BACON, FRANCIS(Bacon, Francis) (1561-1626), Baron Verulamsky, Viscount of St. Albany, English statesman, essayist and philosopher. Born in London on January 22, 1561, was the youngest son of Sir Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal. He studied at Trinity College, Cambridge University for two years, then spent three years in France in the retinue of the English ambassador.

After the death of his father in 1579, he was left practically without a livelihood and entered the Grey's Inn barristers' school to study law. In 1582 he became a barrister, and in 1584 a member of parliament, and until 1614 he played a prominent role in debates at sessions of the House of Commons. From time to time he composed messages to Queen Elizabeth, in which he strove to deal impartially with pressing political issues; perhaps, if the queen had followed his advice, some conflicts between the crown and parliament could have been avoided. However, his abilities as a statesman did not help his career, partly because Lord Burghley saw Bacon as a rival to his son, and partly because he lost favor with Elizabeth, courageously opposing, on grounds of principle, the passage of a bill on subsidies for covering expenses incurred in the war with Spain (1593).

Around 1591, he became an adviser to the queen's favorite, the Earl of Essex, who offered him a generous reward. However, Bacon made it clear to the patron that he was devoted above all to his country, and when in 1601 Essex tried to organize a coup, Bacon, being a queen's lawyer, took part in his condemnation as a traitor. Under Elizabeth, Bacon never rose to any high positions, but after James I Stuart ascended the throne in 1603, he quickly advanced in the service. In 1607 he took the post of Solicitor General, in 1613 - Attorney General, in 1617 - Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, and in 1618 received the post of Lord Chancellor, the highest in the structure of the judiciary. In 1603 Bacon was knighted, he was raised to the title of Baron Verulamsky in 1618 and Viscount of St. Albans in 1621. In the same year he was accused of taking bribes. Bacon acknowledged receiving gifts from people who were being sued, but denied that this had any bearing on his decision. Bacon was stripped of all posts and forbidden to appear at court. He spent the rest of the years before his death in seclusion.

Bacon's main literary creation is considered Experiences (essays), on which he worked continuously for 28 years; ten essays were published in 1597, and by 1625 the book had already collected 58 essays, some of which appeared in the third edition in a revised form ( Experiments, or Instructions moral and political, The Essayes or Counsels, Civill and Morall). Style Experiences concise and instructive, replete with learned examples and brilliant metaphors. Bacon called his experiments "fragmentary reflections" on ambition, close associates and friends, love, wealth, science, honors and fame, the vicissitudes of things and other aspects of human life. In them you can find a cold calculation, which is not mixed with emotions or impractical idealism, advice to those who are making a career. There are, for example, such aphorisms: “Everyone who rises high passes 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.” Bacon's Treatise About the wisdom of the ancients (De Sapientia Veterum, 1609) is an allegorical interpretation of the hidden truths contained in ancient myths. His History of the reign of Henry VII (Historie of the Raigne of King Henry the Seventh, 1622) is distinguished by lively characteristics and a clear political analysis.

Despite Bacon's involvement in politics and jurisprudence, the main business of his life was philosophy and science, and he majestically proclaimed: "All knowledge is the domain of my care." Aristotelian deduction, which at that time occupied a dominant position, he rejected as an unsatisfactory way of philosophizing. In his opinion, a new instrument of thinking should be proposed, a "new organon", with the help of which it would be possible to restore human knowledge on a more reliable basis. A general outline of the "great plan for the restoration of the sciences" was made by Bacon in 1620 in the preface to the work The New Organon, or True Directions for the Interpretation of Nature (Novum Organum). This work included six parts: a general overview of the current state of the sciences, a description of a new method for obtaining true knowledge, a set of empirical data, a discussion of issues to be further investigated, preliminary solutions, and, finally, philosophy itself. Bacon only managed to sketch the first two movements. The first one was named On the benefits and success of knowledge (Of the Proficience and Advancement of Learning, Divine and Humane, 1605), the Latin version of which, On the dignity and multiplication of sciences (De Dignitate et Augmentis Scientiarum, 1623), came out with corrections and many additions. According to Bacon, there are four kinds of "idols" that besiege the minds of people. 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 as a result of the adoption of various philosophical systems). Describing the walking prejudices that hinder the development of science, Bacon proposed a tripartite division of knowledge, produced according to mental functions, and related history to memory, poetry to imagination, and philosophy (in which he included the sciences) to reason. 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 hitherto neglected. In the second part of the book, Bacon described the principles of the inductive method, with the help of which he proposed to overthrow all the idols of reason.

In an unfinished story New Atlantis (The New Atlantis, written in 1614, publ. in 1627) Bacon describes a utopian community of scientists engaged in the collection and analysis of data of all kinds according to the scheme of the third part of the great plan of restoration. The new Atlantis is a superior social and cultural system that exists on the island of Bensalem, lost somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. The religion of the Atlanteans is Christianity, miraculously revealed to the inhabitants of the island; the cell of society is the highly revered family; type of government is essentially a monarchy. The main institution of the state is the Solomon House, the College of the Six Days of Creation, a research center from which scientific discoveries and inventions come, ensuring the happiness and prosperity of citizens. It is sometimes believed that it was the Solomon House that served as the prototype of the Royal Society of London, established during the reign of Charles II in 1662.

Bacon's struggle against authorities and the method of "logical distinctions", the promotion 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 the New Age. However, he did not receive any significant results - neither in empirical research, nor in the field of theory, and his method of inductive cognition through exceptions, which, as he believed, would produce new knowledge “like a machine”, did not receive recognition in experimental science. .

In March 1626, determined to test the extent to which cold slows down the process of decay, he experimented with a chicken stuffed with snow, but caught a cold. Bacon died at Highgate near London on April 9, 1626.

Francis Bacon (1561-1626), English philosopher and statesman. Graduated from Cambridge University and Law School. In 1584 he was elected to the House of Commons, where he sat for about 20 years. In 1613, Fr. Bacon became Attorney General of the Royal Court, in 1617 Lord Privy Seal, and in 1618 Lord Chancellor. In the same year, the king awarded him the title of Baron of Verulamsky, and later also the title of Viscount of St. Albans. In 1621, the House of Lords accused him of corruption and bribery. Court decision Fr. Bacon was forbidden to conduct any state activity, but until his death he continued to engage in science.

Although most of Bacon's life (and, in another approach, all of it) proceeded within the conventional chronological framework of the Renaissance, due to the nature of his teaching, he is considered the first modern philosopher.

Practical benefits of science. Bacon noted that the discovery of printing, gunpowder and the compass completely changed the state of affairs, respectively, in literature, military affairs and navigation; these changes in turn gave impetus to numerous changes in all other spheres of human activity. Not a single empire, not a single sect, not a single star has made a greater impact on humanity. But, studying the history of culture, we see that throughout human history, science has had a very weak impact on everyday life. This must be changed: science and acquired knowledge must bear fruit in practice, must serve for the development of technology and industry, and make human life easier.

Biology and anthropology. Mechanistically, Descartes interprets not only inanimate nature, but also living. An animal's body is an automaton in which muscles, ligaments, and joints play the role of gears, levers, and so on. From the brain throughout the body, like threads, nerves stretch, through them the influence of objects from the outside world on the brain is carried out, and through them the commands of the brain are transmitted to the muscles. But with the help of mechanics it is impossible to explain the activity of thinking, and this is one of the reasons why Descartes considered consciousness to be a special substance. The sharp opposition of the body as a mechanism to consciousness (soul) confronted Descartes with the complex problem of their relationship in humans. He tried to solve it mechanistically, arguing that the data of the senses (mechanical influences) are transmitted to consciousness in the pineal gland.

Teaching about method. Scientific knowledge of the world should be based on the use of rigorous methods, which will allow us to move from the random finding of individual truths to their systematic and purposeful "production" If Fr. Bacon considered experience related to objects of the external world to be the basis of science, while Descartes focused on the activity of the human mind, on the search for rules by which the human mind should act. In Rules for the Direction of the Mind, he proposes 21 such rules; in Discourse on Method he reduces them to four.

Table 59 Rules to guide the mind

Gnoseology and rationalism. The first rule is at the same time the last: everything begins with it and everything ends with it. But what can be considered absolutely clear and obvious, without any doubts? Our senses sometimes deceive us. So, we can assume that nothing in the world is what it seems to us. Another source of knowledge is our mind. A pure mind generates, for example, mathematics. And we can say that 2 + 2 = 4 under any circumstances, in a dream and in reality. But is it possible that mathematical knowledge is just a hoax invented by some evil spirit?

Doubt is useful and necessary, it is an obligatory stage on the way to truth. You can doubt everything, but for this it is still necessary that there be someone who doubts, thinks, reflects. Hence, as completely obvious and indisputable, Descartes derives his famous thesis: "I think, therefore I am"("Cogito ergo sum") 1 . The absolute evidence of this thesis for our mind makes it a model of those truths that can be considered so clear and distinct that they do not cause any doubts. On the other hand, it is the evidence of an idea for the mind that turns out to be the highest criterion of truth. In the human mind, Descartes identifies three types of ideas (Table 60).

Table 60 Ideas Contained in the Mind of Man

Innate ideas are contained in the human mind in a coiled form, like germs. The most important among them is the idea of ​​God as an infinite, eternal, unchanging, independent, omniscient substance that gave birth to man and the whole world. The goodness of God is a guarantee that man, His creation, is also capable of cognizing the world, i.e. those ideas that God put into the world during creation as the fundamental laws of being. These same ideas, and primarily mathematical laws and axioms, God put into the human mind. In the mind of the student of science, they unfold and become clear and distinct. 1 This thesis of Descartes interestingly echoes the thesis of Meister Eckhart: “God exists because he knows” (see p. 231).

Ethics. The ethical views of Descartes are also built on the basis of rationalism: the task of a thinking person is to strengthen the power of reason over the tyranny of the senses. In the work "Passion of the Soul" he formulated his basic rules of morality (maxims) (Table 61).

Table 61 moral rules

The fate of teaching The diverse ideas of Descartes had a very significant influence on the development of all subsequent Western philosophy. Thus, the dualism of Descartes was developed in a special trend - occasionalism, but was not accepted by other philosophers - even by Spinoza, whom he considered himself a student of Descartes. The foundations of deism and mechanism laid down in the teachings of Descartes were most actively developed in the teachings of Newton, and later by many enlighteners. The rationalism of Descartes formed the basis of all the rationalism of modern times, but already at the end of the 17th century. in philosophy, the opposite doctrine, sensationalism, is born (for more details, see Scheme 103).

Francis Bacon, who lived at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries, formulated many ideas that psychologists and cognitive scientists repeat to this day.

In The New Organon, or True Directions for the Interpretation of Nature, Bacon speaks of the need to revise and restore the sciences, laying the foundations for the scientific method that we know today. And there he talks about the difficulties that anyone who seeks to explain the world faces.

"Organon" (from the Greek word "tool, method") was then called the logical writings of Aristotle. He, through his works, presented the method not only to the scholastics, who based their own “sums” and disputes on Aristotelian logic, but also to the entire European scientific thought. Bacon decided to create something no less ambitious, which is why he called the "New Organon" the second part of the work on the "great restoration of the sciences." Bacon considered the main method of scientific knowledge of the world to be induction, which involves reasoning from the particular to the general and is based on experience.

On the path of knowledge, even intelligent and enlightened people encounter many obstacles. These obstacles he called idols or ghosts - from the word "idolum", which in Greek meant "ghost" or "vision". This emphasizes that we are talking about a hassle, an illusion - about something that does not really exist.

We offer to look at these idols and find out if they still exist today.

Idols of the clan

"Ancestral idols" are, according to Bacon, delusions that "found their foundation in the very nature of man." It would be a mistake to believe that the world is exactly as it is seen by our senses. “It is false to say that the feelings of man are the measure of things,” writes Bacon. But the experience that we get by communicating with the external environment is also subject to interpretation, which also creates inevitable errors. The human mind in the "New Organon" is compared to an uneven mirror, which adds its own errors to the reflected things, distorting nature.

The idea that our perceptions are relative was subsequently developed by many scientists and has shaped the modern understanding of the human and natural sciences. The figure of the observer influences the interpretation of famous quantum experiments, be it Schrödinger's cat or Klaus Jensonoms' experiment with electron diffraction. The study of subjectivity and individual human experiences has been a major theme in culture since the 20th century.

Bacon notes that all people have delusions of a "tribal" nature: they are called so because they are characteristic of all of us as a species, and there is no escape from this baggage of one's own nature. But a philosopher - a person who follows the path of knowledge - can at least realize this nature and make allowances for it, putting forward judgments about the essence of phenomena and things.

Cave idols

Before talking about these misconceptions, we first need to dwell on the symbolism of the cave. In classical texts, this image always refers to Plato's cave, which he describes in the dialogue "The State".

According to the myth of the cave, human knowledge and ignorance can be described as follows. Standing with his back to the light of a fire in a dark cave, a person looks at the shadows cast by things on the walls of the cave, and, seeing them, believes that he is dealing with true reality, while he sees only shadow figures. According to Plato, our perception is based on the observation of illusions, and we only imagine that we know the true reality. Thus, the cave is a sensually perceived world.

Bacon clarifies that each person has his own cave, which distorts the light of nature. Unlike the "idols of the family", the "cave" delusions differ for each of us: this means that the errors in the work of our organs of perception are individual. Education and development conditions also play an important role. Like several hundred years ago, today each of us has our own experience of growing up, the behavior patterns learned in childhood, which formed the inner language of our favorite books.

“Besides the mistakes inherent in the human race, everyone has his own special cave, which weakens and distorts the light of nature. This happens either from the special innate properties of each, or from education and conversations with others, or from reading books and from the authorities before whom one bows, or due to a difference in impressions. Francis Bacon, New Organon

In thinking about this, Bacon was ahead of his time in many ways. It was only in the second half of the 20th century that anthropologists, psychologists, and cognitivists began to talk massively about how different perceptions of different people differ. Both and which, ultimately, determine the peculiarities of thinking, not to mention the difference in cultures and the peculiarities of family education, can become a divisive factor.

Idols of the Square

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These "idols" Bacon proposes to detect (and neutralize) in close communities of people united by common ties, interests and problems. Social communication is our best skill as a species, but it can also be the root of the errors that go from individual to collective as people pass on their delusions to each other.

Bacon pays special attention to words, because people are united through speech, and the main mistake that can arise in this regard is “bad and absurd establishment of words.” Let the word "square" not deceive you: these idols got their name simply because the square is a noisy place. And this sin of knowledge, according to the philosopher, affects not only greengrocers in the markets, but also scientists. After all, even when a dispute is started between scientists, it most often gets bogged down in the need to “define concepts”. Everyone who has ever participated in scientific discussions knows that you can decide for as long as you like. Therefore, Bacon advised to turn to the "custom and wisdom" of mathematicians - to begin with definitions.

“People believe that their mind commands words. But it also happens that words turn their power against reason. This has made the sciences and philosophy sophistical and ineffectual. Most of the words have their source in common opinion and separate things within the limits most obvious to the mind of the crowd. Francis Bacon, New Organon

There is a lot of talk today about how important linguistics is for consciousness - and not only cognitive psychologists and linguists, but also specialists who are engaged in machine learning. Since the twentieth century, social philosophers have been actively talking about the significance of words and definitions. By using a language in which there are many reduced concepts, we grossly simplify the thought; using harsh words to define other people - we plant aggression in society. At the same time, giving competent and detailed definitions of things and phenomena, we speak about them more calmly and balancedly, create more competent descriptions.

What Bacon could never have predicted was the development of the means of communication, unprecedented for his time. However, human psychology has not changed much with the receipt of new tools - it's just that now we can even more effectively create communities with our own rules, ideas, prejudices, and the language that reinforces it all.

Theater idols

The last kind of "idols" that take us prisoner of delusions are the idols of the theatre. This refers to the ideas that a person borrows from other people. These include incorrect philosophical teachings, erroneous scientific ideas and false axioms, myths that exist in society. We can blindly trust the authority of other people, or simply repeat the wrong things after others without thinking.

These idols got their name because "how many philosophical systems are accepted or invented, so many comedies are staged and played, representing fictional and artificial worlds." Bacon points out that the interpretations of the universe, which are offered by incorrect theoretical systems, are similar to theatrical performances. They do not give descriptions of the true reality.

This idea still seems to be relevant today. For example, you can remember about the idols of the theater when you hear another pseudoscientific theory or just everyday stupidity based on prejudice.

Epochs are different, but the distortions are the same

In addition to listing the four idols, Bacon left in the New Organon many references to thinking errors that we would today call cognitive distortions.

• Illusory correlation and several other similar distortions: “The human mind, by virtue of its tendency, easily assumes more order and uniformity in things than it finds,” Bacon writes, arguing that people tend to create connections that are not really there.
• Description of the subject's propensity to confirm his point of view: “The mind of a person attracts everything to support and agree with what he once accepted, whether because it is a matter of common faith, or because he likes it. Whatever the strength and number of facts to the contrary, reason either does not notice them, or neglects them, or diverts and rejects them by means of distinctions with a great and pernicious prejudice, so that the reliability of those former conclusions remains intact.
• “The mistake of the survivor” (the hero of this parable did not fall into it): “The one who, when they showed him the images of those who escaped the shipwreck by taking a vow, displayed in the temple and at the same time sought an answer, did he now recognize the power of the gods, asked in turn : "And where are the images of those who died after they made a vow?"

Bacon also talked about the nature of superstition, based on the principles of human thinking (namely, he pointed out that people tend to notice events that fit their expectations and ignore prophecies that do not come true) and pointed out that positively and negatively colored Arguments have different strengths.

He noted that the mind is more strongly influenced by images and events that can "immediately and suddenly hit him." The rest of the events go more or less unnoticed. It's no secret that the information we're interested in is remembered best, especially if our lives depend on it. It is interesting that Bacon drew attention to these features of human perception so long ago.

So, if you are going to read Daniel Kahneman, it makes sense to supplement his books with a volume of Bacon - or even several dialogues of Plato.

All scientific works of Bacon can be grouped into two groups. One group of works is devoted to the problems of the development of science and the analysis of scientific knowledge. This includes treatises related to his project of the "Great Restoration of the Sciences", which, for reasons unknown to us, was not completed. Only the second part of the project, devoted to the development of the inductive method, was completed, published in 1620 under the title "New Organon". Another group included such works as Moral, Economic and Political Essays, New Atlantis, History of Henry VII, On Principles and Principles (unfinished study) and others.

Bacon considered the main task of philosophy to be the construction of a new method of cognition, and the goal of science was to bring benefits to mankind. “Science should be developed,” according to Bacon, “neither for the sake of one’s spirit, nor for the sake of certain scientific disputes, nor for the sake of neglecting the rest, nor for the sake of self-interest and glory, nor in order to achieve power, nor for some other low intentions, but for the sake of life itself having benefit and success from it. The practical orientation of knowledge was expressed by Bacon in the well-known aphorism: "Knowledge is power."

Bacon's main work on the methodology of scientific knowledge was the New Organon. It gives a presentation of the "new logic" as the main way to gain new knowledge and build a new science. As the main method, Bacon proposes induction, which is based on experience and experiment, as well as a certain methodology for analyzing and generalizing sensory data. bacon philosopher knowledge

F. Bacon raised an important question - about the method of scientific knowledge. In this regard, he put forward the doctrine of the so-called "idols" (ghosts, prejudices, false images), which prevent the receipt of reliable knowledge. Idols personify the inconsistency of the process of cognition, its complexity and confusion. They are either inherent in the mind by its nature, or connected with external premises. These ghosts constantly accompany the course of cognition, give rise to false ideas and ideas, and prevent one from penetrating "deep and distant nature." In his teaching, F. Bacon singled out the following varieties of idols (ghosts).

Firstly, these are "ghosts of the family." They are due to the very nature of man, the specifics of his senses and mind, the limitations of their capabilities. Feelings either distort the object, or are completely powerless to give real information about it. They continue an interested (non-biased) attitude towards objects. The mind also has flaws, and, like a distorted mirror, it often reproduces reality in a distorted form. So, he tends to allow the exaggeration of certain aspects, or to underestimate these aspects. Due to these circumstances, the data of the sense organs and judgments of the mind require mandatory experimental verification.

Secondly, there are "ghosts of the cave", which also significantly weaken and distort the "light of nature". Bacon understood them as the individual characteristics of human psychology and physiology, associated with the character, originality of the spiritual world and other aspects of the personality. The emotional sphere has a particularly active influence on the course of cognition. Feelings and emotions, wills and passions, literally "sprinkle" the mind, and sometimes even "stain" and "spoil" it.

Thirdly, F. Bacon singled out "ghosts of the square" ("market"). They arise in the course of communication between people and are primarily due to the influence of incorrect words and false concepts on the course of cognition. These idols "rape" the mind, leading to confusion and endless disputes. Concepts dressed in verbal form can not only confuse the person who knows, but even lead him away from the right path. That is why it is necessary to clarify the true meaning of words and concepts, the things hidden behind them and the connections of the surrounding world.

Fourthly, there are "idols of the theatre". They represent the blind and fanatical belief in authority, which is often the case in philosophy itself. An uncritical attitude to judgments and theories can have an inhibitory effect on the flow of scientific knowledge, and sometimes even fetter it. Bacon also referred "theatrical" (inauthentic) theories and teachings to this kind of ghosts.

All idols have an individual or social origin, they are powerful and stubborn. However, obtaining true knowledge is still possible, and the main tool for this is the correct method of knowledge. The doctrine of the method became, in fact, the main one in the work of Bacon.

Method ("path") is a set of procedures and techniques used to obtain reliable knowledge. The philosopher identifies specific ways through which cognitive activity can take place. This:

• - "the way of the spider";
• - "the path of the ant";
• - "the way of the bee".

"Way of the Spider" - obtaining knowledge from "pure reason", that is, in a rationalistic way. This path ignores or significantly downplays the role of concrete facts and practical experience. Rationalists are divorced from reality, dogmatic and, according to Bacon, "weave a web of thoughts from their minds."

The "Way of the Ant" is a way of gaining knowledge when only experience is taken into account, that is, dogmatic empiricism (the exact opposite of rationalism divorced from life). This method is also imperfect. "Pure empiricists" focus on practical experience, the collection of disparate facts and evidence. Thus, they receive an external picture of knowledge, they see problems "outside", "from outside", but they cannot understand the inner essence of the things and phenomena being studied, see the problem from the inside.

"The way of the bee", according to Bacon, is an ideal way of knowing. Using it, the philosopher-researcher takes all the virtues of the "path of the spider" and "the path of the ant" and at the same time is freed from their shortcomings. Following the "path of the bee", it is necessary to collect the entire set of facts, summarize them (look at the problem "outside") and, using the capabilities of the mind, look "inside" the problem, understand its essence. Thus, the best way of knowledge, according to Bacon, is empiricism based on induction (collection and generalization of facts, accumulation of experience) using rationalistic methods of understanding the inner essence of things and phenomena by reason.

F. Bacon believed that in scientific knowledge the experimental-inductive method should be the main one, which involves the movement of knowledge from simple (abstract) definitions and concepts to more complex and detailed (concrete). Such a method is nothing but the interpretation of facts obtained through experience. Cognition involves the observation of facts, their systematization and generalization, verification by experience (experiment). "From the particular to the general" - this is how, according to the philosopher, a scientific search should take place. The choice of method is the most important condition for gaining true knowledge. Bacon emphasized that "... the lame one walking on the road is ahead of the one who runs without the road," and "the more dexterous and faster the runner on the impassable road, the greater will be his wanderings." The Baconian method is nothing more than the analysis of empirical (given to the researcher in experience) facts with the help of reason.

In its content, F. Bacon's induction is a movement towards truth through continuous generalization and ascent from the individual to the general, the discovery of laws. It (induction) requires comprehension of a variety of facts: both confirming the assumption and denying it. During the experiment, there is an accumulation of primary empirical material, primarily the identification of the properties of objects (color, weight, density, temperature, etc.). Analysis allows you to make a mental dissection and anatomy of objects, to identify opposite properties and characteristics in them. As a result, a conclusion should be obtained that fixes the presence of common properties in the whole variety of objects under study. This conclusion can become the basis for hypotheses, i.e. assumptions about the causes and trends in the development of the subject. Induction as a method of experimental knowledge leads eventually to the formulation of axioms, i.e. provisions that no longer need further evidence. Bacon emphasized that the art of discovering truth is constantly being improved as these truths are discovered.

F. Bacon is considered the founder of English philosophical materialism and experimental science of modern times. He emphasized that the main source of reliable knowledge about the surrounding world is living sensory experience, human practice. "There is nothing in the mind that was not previously in the senses," - this is the main thesis of the supporters of empiricism as a trend in epistemology. However, the data of the sense organs, for all their significance, still need to be obligatory experimentally); verification and justification. That is why induction is the method of cognition corresponding to experimental natural science. In his book The New Organon, F. Bacon revealed in great detail the procedure for applying this method in natural science using the example of such a physical phenomenon as heat. The substantiation of the method of induction was a significant step forward towards overcoming the traditions of fruitless medieval scholasticism and the formation of scientific thinking. The main significance of the scientist's work was in the formation of the methodology of experimental scientific knowledge. Subsequently, it began to develop very rapidly in connection with the emergence of an industrial civilization in Europe.

An impartial mind, freed from all sorts of prejudices, open and listening to experience - such is the starting position of Baconian philosophy. To master the truth of things, it remains to resort to the correct method of working with experience, which guarantees our success. Bacon's experience is only the first stage of cognition, its second stage is the mind, which produces a logical processing of the data of sensory experience. A true scientist, - says Bacon, - is like a bee, which "extracts material from garden and wild flowers, but arranges and changes it according to its ability."

Therefore, the main step in the reform of science proposed by Bacon was to be the improvement of methods of generalization, the creation of a new concept of induction. It is the development of the experimental-inductive method or inductive logic that is the greatest merit of F. Bacon. He devoted his main work, The New Organon, to this problem, named in contrast to the old Organon of Aristotle. Bacon opposes not so much the genuine study of Aristotle as against medieval scholasticism, which interprets this doctrine.

Bacon's experimental-inductive method consisted in the gradual formation of new concepts by interpreting facts and natural phenomena on the basis of their observation, analysis, comparison, and further experimentation. Only with the help of such a method, according to Bacon, can new truths be discovered. Without rejecting deduction, Bacon defined the difference and features of these two methods of cognition as follows: “Two ways exist and can exist for finding and discovering truth. One soars from sensations and particulars to the most general axioms and, going from these foundations and their unshakable truth, discusses and discovers the middle axioms. This path is still used today. The other path deduces axioms from sensations and particulars, ascending continuously and gradually, until, finally, it leads to the most general axioms. This is the true path, but not tested. "

Although the problem of induction was raised earlier by previous philosophers, it is only in Bacon that it acquires a dominant significance and acts as a primary means of knowing nature. In contrast to induction through a simple enumeration, common at that time, he brings to the fore the true, in his words, induction, which gives new conclusions, obtained not so much on the basis of observation of confirming facts, but as a result of the study of phenomena that contradict the position being proved. A single case can refute an ill-considered generalization. Neglect of the so-called authorities, according to Bacon, is the main cause of errors, superstitions, prejudices.

Bacon called the collection of facts and their systematization the initial stage of induction. Bacon put forward the idea of ​​compiling 3 tables of research: tables of presence, absence and intermediate steps. If (to take Bacon's favorite example) someone wants to find a formula for heat, then he collects in the first table various cases of heat, trying to weed out everything that is not connected with heat. In the second table he collects together cases which are similar to those in the first, but do not have heat. For example, the first table could include rays from the sun that create heat, and the second table could include rays from the moon or stars that do not create heat. On this basis, all those things that are present when heat is present can be distinguished. Finally, in the third table, cases are collected in which heat is present to varying degrees.

The next step in induction, according to Bacon, should be the analysis of the data obtained. Based on a comparison of these three tables, we can find out the cause that underlies heat, namely, according to Bacon, movement. This manifests the so-called "principle of studying the general properties of phenomena."

Bacon's inductive method also includes the conduct of an experiment. At the same time, it is important to vary the experiment, repeat it, move it from one area to another, reverse the circumstances and link them with others. Bacon distinguishes between two types of experiment: fruitful and luminous. The first type is those experiences that bring direct benefit to a person, the second - those whose purpose is to know the deep connections of nature, the laws of phenomena, the properties of things. Bacon considered the second type of experiments more valuable, because without their results it is impossible to carry out fruitful experiments.

Complementing induction with a whole series of techniques, Bacon sought to turn it into the art of questioning nature, leading to true success on the path of knowledge. As the father of empiricism, Bacon was by no means inclined to underestimate the importance of reason. The power of the mind just manifests itself in the ability to organize observation and experiment in such a way that allows you to hear the voice of nature itself and interpret what it says in the right way.

The value of reason lies in its art of extracting truth from the experience in which it is contained. Reason as such does not contain the truths of being and, being detached from experience, is incapable of discovering them. Experience is thus fundamental. Reason can be defined through experience (for example, as the art of extracting truth from experience), but experience does not need to be pointed to reason in its definition and explanation, and therefore can be considered as an independent and independent instance from reason.

Therefore, Bacon illustrates his position by comparing the activity of bees, collecting nectar from many flowers and processing it into honey, with the activity of a spider, weaving a web from itself (one-sided rationalism) and ants, collecting various objects in one heap (one-sided empiricism).

Bacon had the intention of writing a great work, The Great Restoration of the Sciences, which would set out the foundations of understanding, but managed to complete only two parts of the work On the Dignity and Multiplication of the Sciences and the aforementioned New Organon, which outlines and substantiates the principles of a new for this time inductive logic.

So, knowledge was considered by Bacon as a source of people's power. According to the philosopher, people should be masters and masters of nature. B. Russell wrote about Bacon: “He is usually regarded as the author of the saying “knowledge is power”, and although he may have had predecessors ... he emphasized the importance of this position in a new way. The whole basis of his philosophy was practically aimed at enable mankind to master the forces of nature by means of scientific discoveries and inventions.

Bacon believed that, according to its purpose, all knowledge should be the knowledge of the natural causal relationships of phenomena, and not through fantasizing about "reasonable purposes of providence" or about "supernatural miracles." In a word, true knowledge is the knowledge of causes, and therefore our mind leads out of darkness and reveals much if it aspires to find the causes on the right and direct path.

The influence of Bacon's teachings on contemporary natural science and the subsequent development of philosophy is enormous. His analytical scientific method of studying natural phenomena, the development of the concept of the need to study it through experience laid the foundation for a new science - experimental natural science, and also played a positive role in the achievements of natural science in the 16th-17th centuries.

Bacon's logical method gave impetus to the development of inductive logic. Bacon's classification of sciences was positively received in the history of sciences and even made the basis for the division of sciences by the French encyclopedists. Bacon's methodology largely anticipated the development of inductive research methods in subsequent centuries, up to the 19th century.

At the end of his life, Bacon wrote a utopian book, The New Atlantis, in which he depicted an ideal state where all the productive forces of society were transformed with the help of science and technology. Bacon describes amazing scientific and technological achievements that transform human life: rooms for the miraculous healing of diseases and maintaining health, boats for swimming under water, various visual devices, sound transmission over distances, ways to improve the breed of animals, and much more. Some of the described technical innovations were realized in practice, others remained in the realm of fantasy, but all of them testify to Bacon's indomitable faith in the power of the human mind and the possibility of knowing nature in order to improve human life.

Francis Bacon is an English philosopher, progenitor of empiricism, materialism and the founder of theoretical mechanics. Born January 22, 1561 in London. Graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge University. He held fairly high positions under King James I.

Bacon's philosophy took shape during the general cultural upsurge of the capitalistically developing European countries, the alienation of the scholastic ideas of church dogma.

The problems of the relationship between man and nature occupy a central place in the entire philosophy of Francis Bacon. In his work The New Organon, Bacon tries to present the correct method of knowing nature, preferring the inductive method of knowing, which is trivially called "Bacon's method." This method is based on the transition from particular provisions to general ones, on the experimental testing of hypotheses.

Science occupies a strong position in all of Bacon's philosophy, his winged aphorism "Knowledge is power" is widely known. The philosopher tried to connect the differentiated parts of science into a single system for a holistic reflection of the picture of the world. The basis of the scientific knowledge of Francis Bacon is the hypothesis that God, having created man in his own image and likeness, endowed him with a mind for research, knowledge of the Universe. It is the mind that is able to provide a person with well-being, to gain power over nature.

But on the way of human knowledge of the Universe, mistakes are made that Bacon called idols or ghosts, systematizing them into four groups:

1. idols of the cave - in addition to the errors inherent in all, there are purely individual ones, associated with the narrowness of people's knowledge, they can be both innate and acquired.
2. idols of the theater or theories - the assimilation by a person from other people of false ideas about reality
3. idols of the square or market - susceptibility to common misconceptions that are generated by speech communication and, in general, the social nature of man.
4. idols of the family - are born, hereditarily transmitted by human nature, do not depend on the culture and individuality of a person.

Bacon considers all idols to be just attitudes of human consciousness, and traditions of thinking, which may turn out to be false. The sooner a person can clear his mind of idols that interfere with an adequate perception of the picture of the world, his knowledge, the sooner he will be able to master the knowledge of nature.

The main category in Bacon's philosophy is experience, which gives food to the mind, determines the reliability of specific knowledge. To get to the bottom of the truth, you need to accumulate enough experience, and in testing hypotheses, experience is the best evidence.

Bacon is rightfully considered the founder of English materialism, for him matter, being, nature, the objective as opposed to idealism, are primary.

Bacon introduced the concept of the dual soul of man, noting that bodily man unequivocally belongs to science, but he considers the soul of man, introducing the categories of the rational soul and the sensual soul. The rational soul in Bacon is the subject of study of theology, and the sensual soul is studied by philosophy.

Francis Bacon made a huge contribution to the development of English and European philosophy, to the emergence of a completely new European thinking, was the founder of the inductive method of cognition and materialism.

Among the most significant followers of Bacon: T. Hobbes, D. Locke, D. Diderot, J. Bayer.

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