Philosophy of the Modern Age and the Enlightenment

Francis Bacon and the Principles of His Philosophy

The spirit of the era found its clearest and most consistent expression in the work of Francis Bacon (1561-1626)—an English politician, statesman, scholar, philosopher, and essayist.

In contrast to the values of antiquity and the Middle Ages, Bacon asserts a new value: science. Science, he argues, cannot be an end in itself, knowledge for the sake of knowledge, or wisdom for the sake of wisdom. The ultimate goal of science is invention and discovery, with the aim of benefiting humanity, meeting human needs, improving lives, and increasing humanity's power over nature.

Bacon sought to resolve the age-old tension between truth and utility with a single stroke—what is most useful in the real world is also what is most true in knowledge. Thus, only true knowledge grants people real power and equips them with the ability to change the world—here, two human aspirations, knowledge and power, find their optimal balance. From this, Bacon's famous maxim emerges: "knowledge is power."

This guiding idea defines Bacon's entire philosophy—a "philosophy of industrial science." He believed that the cure for society's ills lay in the economic progress of the nation, which could only be achieved through scientific advancements. For Bacon, science must serve economic progress.

Bacon urges us not to revere authority too much (especially that of ancient thinkers) and not to deny the rights of the present—the true authority of the time. "Truth is the daughter of Time, not of Authority," he declares—another of his famous maxims. He argues that the "logic" we now possess (referring to Aristotle’s syllogistic method) is unnecessary for scientific discoveries. The Modern Age, through Bacon, decisively rejects the syllogism as a source of new knowledge. In his view, syllogism is not a tool for discovering new facts through experiment but merely a means of presenting known truths.

For his major philosophical work, Bacon chose the title Novum Organum (1620). In this title alone, Bacon sets his views in opposition to one of the ancient "authorities" and his Organon. Bacon's Novum Organum contrasts inductive logic (induction) with Aristotle’s deductive logic (deduction).

Another important work by Bacon was the utopian novella New Atlantis (1627), the title of which signals a further challenge to another ancient "authority"—Plato. While undoubtedly a utopia, New Atlantis stands somewhat apart from the genre inaugurated by Thomas More's famous Utopia. The social order of the island of Bensalem resembles that of contemporary England, with its idealized absolute monarchy, though the king is humane and enlightened, and his decrees are always made in accordance with the law. Private property is sacred in Bensalem, so there is neither property nor social equality. Money plays an important role in society, with talented inventors and engineers richly rewarded.

New Atlantis serves as a kind of propaganda for scientific and technological progress, which Bacon saw as the key to humanity’s boundless power over nature and itself. What interested him more than social structure was the place and role of science in society.

The central institution of Bensalem is a unique, quasi-magical order called the "House of Solomon" (which makes only wise and just decisions)—a scientific and technological center, or the nation's central brain, where all aspects of life are subordinated to the success of its operations. Science holds the highest place in society, though religion is preserved and plays an important role.

The novella allowed Bacon to present his vision for a new state organization of science—a concept that foreshadowed future European academies of science. The "House of Solomon" is responsible for: — planning and organizing scientific research and technical inventions; — managing the productive forces of the nation; — implementing scientific and technological advances in industry; — monopolizing foreign relations.

The members of the "House of Solomon" form an elite technocratic caste, occupying the highest state offices. It is the rule of technocrats.

The primary goal of the "House of Solomon" is to uncover the causes and hidden forces of all things and extend humanity’s power over nature until everything becomes possible for humankind.

Bacon’s philosophy initiated the emergence of a fundamentally different European culture, distinct from the culture of antiquity and the Middle Ages. It shaped the consciousness of superiority that modern Europeans felt over the thinking of the ancients, and even more so over medieval ways of thought. In Bacon’s view, Aristotle had merely pointed to the problem but had never provided a method for solving it.

To address this issue, Bacon proposed and publicly set forth his project of the Great Instauration of the Sciences, a plan that was never fully realized.

What, then, was Bacon’s attitude toward ancient philosophy? Nearly all of the sciences we possess have their origins in Greek thought. However, Bacon was convinced that the true flourishing of ancient philosophy did not occur in the time of Plato and Aristotle, but rather in the pre-Socratic era, particularly among the thinkers of Miletus, Heraclitus, and, most notably, Democritus, whom he valued above all others. Bacon’s preference for the pre-Socratics stemmed from their focus on the study of nature, which occupied a central place in their investigations. In this sense, the pre-Socratics can be considered intellectual "contemporaries" of Descartes and Leibniz.

One of the most striking elements of Bacon's philosophy is his catalog of what he calls "idols" of the human mind—those poor intellectual habits or biases that lead to scientific error. These are:

• Idols of the Tribe, inherent in human nature itself;
• Idols of the Cave, personal prejudices, for each individual lives in their own “cave”;
• Idols of the Marketplace, associated with the tyranny of words;
• Idols of the Theatre, linked to rigid mental frameworks, where blind faith in established rules can substitute for independent thought.

The next step in Bacon’s project was the classification of scientific knowledge, a task of paramount importance in the Great Instauration. He divided all human knowledge into three categories: history, poetry, and philosophy. In doing so, he provided a review of the state of the sciences at that time and offered perspectives for progressive development in each field.

Bacon’s classification of the sciences was based on what were then considered the primary faculties of the human soul:

1. Memory;
2. Imagination (or fantasy);
3. Reason.

History corresponds to memory, poetry to imagination, and philosophy to reason, which was most closely aligned with the concept of science. He further divided history into natural and civil (which includes ecclesiastical, scientific, and political history). Bacon was the first in European culture to advocate for the creation of a scientific history, for in antiquity, history was known as narrative, and in the Middle Ages, as the providence of God.

What is of greatest interest to us is Bacon's understanding of philosophy's place, for unlike history, it is concerned with the knowledge of universals. According to Bacon, there are three primary subjects of philosophy:

• God,
• Nature,
• Humanity.

Humanity should be studied: a) as an individual, through the sciences of the body (physiology) and of the soul (psychology); b) as a member of society, through political science.

Bacon’s most significant achievement in the realm of science lies not only in his division of studies (sciences) into two categories: 1) Fruitful, those whose aim is direct practical benefit to humanity; and 2) Illuminating, those whose goal is not immediate utility but rather the understanding of the laws of phenomena and the properties of things. Today, we refer to these more prosaically as applied and fundamental sciences. Bacon’s genius extended beyond the mere categorization of the sciences; as a statesman (he served as Lord Keeper of the Great Seal and Lord Chancellor of England from 1617 to 1621), he identified the sources of their funding. Fruitful sciences are financed by private business, as industry requires technology and machinery, which have become essential to modern life. Illuminating sciences, on the other hand, are supported by the crown or the public treasury (in our case, the state).

Thus, the historical role of Bacon’s philosophy, and its ultimate fate, was to become the ideology of the industrial era and the cult of science: the philosophy of industrial science. Bacon himself can be regarded as the first statesman of science.