Francis Bacon was born in January, 1560 to a noble
family. His father was a knight, Sir Nicholas Bacon, and his mother
named Anne was fluent in Greek and Latin. From this distinguished
heritage came a man of varied talents, Bacon excelled in politics,
and was a gifted writer and poet.
Bacon was educated at Trinity College, in Cambridge under the
tutelage of Doctor John White-Gift, master of the college. After his
liberal arts education, Bacon’s father sent him to France to
learn politics by working with Sir Amyas Paulet the ambassador lieger
to France.
His father’s death left him penniless, and he was forced to take
a career in law, and was made barrister at Gray’s Inn. Ten year
later Bacon took a seat in parliament. Although Bacon had a
successful political career, his was a writer of essays and novels.
He was also known for his kindness, and straightforwardness, as his
essays will attest. In his series of essays (entitled, Beauty,
Vanity, to name a few) his writing is clear and concise. Like many
“great” men, Bacon himself was such a strong personality
that it seems one either loves or hates him.
Bacon is thought to be the father of inductive reasoning and his book
Instauratio dealt with the need for an inductive system as well as
the applications of this system. Prior to Bacon the belief system
relied more on faith, through the church, than on reason. Instead,
“Bacon argued that the only knowledge of importance to man was
empirically rooted in the natural world” (online). Bacon’s
contribution in terms of inductive reasoning paved the way for the
discoveries of Copernicus and Galileo.
In an interesting side note, one of the controversies of English
Literature is that he was the real writer of the Shakespearean
plays.
According to Stephen Jay Gould, Bacon recognized the limits perception could impose on reason (similar to Kuhn's paradigm shifts?). Language, culture, ideology and individual characteristics can all impede reasoning and discovery (referred to as idols by Bacon).
Timeline
1563 Trinity College, Cambridge1576 Gray's Inn - Law
1584 first elected to Parliament
1603 Knighted by James I
1621 removed from office
Books Written
New Organon (new tool of reasoning)Advancement of Learning
On the Dignity
Growth of Sciences