F. Bacon (1561 - 1626) is considered the founder of New European philosophy, since it is he who owns A New Look on philosophy, which later received a wide development: "... the fruits brought in ... and practical inventions are, as it were, guarantors and witnesses of the truth of philosophies." His saying: "Knowledge is power" expresses the attitude towards science as the main means of solving human problems.
By origin, Bacon belonged to the circles of the court bureaucracy, received a university education. His the most important works: The New Organon (1620) and On the Dignity and Growth of Science (1623). In them, the author proceeds from the objective needs of society and expresses the interests of the progressive forces of that time, emphasizing empirical research, the knowledge of nature. the main objective knowledge, according to F. Bacon, is the strengthening of the power of man over nature. To do this, we must abandon the scholastic speculative methods of cognition, turn to nature itself and the knowledge of its laws. Therefore, the subject epistemology matter itself, its structure and transformations, acted.
For an objective study of nature, he turns to experience, for the best of all proofs is experience. Moreover, experience in Bacon's view is not likened to the old empiricists, who "... like an ant only collect and use what they have collected", experience must be combined with reason. This will also help to avoid the limitations of rationalists, "... like a spider out of themselves ..." creating a fabric. His experience, according to his own remark, is more like the action of a bee that chooses middle way, "she extracts material from the flowers of the garden and the field, but disposes and modifies it with her own skill." He divides experiments into “light-bearing”, which “... in themselves do not bring benefits, but contribute to the discovery of causes and axioms”, and “fruitful”, directly beneficial.
According to his positions, F. Bacon entered the history of philosophy as a representative empiricism . In his opinion, the conclusions of knowledge - theories should be based on a new, inductive, method, i.e. moving from the particular to the general, from the experiment to the mental processing of the material obtained. Before Bacon, philosophers who wrote about induction paid attention mainly to those cases or facts that confirm propositions or generalizable propositions. Bacon emphasized the significance of those cases that refute the generalization, contradict it. These are the so-called negative instances. Already one - the only such case is able to completely or at least partially refute a hasty generalization. According to Bacon, neglect of negative instances is main reason errors, superstitions and prejudices.
The new method, first of all, requires the liberation of the mind from preconceived ideas - ghosts, idols. He designated these idols as “idols of the clan”, “idols of the cave”, “idols of the market”, “idols of the theater”. The first two are congenital, and the second are acquired during individual development person.
“Idols of the kind” mean that a person judges nature by analogy with himself, therefore, teleological errors in ideas about nature occur.
"Idols of the cave" arise as a result of subjective sympathies, antipathies to certain established ideas.
“Idols of the market”, or otherwise, “squares” arise as a result of communication between people through words, which make it difficult to know things, because. their meaning was often established by chance, not on the basis of the essence of the subject.
"Idols of the theater" are generated by uncritical assimilation of the opinions of authorities.
Bacon also creates one of the first classifications of sciences, which is based on abilities human soul: history is built on the basis of memory, poetry is built on imagination, reason gives rise to philosophy, mathematics and natural science.
In his opinion, the immediate task of knowledge is the study of the causes of objects. Causes can be either efficient (what are usually called causes) or final causes, i.e. goals. The science of efficient causes is physics, the science of ends or final causes is metaphysics. The task of the science of nature is the study of efficient causes. Therefore, Bacon saw the essence of natural science in physics. Knowledge of nature is used to improve practical life. Mechanics deals with the application of knowledge of efficient causes. The application of the knowledge of final causes is engaged in "natural magic". Mathematics, according to Bacon, has no own purpose and is only an aid to natural science.
However, the views of Francis Bacon were of a dual nature: his ideas about the world could not yet be free from an appeal to God, he recognizes a twofold form of truth - scientific and the truth of "revelation".
Based on cognitive tasks, Bacon builds ontology . In solving the problem of substance, he belonged to the materialists, because He believed that matter itself is the cause of all causes, without being itself conditioned by any cause. To describe matter, he uses the traditional concept of form. But according to Aristotle, the form is ideal, while Bacon understands the form as the material essence of the properties of an object. According to him, form is a kind of movement of material particles that make up the body. The properties and qualities of an object are also material. Simple forms are carriers certain number basic properties, to which the whole variety of properties of things can be reduced. There are as many elementary properties of things in nature as there are simple forms. Bacon refers color, heaviness, movement, size, heat, etc. to such forms - properties. Just as a huge number of words are made up of a small number of letters of the alphabet, so an inexhaustible number of objects and natural phenomena are made up of combinations of simple forms. Thus, Bacon considers every complex thing as a sum of simple compound forms, which means the principle of mechanism, i.e. reduction of the complex to the simple - to the primary elements. He also relates the quantitative side of things to one of the forms, but he considers that it is not sufficient to determine the thing.
Bacon's materialistic position in understanding nature also contained dialectical positions: for example, he considered movement to be an integral internal property of matter. He even singled out various forms movement, although at that time it was customary to consider only one - mechanical, simple movement of bodies.
The materialism of Francis Bacon was limited. His teaching presupposes an understanding of the world as material, but in its essence consisting of a finite number of basic parts, limited quantitatively and qualitatively. This view has received further development in the metaphysical materialism of modern European philosophy.
The duality of Bacon's position was also manifested in doctrine of man .
Man is dual. In its corporeality, it belongs to nature and is studied by philosophy and science. But the human soul is a complex formation: it consists of a rational and sensual soul. The rational soul enters a person by "God's inspiration", therefore it is studied by theology. The sensual soul has features of corporality and is the subject of philosophy.
The contribution of Francis Bacon to science and philosophy was of great importance, since, in contrast to scholasticism, he puts forward a new methodology aimed at genuine knowledge of nature, its internal laws. In fact, his work opened a new historical form philosophy - new European.
Name: Francis BaconFrancis Bacon
Age: 65 years old
Activity: philosopher, historian, politician
Family status: was married
Francis Bacon: biography
The pioneer of the philosophy of modern times, the English scientist Francis Bacon, is known to contemporaries primarily as the developer of scientific methods for studying nature - induction and experiment, the author of the books "New Atlantis", "New Orgagon" and "Experiments, or Moral and Political Instructions".
Childhood and youth
The founder of empiricism was born on January 22, 1561, in the Yorkhouse mansion, on the central London Strand. The scientist's father, Nicholas, was politician, and mother Anna (nee Cook) was the daughter of Anthony Cook, a humanist who raised King Edward VI of England and Ireland.
mother with young years she instilled in her son a love of knowledge, and she, a girl who knows ancient Greek and Latin, did it with ease. In addition, the boy himself from a tender age showed an interest in knowledge. For two years, Francis studied at Trinity College, Cambridge University, then spent three years in France, in the retinue the British ambassador Sir Amyas Paulet.
After the death of the head of the family in 1579, Bacon was left without a livelihood and entered the school of barristers to study law. In 1582, Francis became a lawyer, and in 1584 - a Member of Parliament, and until 1614 played a prominent role in the debate at the sessions of the House of Commons. From time to time, Bacon composed Messages to the Queen, in which he strove to approach pressing political issues impartially.
Biographers now agree that if the queen had followed his advice, a couple of conflicts between the crown and Parliament could have been avoided. In 1591, he became an adviser to the queen's favorite, the Earl of Essex. Bacon immediately made it clear to the patron that he was devoted to the country, and when in 1601 Essex tried to organize a coup, Bacon, being a lawyer, participated in his condemnation as a traitor.
Due to the fact that people standing above Francis in rank saw him as a rival, and because he often expressed his dissatisfaction with the policies of Elizabeth I in epistolary form, Bacon soon lost favor with the Queen and could not count on promotion. Under Elizabeth I, the lawyer never reached high positions, but after James I Stuart ascended the throne in 1603, Francis's career went uphill.
Bacon was knighted in 1603 and raised to the title of Baron of Verulam in 1618 and Viscount of St. Albans in 1621. In the same 1621, the philosopher was accused of taking bribes. He admitted that the people whose cases were tried in court repeatedly gave him gifts. True, the fact that this influenced his decision, the lawyer denied. As a result, Francis was deprived of all posts and forbidden to appear at court.
Philosophy and teaching
chief literary creation Bacon is considered to be the work "Experiments" ("Essayes"), on which he worked continuously for 28 years. Ten essays were published in 1597, and by 1625, 58 texts had already been collected in the book "Experiments", some of which appeared in a third, revised edition called "Experiments, or Instructions moral and political."
In these works, Bacon reflected on ambition, on friends, on love, on doing science, on the vicissitudes of things, and other aspects. human life. The works abounded with learned examples and brilliant metaphors. People striving for career heights will find advice in the texts built solely on cold calculation. There are, for example, statements such as:
“All who rise high pass along the zigzags of a spiral staircase” and “Wife and children are hostages of fate, for the family is an obstacle to the accomplishment of great deeds, both good and evil.”
Despite Bacon's occupations with politics and jurisprudence, the main business of his life was philosophy and science. Aristotelian deduction, which at that time occupied a dominant position, he rejected as an unsatisfactory way of philosophizing and proposed new tool thinking.
The outline of the "great plan for the restoration of the sciences" was made by Bacon in 1620, in the preface to the New Organon, or True Directions for Interpretation. It is known that this work included six parts (a review state of the art sciences, a description of a new method for obtaining true knowledge, a set of empirical data, a discussion of issues for further research, preliminary solutions, and philosophy itself).
Bacon only managed to sketch the first two movements. The first was entitled "On the Usefulness and Success of Knowledge", the Latin version of which "On the Dignity and Multiplication of the Sciences" was published with corrections.
Since the basis of the critical part of Francis's philosophy is the doctrine of the so-called "idols" that distort people's knowledge, in the second part of the project he described the principles of the inductive method, with the help of which he proposed to overthrow all the idols of the mind. According to Bacon, there are four types of idols that besiege the minds of all mankind:
- The first type is the idols of the family (mistakes that a person makes by virtue of his very nature).
- The second type is the idols of the cave (mistakes due to prejudice).
- The third type is the idols of the square (mistakes caused by inaccuracies in the use of language).
- The fourth type is the idols of the theater (mistakes made due to adherence to authorities, systems and doctrines).
Describing the prejudices that hinder the development of science, the scientist proposed a three-part division of knowledge, produced according to mental functions. He attributed history to memory, poetry to imagination, and philosophy (which included the sciences) to reason. According to Bacon, scientific knowledge is based on induction and experiment. Induction can be complete or incomplete.
Complete induction means the regular repetition of a property of an object in the class under consideration. Generalizations proceed from the assumption that this will be the case in all similar cases. Incomplete induction includes generalizations made on the basis of the study of not all cases, but only some (conclusion by analogy), because, as a rule, the number of all cases is boundless, and theoretically it is impossible to prove their infinite number. This conclusion is always probabilistic.
In trying to create a "true induction", Bacon was looking not only for facts confirming a certain conclusion, but also for facts refuting it. He thus armed natural science with two means of research - enumeration and exclusion. Moreover, exceptions mattered. Using this method, for example, he established that the "form" of heat is the movement of the smallest particles of the body.
In his theory of knowledge, Bacon adheres to the idea that true knowledge follows from sensory experience (such a philosophical position is called empirical). He also gave an overview of the limits and nature of human knowledge in each of these categories and pointed out important areas of research that no one had paid attention to before him. The core of Bacon's methodology is a gradual inductive generalization of the facts observed in experience.
However, the philosopher was far from a simplified understanding of this generalization and emphasized the need to rely on reason in the analysis of facts. In 1620, Bacon wrote the utopia "New Atlantis" (published after the death of the author, in 1627), which, in terms of the scope of the plan, should not have been inferior to the work "Utopia" of the great friend and mentor, whom he later beheaded, because of intrigues second wife.
For this "new lamp in the darkness of the philosophy of the past" King James granted Francis a pension of £1,200. IN unfinished work The “New Atlantis” philosopher spoke about the mysterious country of Bensalem, which was led by the “Solomon House”, or the “Society for the Knowledge of the True Nature of All Things”, uniting the main sages of the country.
From the communist and socialist works, the creation of Francis differed by a pronounced technocratic character. The discovery by Francis of a new method of cognition and the conviction that research should begin with observations, and not with theories, put him on a par with the most important representatives of the scientific thought of modern times.
It is also worth noting that Bacon's teachings on law and, in general, the ideas of experimental science and the experimental-empirical method of research have made an invaluable contribution to the treasury of human thought. However, during his lifetime, the scientist did not receive significant results either in empirical research or in the field of theory, and experimental science rejected his method of inductive cognition through exceptions.
Personal life
Bacon was married once. It is known that the wife of the philosopher was three times younger than himself. Alice Burnham, the daughter of the widow of the London elder Benedict Burnham, became the chosen one of the great scientist.
The wedding of 45-year-old Francis and 14-year-old Alice took place on May 10, 1606. The couple had no children.
Death
Bacon died on April 9, 1626, at the age of 66, by an absurd accident. Francis had a lifelong interest in the study of all kinds of natural phenomena, and one winter, riding with the royal physician in a carriage, the scientist came up with the idea of \u200b\u200bconducting an experiment in which he intended to check to what extent cold slows down the process of decay.
The philosopher bought a chicken carcass in the market and buried it in the snow with his own hands, from which he caught a cold, fell ill and died on the fifth day of his scientific experience. The grave of the lawyer is located on the territory of the Church of St. Michael in St. Albans (UK). It is known that a monument was erected at the burial site after the death of the author of the book "New Atlantis".
Discoveries
Francis Bacon developed new scientific methods - induction and experiment:
- Induction is a term widely used in science, denoting a method of reasoning from the particular to the general.
- An experiment is a method of studying some phenomenon under conditions controlled by an observer. It differs from observation by active interaction with the object under study.
Bibliography
- 1957 - "Experiments, or Instructions moral and political" (1st edition)
- 1605 - "On the benefit and success of knowledge"
- 1609 - "On the wisdom of the ancients"
- 1612 - "Experiments, or Instructions moral and political" (2nd edition)
- 1620 - "The Great Restoration of the Sciences, or the New Organon"
- 1620 - "New Atlantis"
- 1625 - "Experiments, or Instructions moral and political" (3rd edition)
- 1623 - "On the dignity and multiplication of sciences"
Quotes
- "The worst loneliness is not having true friends"
- "Excessive frankness is as indecent as perfect nudity"
- "I have thought a lot about death and find that it is the lesser of evils"
- “People who have a lot of shortcomings, first of all notice them in others”
2.1 Materialist empiricism
2.1.1 Bacon Francis (1561-1626).
Bacon's main work is The New Organon (1620). This name shows that Bacon consciously opposed his understanding of science and its method to the understanding on which Aristotle's Organon (a set of logical works) relied. Other important essay Bacon was the utopia "New Atlantis".
Bacon Francis - English philosopher, founder of English materialism. In the treatise "New Organon" he proclaimed the goal of science to increase the power of man over nature, proposed a reform of the scientific method - the purification of the mind from delusions ("idols" or "ghosts"), turning to experience and processing it through induction, the basis of which is experiment. In 1605, the work On the Dignity and Multiplication of the Sciences was published, which is the first part of Bacon's grandiose plan - the Great Restoration of the Sciences, which included 6 stages. The last years of his life he was engaged in scientific experiments and died in 1626, having caught a cold after the experiment. Bacon was fascinated by projects for the transformation of science, he was the first to come closer to understanding science as social institution. He shared the theory of dual truth, delimiting the functions of science and religion. Bacon's catchphrases about science have been repeatedly elected famous philosophers and scientists as epigraphs for their works. Bacon's work is characterized by a certain approach to the method of human cognition and thinking. Any starting point cognitive activity are feelings. Therefore, Bacon is often called the founder of empiricism - a direction that builds its epistemological premises mainly on sensory knowledge and experience. The basic principle of this philosophical orientation in the field of the theory of knowledge is: "There is nothing in the mind that has not previously passed through the senses."
Baconian classification of sciences, representing an alternative to the Aristotelian, for a long time recognized as fundamental by many European scientists. Bacon put such abilities of the human soul as memory, imagination (fantasy), and reason as the basis for the classification. Accordingly, the main sciences, according to Bacon, should be history, poetry, philosophy. The division of all sciences into historical, poetic and philosophical is determined by Bacon by a psychological criterion. Thus, history is knowledge based on memory; it is divided into natural history, which describes the phenomena of nature (including miracles and all kinds of deviations), and civil history. Poetry is based on imagination. Philosophy is based on reason. It is divided into natural philosophy, divine philosophy (natural theology) and human philosophy (studying morality and social phenomena). In natural philosophy, Bacon singles out the theoretical (study of causes, with preference given to material and effective causes over formal and purposive), and practical ("natural magic") parts. As a natural philosopher, Bacon sympathized with the atomistic tradition of the ancient Greeks, but did not fully subscribe to it. Considering that the elimination of errors and prejudices is the starting point of correct philosophizing, Bacon was critical of scholasticism. He saw the main drawback of Aristotelian-scholastic logic in the fact that it passes by the problem of the formation of concepts that make up the premises of syllogistic inferences. Bacon also criticized Renaissance humanistic scholarship, which bowed to ancient authorities and replaced philosophy with rhetoric and philology. Finally, Bacon fought against the so-called "fantastic learning", based not on reliable experience, but on unverifiable stories about miracles, hermits, martyrs, etc.
The doctrine of the so-called "idols", distorting our knowledge is the basis of the critical part of Bacon's philosophy. The condition of the reform of science must also be the purification of the mind from delusions. Bacon distinguishes four types of errors or obstacles in the way of knowledge. - four kinds of "idols" (false images) or ghosts. These are "idols of the clan", "idols of the cave", "idols of the square" and "idols of the theater".
At the heart of the innate "idols of the family" are subjective evidence of the senses and all kinds of delusions of the mind (empty abstraction, the search for goals in nature, etc.) "Idols of the family" are obstacles caused by nature common to all people. Man judges nature by analogy with his own properties. From this arises a teleological conception of nature, errors arising from the imperfection of human feelings under the influence of various desires and inclinations. Delusions are caused by inaccurate sensory evidence or logical fallacies.
"Idols of the cave", due to the dependence of knowledge on individual characteristics, physical and mental properties, as well as the limitations personal experience of people. "Idols of the cave" - errors that are not inherent in the entire human race, but only in some groups of people (as if sitting in a cave) due to subjective preferences, sympathies, antipathies of scientists: some see differences between objects more, others see their similarities; some tend to believe in the infallible authority of antiquity, others, on the contrary, prefer only the new.
"Idols of the market, or squares" have social origins. Bacon urges not to exaggerate the role of words to the detriment of the facts and the concepts behind the words. "Idols of the Square" - obstacles that arise as a result of communication between people through words. In many cases, the meanings of words were established not on the basis of knowledge of the essence of the subject; but on the basis of a completely random impression of this subject. Bacon argues against the delusions caused by the use of meaningless words (as happens in the market).
Bacon proposes to eradicate the "idols of the theater", which are based on uncritical adherence to authorities. "Idols of the theater" - obstacles generated in science by uncritically assimilated, false opinions. "Idols of the theater" are not innate in our mind, they arise as a result of the subordination of the mind to erroneous views. False views, rooted in faith in the old authorities, appear before the mental eye of people like theatrical performances.
Bacon considered it necessary to create a correct method, with the help of which it would be possible to gradually ascend from single facts to broad generalizations. In ancient times, all discoveries were made only spontaneously, while the correct method should be based on experiments (purposefully set experiments), which should be systematized in "natural history". In general, induction appears in Bacon not only as one of the types of logical conclusion, but also as the logic of scientific discovery, the methodology for developing concepts based on experience. Bacon understood his methodology as a certain combination of empiricism and rationalism, likening it to the mode of action of a bee processing the collected nectar, in contrast to an ant (flat empiricism) or a spider (scholasticism divorced from experience). Thus Bacon distinguished three main ways of learning:1) "the way of the spider" - the derivation of truths from pure consciousness. This path was the main one in scholasticism, which he subjected to sharp criticism. Dogmatic scientists, neglecting empirical knowledge, weave a web of abstract reasoning. 2) "the way of the ant" - narrow empiricism, the collection of disparate facts without their conceptual generalization; 3) "the path of the bee" - a combination of the first two paths, a combination of the abilities of experience and reason, i.e. sensual and rational. A scientist, like a bee, collects juices - experimental data and, theoretically processing them, creates the honey of science. Advocating for this combination, Bacon, however, gives priority to empirical knowledge. Bacon distinguished between fruitful experiments, that is, immediately bringing certain results, their goal is to bring direct benefit to a person, and luminous experiments, the practical benefit of which is not immediately noticeable, but which ultimately give the maximum result, their goal is not immediate benefit, but knowledge of the laws of phenomena. and properties of things. .
So, F. Bacon, the founder of materialism and experimental science of his time, believed that the sciences that study knowledge, thinking are the key to all the others, because they contain "mental tools" that give instructions to the mind or warn it from delusions ("idols"). ).
Highertask of knowledgeAndallSciences, according to Bacon, - domination over nature and improvement of human life. According to the head of the "House of Solomon" (a kind of research center of the Academy, the idea of which was put forward by Bacon in the utopian novel "New Atlantis"), "the purpose of society is to understand the causes and hidden forces of all things, the expansion of man's power over nature, until everything becomes possible for him. "Scientific research should not be limited to thoughts about its immediate benefits. Knowledge is power, but it can become real power only if it is based on finding out the true causes of what is happening in Only that science is capable of conquering nature and dominating over it, which itself "obeys" nature, i.e., is guided by the knowledge of its laws.
Technocratic School. The "New Atlantis" (1623-24) tells about the mysterious country of Bensalem, which is led by the "House of Solomon", or "Society for the knowledge of the true nature of all things", uniting the main sages of the country. Bacon's utopia differs from communist and socialist utopias by its pronounced technocratic character: the cult of scientific and technical inventions reigns on the island, which are the main reason for the prosperity of the population. The Atlanteans have an aggressive and entrepreneurial spirit, and the clandestine export of information about achievements and secrets from other countries is encouraged. "New Atlantis" remained unfinished. .
Theory of induction: Bacon developed his empirical method of cognition, which is his induction - a true tool for studying the laws ("forms") of natural phenomena, which, in his opinion, make it possible to make the mind adequate to natural things.
Concepts are usually obtained through too hasty and insufficiently substantiated generalizations. Therefore, the first condition for the reform of science, the progress of knowledge, is the improvement of the methods of generalization, the formation of concepts. Since the process of generalization is induction, the logical basis for the reform of science must be a new theory of induction.
Before Bacon, philosophers who wrote about induction focused their understanding mainly on those cases or facts that confirm propositions or generalizable propositions. Bacon stressed the importance of those cases that refute the generalization, contradict it. These are the so-called negative instances. Even a single such case can completely or partially refute a hasty generalization. According to Bacon, neglect of negative instances is the main cause of errors, superstitions and prejudices.
Bacon exposes new logic: "My logic differs essentially from traditional logic in three things: its very purpose, the mode of proof, and where it begins its investigation. The purpose of my science is not the invention of arguments, but various arts; not things that agree with the principles, but the principles themselves; not some plausible relations and arrangements, but a direct depiction and description of bodies. "It is clear that he subordinates his logic to the same goal as philosophy.
Bacon considers induction to be the main working method of his logic. In this he sees a guarantee against shortcomings not only in logic, but in all knowledge in general. He characterizes it as follows: "Under induction I understand the form of proof, which looks closely at feelings, strives to comprehend the natural character of things, strives for deeds and almost merges with them." Bacon, however, dwells on the present state of development and the present way of using the inductive approach. He rejects the induction which, he says, is carried out by mere enumeration. Such an induction "leads to an indeterminate conclusion, it is subject to the dangers that threaten it from opposite cases, if it pays attention only to what it is accustomed to, and does not come to any conclusion." Therefore, he emphasizes the need for a revision, or more precisely, the development of an inductive method. The first condition for the progress of knowledge is the improvement of methods of generalization. The process of generalization is induction. Induction proceeds from sensations, individual facts, and rises step by step, without jumps, to general propositions. The main task is to create a new method of cognition. Essence: 1) observation of facts; 2) their systematization and classification; 3) cutting off unnecessary facts; 4) decomposition of the phenomenon into its component parts; 5) verification of facts by experience; 6) generalization.
Bacon is one of the first who consciously began to develop scientific method based on observation and understanding of nature. Knowledge becomes power if it is based on the study of natural phenomena and is guided by the knowledge of its laws. The subject of philosophy should be matter, as well as its various and diverse forms. Bacon spoke about the qualitative heterogeneity of matter, which has diverse forms of motion (19 types, including resistance, oscillation.). The eternity of matter and motion does not need justification. Bacon defended the cognizability of nature, believed that this issue is resolved not by disputes, but by experience. On the way of knowledge there are many obstacles, delusions that clog the mind.
Bacon emphasized the importance of natural science, but stood on the point of view of theory duality of truth(then progressive): theology has God as its object, science has nature. It is necessary to distinguish between the spheres of God's competence: God is the creator of the world and man, but only an object of faith. Knowledge does not depend on faith. Philosophy is based on knowledge and experience. The main obstacle is scholasticism. The main vice is abstractness, the derivation of general provisions from particular ones. Bacon is an empiricist: knowledge begins with sensory data that needs experimental verification and confirmation, which means that natural phenomena should be judged only on the basis of experience. Bacon also believed that knowledge should strive to reveal internal cause-and-effect relationships and the laws of nature through the processing of data by the senses and theoretical thinking. In general, Bacon's philosophy was an attempt to create an effective way of knowing nature, its causes, laws. Bacon significantly contributed to the formation of the philosophical thinking of modern times. And although his empiricism was historically and epistemologically limited, and from the point of view of the subsequent development of knowledge, it can be criticized in many directions, in its time it played a very positive role.
Francis Bacon (1561-1626) lived and worked in an era that was not only a period of powerful economic, but also an exceptional cultural upsurge and development of England.
17th century opens new period in the development of a philosophy called the philosophy of modern times. If in the Middle Ages philosophy acted in alliance with theology, and in the Renaissance - with art, then in modern times it mainly relies on science. Therefore, epistemological problems come to the fore in philosophy itself and two major areas are formed, in the confrontation of which the history of modern philosophy takes place - these are empiricism (reliance on experience) and rationalism (reliance on reason).
The founder of empiricism was the English philosopher Francis Bacon. He was a talented scientist, an outstanding public and political figure, coming from a noble aristocratic family. Francis Bacon finished Cambridge university. In 1584 he was elected to Parliament. From 1617 he becomes Lord Privy Seal under King James I, inheriting this position from his father; then Lord Chancellor. In 1961, Bacon was brought to trial on charges of bribery on a false denunciation, convicted and removed from all positions. Soon he was pardoned by the king, but did not return to public service, devoting himself entirely to scientific and literary work. The legends surrounding the name of Bacon, like any great man, have preserved the story that he even bought an island on purpose in order to create a new society on it in accordance with his ideas about the ideal state, set forth later in the unfinished book "New Atlantis" , however, this attempt failed, crashing against the greed and imperfection of the people he chose as allies.
Already in his youth, F. Bacon was hatching a grandiose plan for the “Great Restoration of the Sciences,” which he had been striving for all his life. The first part of this work is completely new, different from the Aristotelian classification of sciences traditional for that time. It was proposed in Bacon’s work “On the Prosperity of Knowledge” (1605), but it was fully developed in the main work of the philosopher “The New Organon” (1620), which in its very title indicates the opposition of the author’s position to the dogmatized Aristotle, who was then revered in Europe for infallible authority. Bacon is credited with giving a philosophical status to experimental natural science and "returning" philosophy from heaven to earth.
philosophy francis bacon
The problem of man and nature in philosophyF. Bacon
F. Bacon was sure that the goal of scientific knowledge is not to contemplate nature, as it was in Antiquity, and not to comprehend God, according to the medieval tradition, but to bring benefits and benefits to mankind. Science is a means, not an end in itself. Man is the master of nature, such is the leitmotif of Bacon's philosophy. “Nature is conquered only by submission to it, and what in contemplation appears as a cause is in action a rule.” In other words, in order to subjugate nature, a person must study its laws and learn how to use his knowledge in real practice. The relation MAN-NATURE is understood in a new way, which is transformed into the relation SUBJECT-OBJECT, and enters into the flesh and blood of the European mentality, the European style of thinking, which has been preserved to this day. Man is presented as a knowing and acting principle (subject), and nature as an object to be known and used.
Calling on people, armed with knowledge, to subjugate nature, F. Bacon rebelled against the prevailing at that time scholastic scholarship and the spirit of human self-abasement. Due to the fact that the basis of book science, as already mentioned, was the emasculated and absolutized logic of Aristotle, Bacon also refuses the authority of Aristotle. “Logic,” he writes, which is now used, rather serves to strengthen and preserve errors that have their basis in generally accepted concepts than to search for truth. Therefore, it is more harmful than useful.” He orients science towards the search for truth not in books, but in the field, in the workshop, at the forges, in a word, in practice, in direct observation and study of nature. His philosophy can be called a kind of revival of ancient natural philosophy with its naive faith in the inviolability of the truths of fact, with the setting at the center of the entire philosophical system of nature. However, unlike Bacon, natural philosophy was far from putting before man the task of transforming and subjugating nature; natural philosophy maintained a reverent admiration for nature.
The concept of experience in philosophyF. Bacon
“Experience” is the main category in Bacon’s philosophy, because knowledge begins and comes to it, it is in experience that the reliability of knowledge is verified, it is it that gives food to reason. Without sensory assimilation of reality, the mind is dead, because the subject of thought is always drawn from experience. “The best proof of all is experience,” writes Bacon. Experiments in science are fruitful And luminous. The former bring new knowledge useful to a person, this inferior species experiments; and the second - discover the truth, it is to them that the scientist should strive, although this is a difficult and long way.
The central part of Bacon's philosophy is the doctrine of method. The method for Bacon has a deep practical and social significance. He is the greatest transforming force, the method increases the power of man over the forces of nature. Experiments, according to Bacon, must be carried out according to a certain method.
This method in Bacon's philosophy is induction. Bacon taught that induction is necessary for the sciences, based on the testimony of the senses, the only true form of proof and method of knowing nature. If in deduction the order of movement of thought is from the general to the particular, then in induction it is from the particular to the general.
The method proposed by Bacon provides for the sequential passage of five stages of the study, each of which is recorded in the corresponding table. Thus, the entire volume of empirical inductive research, according to Bacon, includes five tables. Among them:
1) Presence table (listing all occurrences of a phenomenon);
2) Table of deviation or absence (all cases of absence of one or another sign or indicator in the presented items are entered here);
3) Table of comparison or degrees (comparison of an increase or decrease in a given attribute in the same subject);
4) Rejection table (the exclusion of individual cases that do not occur in this phenomenon is not typical for it);
5) Table of "gathering fruits" (forming a conclusion based on the common that is available in all tables).
The inductive method is applicable to all empirical scientific research, and since then, specific sciences, especially sciences based on direct empirical research, have widely used the inductive method developed by Bacon.
Induction can be complete or incomplete. Full induction- this is the ideal of knowledge, it means that absolutely all the facts related to the field of the phenomenon under study are collected. It is easy to guess that this task is difficult, if not unattainable, although Bacon believed that in time science would solve this problem; therefore, in most cases, people use incomplete induction. This means that promising conclusions are built on the material of a partial or selective analysis of empirical material, but such knowledge always retains the character of hypotheticality. For example, we can say that all cats meow until we meet at least one non-meowing cat. In science, Bacon believes, empty fantasies should not be allowed, “... the human mind must be given not wings, but rather lead and gravity, so that they hold back every jump and flight.”
Bacon sees the main task of his inductive logic in the study of forms inherent in matter. The knowledge of forms forms the proper subject matter of philosophy.
Bacon creates own theory shape. Form is the material essence of the property belonging to the object. Thus, the form of heat is a certain kind of motion. But in an object, the form of any property does not exist in isolation from other properties of the same object. Therefore, in order to find the form of some property, it is necessary to exclude from the object everything that is accidentally connected in it with the desired form. This exclusion from the subject of everything that is not connected with the given property in it cannot be real. It is a mental logical exception, a distraction, or an abstraction.
On the basis of his induction and teachings on forms, Bacon developed a new system of classification of the sciences.
Bacon's classification was based on the principle that comes from the difference between the abilities of human cognition. These abilities are memory, imagination, reason, or thinking. Each of these three abilities corresponds to a special group of sciences. Namely: the memory corresponds to the group historical sciences; poetry corresponds to the imagination; reason (thinking) is a science in the proper sense of the word.
The entire vast area of historical knowledge is divided into 2 parts: "natural" history and "civil" history. Natural history investigates and describes natural phenomena. Civil history explores the phenomena of human life and human consciousness.
If history is a reflection of the world in the memory of mankind, then poetry is a reflection of being in the imagination. Poetry reflects life not as it is, but according to the desire of the human heart. Bacon excludes lyric poetry from the realm of poetry. The lyrics express what is - the actual feelings and thoughts of the poet. But poetry, according to Bacon, is not about what is, but about what is desirable.
Bacon divides the message of the genre of poetry into 3 types: epic, drama and allegorical-didactic poetry. Epic poetry imitates history. Dramatic poetry presents events, persons and their actions as if they were taking place in front of the audience. Allegorical-didactic poetry also represents faces through symbols.
The value of the types of poetry Bacon makes dependent on their practical effectiveness. From this point of view, he considers allegorical-didactic poetry to be the highest type of poetry, as the most instructive, capable of educating a person.
The most developed classification of the third group of sciences - based on reason. In it, Bacon sees the highest of human mental activities. All the sciences of this group are divided into types depending on the differences between the subjects. Namely: rational cognition can be cognition either of God, or of ourselves, or of nature. These three different types of rational knowledge correspond to three various ways or kind of knowledge itself. Our direct knowledge is directed to nature. Indirect knowledge is directed at God: we do not know God directly, but through nature, through nature. And, finally, we know ourselves through reflection or reflection.
The concept of "ghosts"atF. Bacon
The main obstacle to the knowledge of nature, Bacon considered the clogging of people's consciousness with the so-called idols, or ghosts - distorted images of reality, false ideas and concepts. He distinguished 4 types of idols with which a person needs to fight:
1) Idols (ghosts) of the family;
2) idols (ghosts) of the cave;
3) idols (ghosts) of the market;
4) idols (ghosts) of the theater.
Idols of the kind Bacon considered false ideas about the world that are inherent in the entire human race and are the result of the limitations of the human mind and senses. This limitation is most often manifested in endowing natural phenomena with human characteristics, mixing with natural nature one's own human nature. To reduce harm, people need to compare the readings of the senses with the objects of the surrounding world and thereby verify their correctness.
Idols of the cave Bacon called distorted ideas about reality associated with the subjectivity of the perception of the surrounding world. Each person has his own cave, his own subjective inner world, which leaves an imprint on all his judgments about things and processes of reality. The inability of a person to go beyond his subjectivity is the cause of this type of delusion.
TO market idols or area Bacon refers to the false ideas of people generated by the misuse of words. People often put different meanings into the same words, and this leads to empty disputes, which distracts people from studying natural phenomena and understanding them correctly.
Category theater idols Bacon includes false ideas about the world, uncritically borrowed by people from various philosophical systems. Each philosophical system, according to Bacon, is a drama or a comedy played before people. How many philosophical systems have been created in the history, so many dramas and comedies depicting fictional worlds have been staged and played. People, however, took these productions "at face value", referred to them in their reasoning, took their ideas as guiding rules for their lives.
Francis Bacon Francis Bacon(English) Francis Bacon(* January 22, 1561, London - † April 9, 1626) - English politician, philosopher and essayist. One of the founders of empiricism - a philosophical direction that claims that the main thing is own experience.
Became Lord Chancellor in 1618 and the same year, being convicted of bribery, was fined 40,000 pounds (subsequently the amount was reduced by the king). Spent 4 days in a London prison.
His works: "Essay" (1597), characterized by a special brevity, "The Success of Learning" (1605), which deals with the scientific approach in education; "New Organon" (1620), in which he redefined the task natural science, seeing in it a means for experimental discovery and a method of strengthening man's power over nature, "New Atlantis" (1626), describing the utopian state in which the search and use of scientific truth usually takes place.
Bacon developed a new, anti-scholastic method of scientific knowledge. He opposed the dogmatic deduction of the scholastics with the inductive method based on a rational analysis of experimental data. Bacon's materialism is inconsistent. Recognizing objectivity and knowability material world, the activity of matter and its movement, believing in the power of reason and science, Bacon made concessions to theology and observed the doctrine of the so-called. dual truth. The most important philosophical works B .: "New Organon", "On Principles and Beginnings".
The philosophy of Francis Bacon (1561-1626) is dedicated to the conscious attempt to form science and scientific knowledge. Treatise in the form of a project (which was not completed completely) of the "Great Renaissance of the Sciences", supplemented 1620 p. treatise "New Organon", is the most popular in the philosophy of the past and present.
Bacon consistently criticizes philosophy as a form of contemplation and promotes philosophy as the science of real world based on experiential knowledge. By such a position, he, in fact, expresses a new fundamental idea, which lies in the foundation modern natural science, objective knowledge of reality. His work in many places is permeated with the compromise of the concept of "dual truth", i.e. the truth of "revelation", the truth about God (theological truth) and the philosophical truth, that is, the truth discovered in scientific knowledge.
Bacon saw the place of science in the decision public problems and the contradictions of contemporary society. Determining the place of science, Bacon defines the goals of scientific knowledge: "the true goals of science are not to be engaged in it either for the sake of one's spirit, or for the sake of scientific discussions, or for the humiliation of others, or for the sake of self-interest and fame, or for the sake of power, but in order to have from it the benefit and success of the very life of society." Bacon also subordinates scientific methods to this direction of science, the purpose of which he sees in the knowledge of the objective, the real. existing world. Independent of the subjective aspirations of a person, he recognizes the experiment and its consequences as an instrument of such knowledge. Ideal scientific knowledge there is no distinction between thoughts and things. It is to overcome this discrepancy that Bacon formulates the principles of the scientific method in "New Organon".
Theoretical justification for empiricism
According to the theory of dual truth, Bacon makes a distinction between the sensual and rational souls of man. The rational soul enters a person by divine providence, is the subject of theology, and the sensual soul has all the characteristics of corporality, is the subject of philosophical research. By such a division, he creates a concept for science that makes it possible to study a person, his actions. He recognizes sensuality as the starting point of cognitive activity. Therefore, Bacon is often called the founder of empiricism, a philosophical trend that builds its epistemology by analyzing sense cognition and experience. The main thesis of empiricism is this interpretation:
"There is nothing in the mind that has not previously passed through the senses."
The theoretical foundation of empiricism given by Bacon is recognized as the most perfect among various areas of philosophy and among natural scientists.
Empiricism - experience, reliance on experimental research (and not on isolated sensory perception) - is for him the starting point of a new scientific method, which is supplemented by systematic logical work. He understands logic itself as an instrument of knowledge - an organon. However, the logic proposed and worked out in detail by Bacon is fundamentally different from Aristotle's, which was based on the theory of syllogism. Bacon's criticism of syllogistic is based on the fact that deductive logic is not able to move away from signs, words to concepts. No one educated person can't doubt that two termites that match in the middle term match mutually. However, Bacon believed at the same time, syllogisms are built from judgments, judgments from words, and words are only signs of concepts. For true knowledge, it is important to deal with the concepts themselves and their source.
Four idols
The creation of a new science and philosophy, Bacon believed, is possible only after understanding the cause leading to errors. He sees the main drawback in the application of traditional forms of thinking, based on the logical science of Aristotle, widespread among Europeans by Christianity. Such logic creates its idols (common mistakes). Bacon distinguishes four types of idols: idols of the clan, idols of the cave, idols of the market, idols of the theater.
He recognizes the idols of the clan and the cave as innate, those that arise from the natural properties of the soul, while the idols of the market and the theater are acquired in intellectual development person. The idols of the family are hidden in the very sensations of a person. All sensory perceptions, thoughts refer to the properties of a person, and not to reality. Man like false mirror confuses its nature and the nature of things, without distinguishing them clearly. Overcoming the shortcomings of human nature lies in the consistent observance of the rules of the new inductive logic proposed by F. Bacon. The main of these rules is the constant empirical verification of human ideas: whether our ideas correspond to reality or not. The idols of the cave are personal flaws specific person, the cause of which may be different: poor education, mental imbalance, own preferences, own prejudices, etc. If the idols of the kind are conditioned by the nature common to all people - to create a judgment by analogy with their own abilities, then the idols of the cave are conditioned by the individual nature of a person, inherent only to the corresponding groups, individuals. The idols of the square are obstacles that arise as a result of communication between people through words.
In many cases, the meanings of words were established without leaving the essence of things, but on the basis of a random impression from an encounter with an object. The idols of the theater are obstacles that are born among scientists due to the uncritical assimilation of an erroneous opinion. The idols of the theater are not characteristic of a person from birth, they arise as a result of the subordination of the mind to erroneous ideas.
The true method of knowledge according to Bacon
The use of the deductive method (the deductive form of constructing a thought) often leads to cases where a minor error in a general judgment, when creating a definition of the properties of a single one, becomes decisive in the representation of a person. Therefore, thinking from the general to the particular and the individual, according to the conclusion of F. Bacon, cannot be recognized as clear in scientific knowledge. Knowing the various obstacles that arise in the study of nature prevents some errors from occurring. However, this knowledge is only negative, and not positive, such that directs knowledge. Studying the history of science, Bacon came to the conclusion that there are two ways of research: the dogmatic (deductive) method and the empirical (inductive) method. It is empiricism that makes it possible to free cognition from the subjectivism of dogmatics, makes cognition positive, independent of imagination. A scientist who is guided by induction subordinates his subjectivity to the properties of reality, therefore he has knowledge that does not depend on personal preferences, authority and other idols of knowledge. Objective knowledge of nature is proclaimed the ideal of science. However, even pure empiricism does not allow one to go beyond facts, phenomena, to the knowledge of essence. Therefore, intellectual processing of empirical material is needed. The true method of cognition consists of intellectual actions for the processing of material obtained through experience. A scientist, guided by this method, is similar to a bee collecting nectar, and does not leave it in its original form, but processes the nectar into honey.
Main achievements
Francis Bacon determined the content and meaning of the scientific method of cognition, highlighting the meaning of the experiment in it and pointed to induction as Main way to the hypothesis.
He defined the goals of science as a way to benefit humanity. Most of the laws of nature, which seem to be universal, have been found to be valid only under certain conditions, as long as there is no reason to suspect the limitation or insufficiency of the scientific approach to the study of nature. Francis Bacon argued that "truth is the daughter of time, not of authority."
Bacon managed to accurately define not so much the purpose of Knowledge as its role in the future world of technology and, above all, in capitalist England.
The most significant followers of the empirical line in the philosophy of modern times: Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, George Berkeley, David Hume - in England; Etienne Condillac, Claude Helvetius, Paul Holbach, Denis Diderot - in France.
