremes—Giambattista della Porta as an instance of idle speculations, and Hugh Platt as an instance of gathering facts without extracting knowledge—I show how Bacon chose the middle way, which consists of gathering facts and gradually extracting theory out of them. In addition, it will become clear how Bacon used the expertise of contemporary practitioners to criticise fantastical theories and purge natural history of misconceived notions and false speculations.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,616

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Ants and Women, or Philosophy without Borders.Michèle Le Dœuff - 1987 - Royal Institute of Philosophy Lecture Series 21:41-54.
Ants and Women, or Philosophy without Borders.Michèle Le Dœuff - 1987 - Royal Institute of Philosophy Lecture Series 21:41-54.
Empirismus versus Rationalismus? [REVIEW]Riccardo Pozzo - 1998 - Review of Metaphysics 52 (2):441-442.
Francis Bacon and the Classification of Natural History.Peter Anstey - 2012 - Early Science and Medicine 17 (1):11-31.
Locke on Scientific Methodology.Huaping Lu-Adler - 2021 - In Jessica Gordon-Roth & Shelley Weinberg (eds.), The Lockean Mind. New York, NY: Routledge. pp. 277-89.
The advancement of learning.Francis Bacon - 1851 - New York: Modern Library. Edited by G. W. Kitchin.

Analytics

Added to PP
2021-08-24

Downloads
3 (#1,519,925)

6 months
2 (#668,348)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Citations of this work

No citations found.

Add more citations

References found in this work

No references found.

Add more references