Philosophy f bacon briefly. Francis Bacon and his main ideas. Bacon on the nature of human error

Francis Bacon (1561 - 1626) was born in London in the family of the Lord Privy Seal under Queen Elizabeth. From the age of 12 he studied at the University of Cambridge (St. Trinity College). By choosing political career as a career, Bacon received legal education. In 1584 he was elected to the House of Commons, where he remained until the accession to the throne of James I (1603) and the dissolution of Parliament. From that time on, he quickly climbed the political ladder, reaching the position of Lord Chancellor in 1618. In the spring of 1621, Bacon was accused of corruption by the House of Lords, put on trial and was released from severe punishment only by the grace of the king. On this political activity Bacon ended, and he devoted himself entirely to scientific studies, which had previously occupied a significant place in his activities.

The most famous work of F. Bacon, The New Organon, was published in 1620. Bacon wrote many books in his life, of which one should also mention The Refutation of Philosophy (1608), On the Dignity and Multiplication of the Sciences (1623) and the published posthumously "New Atlantis".

In the history of philosophy and science, Bacon acted as a forerunner of experimental natural science and the scientific method. He managed to give an image new science, starting from firmly accepted and consistently thought-out ideas about the meaning of knowledge in society and human life. Already in Cambridge, young Bacon acutely experienced dissatisfaction with traditional (scholastic) science, useful, according to him, only for victories in university disputes, but not in solving the vital problems of man and society. The old philosophy is fruitless and verbose - such is the brief verdict of F. Bacon. The main business of the philosopher is the criticism of traditional knowledge and the rationale for a new method of comprehending the nature of things. He reproaches the thinkers of the past for not hearing the voice of nature itself, created by the Creator, in their works.

The methods and techniques of science must correspond to its true goals - to ensure the well-being and dignity of man. This is also evidence of the emergence of mankind on the path of truth after a long and fruitless wandering in search of wisdom. The possession of truth reveals itself precisely in the growth of man's practical power. "Knowledge is power" - this is the guiding thread in clarifying the tasks and goals of philosophy itself.

"Man, the servant and interpreter of Nature, does and understands exactly as much as he embraces in the order of Nature; beyond this he knows and cannot do anything" - this aphorism of Bacon opens his "New Organon". The possibilities of human reason and science coincide, which is why it is so important to answer the question: what kind of science should be in order to exhaust these possibilities?

Bacon's teaching solves a two-pronged task - it critically clarifies the sources of error of traditional wisdom that has not justified itself, and points to the correct methods of mastering the truth. A critical part of Bacon's program is responsible for the formation of the methodological discipline of the scientific mind. The positive part of it is also impressive, but it is written, according to the great Harvey, Bacon's personal physician, "in the manner of the Lord Chancellor."

So, what hinders the successful knowledge of nature? Adherence to unsuitable methods of cognition of the world is due, according to Bacon, to the dominance of the so-called "idols" over the consciousness of people. He identifies four main types: idols of the clan, cave, market and theater. The typical sources of human delusions are thus figuratively presented by the philosopher.

"Idols of the race" are the prejudices of our minds, resulting from the confusion of our own nature with the nature of things. The latter is reflected in it as in a crooked mirror. If in the human world goal (teleological) relationships justify the legitimacy of our questions: why? For what? - then the same questions addressed to nature are meaningless and do not explain anything. In nature, everything is subject only to the action of causes, and here only the question is legitimate: why? Our mind must be cleansed of what enters it not from the nature of things. He must be open to Nature and only to Nature.

"Idols of the cave" are prejudices that fill the mind from such a source as our individual (and accidental) position in the world. To get rid of their power, it is necessary to reach agreement in the perception of nature from different positions and with various conditions. Otherwise, illusions and deceptions of perception will impede cognition.

"Idols of the market" are delusions arising from the need to use words with ready-made meanings that we accept uncritically. Words can replace the thing they designate and take the mind into its captivity. The scientist must be free from the power of words and open to the things themselves in order to successfully know them.

And finally, the "idols of the theatre" are delusions arising from unconditional submission to authority. But a scientist must look for truth in things, and not in the sayings of great people.

"So, we have already spoken about the individual types of idols and their manifestations. All of them must be rejected and discarded with a firm and solemn decision, and the mind must be completely freed and cleansed of them. Let the entrance to the kingdom of man, based on the sciences, be same as the entrance to the kingdom of heaven, where no one is allowed to enter without becoming like children."

Combating authoritarian thinking is one of Bacon's main concerns. Only one authority should be unconditionally recognized, the authority of the Holy Scriptures in matters of faith, but in the knowledge of Nature, the mind must rely only on the experience in which Nature is revealed to it. The breeding of two truths - divine and human - allowed Bacon to reconcile the significantly different orientations of knowledge that grow on the basis of religious and scientific experience, to strengthen the autonomy and self-legality of science and scientific activity. "The apotheosis of error is the worst thing and the worship of vanity is tantamount to the plague of reason. However, immersed in this vanity, some of the new philosophers with the greatest frivolity went so far as to try to base natural philosophy on the first chapter of the book of Genesis, on the book of Job and on other sacred writings This vanity must be restrained and suppressed all the more because not only a fantastic philosophy, but also a heretical religion is derived from the reckless confusion of the divine and the human. Therefore, it will be more salvific if a sober mind gives faith only what belongs to it.

An impartial mind, freed from all kinds of prejudices, open to Nature 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. Bacon points out two possible paths of searching and discovering the truth, from which we must choose the best and guarantee our success. The first takes us from feeling and particular cases "immediately to axioms of the most general character, and then gives way to judgments on the basis of these principles, already fixed in their inviolability, in order to derive intermediate axioms from them; this is the most common way. The other - from feeling and particular leads to axioms, gradually and continuously climbing the steps of the ladder of generalization until it leads to axioms of the most general nature; this is the surest road, although it has not yet been passed by people. The second way is the way of methodically thought out and perfected induction. Complementing it with a number of special techniques, Bacon seeks to turn induction into the art of questioning nature, leading to certain success on the path of knowledge. In this methodically calibrated path, the role of pure chance and luck in finding the truth, as well as differences in intellectual insight that exist between people, is overcome. “As they say, the lame one who walks on the road is ahead of the one who runs without a road. It is also obvious that the more agile and faster the runner on the road, the more his wanderings will be.

Our way of discovering the sciences is such that it leaves little to the power of talents, but almost equalizes them. Just as for drawing a straight line or describing a perfect circle, firmness, skill and testing of the hand means a lot, if you use only the hand, it means little or nothing at all if you use a compass and a ruler. And so it is with our method."

Having based his philosophy on the concept of experience, interpreting sensibility as the only source of all our knowledge, Bacon thereby laid the foundations of empiricism, one of the leading philosophical traditions of modern European philosophy.

The founder of empiricism, however, was by no means inclined to underestimate the importance of reason. The power of the mind just manifests itself in the ability of such an organization of observation and experiment, which allows you to hear the voice of nature itself and interpret what it says in the right way. Distinguishing himself from those whom Bacon himself called empiricists and dogmatists, he explains the essence of his position as follows: "The empiricists, like the ant, only collect and are content with what they have collected. Rationalists, like the spider, produce fabric from themselves. The bee chooses the middle way: it extracts material from garden and wildflowers, but arranges and modifies it according to its ability.The true work of philosophy does not differ from this either.For it does not rest solely or mainly on the powers of the mind and does not deposit in the mind untouched the material extracted from natural history and mechanical experiments, but changes it and processes it in the mind. So, one should place a good hope on a closer and indestructible (which has not been so far) union of these two abilities - experience and reason. " Why does he nevertheless remain a philosopher of empiricism? 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 instance and independent of reason.

The foundations of the rationalistic tradition alternative to empiricism were laid by the French philosopher René Descartes. But before moving on to its characterization, let us briefly dwell on the picture of the world that Bacon proposed, based on the systematic application of his method of cognition.

Bacon's doctrine of being takes shape in the context of the relentlessly emphasized active contact of the researcher with nature. A scientist is primarily not an observer and contemplator, but an experimenter. "The business and purpose of human power is to produce and communicate to a given body a new nature or new natures." And Bacon builds such a concept of being, which, as it were, guarantees the researcher the very possibility of achieving success in the practical mastery of the world, for "the paths to human power and knowledge are closely intertwined with one another and are almost the same." He singles out in the world around us, formed by an innumerable variety of concrete things and phenomena, simple natures and their forms, the knowledge of which allows us to master the course of processes and be able to control them. Forms are that which is characterized by qualitative indecomposability, which has constancy and gives the key to understanding the sources of change in things. This is what can be interpreted as the structure and the law of the flow of the phenomenon hidden from the eyes, endowed with a qualitative originality. In this concept, qualitative substances and typologically different structured processes (the laws of generation and transformation) are intertwined and merged. Thus, heat, like nature, has a form, which is also the law of heat. "For the form of any nature is such that when it is established, then the given nature invariably follows it. Therefore, the form constantly abides, when this nature also abides, it completely confirms it and is in everything inherent in it. But this same form is that when it is removed, then the given nature invariably disappears. Therefore, it is constantly absent when this nature is absent, constantly retains it and belongs to it alone. Baconian forms as the basic structures of being combine ideas that are difficult to separate from each other, on the one hand, about qualitatively simple natures, and on the other hand, about something closer to future explanatory models of mechanistic natural science. So, for example, the interpretation of the form of heat as a kind of internal motion in bodies is in complete agreement with its future physical interpretation.

Bacon's world is a vivid harbinger of the world of modern European science, its spirit and method, but signs and techniques of the medieval world outlook are still clearly distinguishable in it.

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 in single system for a holistic view 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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Francis Bacon remains in the history of philosophy the founder of empiricism and the developer of innovative methods for the study of living nature. This topic is devoted to his scientific works and work. The philosophy of Francis Bacon found a wide response among scientists and thinkers of modern times.

Biography

Francis was born into a family politician and the scientist Nicholas, and his wife Anna, who came from a well-known family at that time - her father raised the heir to the English and Irish thrones, Edward VI. The birth took place on January 22, 1561 in London.

From childhood, the boy was taught to be diligent and supported his craving for knowledge. As a teenager, he attended college at the University of Cambridge, then went to study in France, but the death of his father led to the fact that young Bacon had no money left, which affected his biography. Then he began to study law and from 1582 earned his living as a lawyer. Two years later, he entered Parliament, where he immediately became a prominent and significant figure. This led to him being appointed seven years later to the Earl of Essex, who at that time was a favorite of the Queen. After the coup d'état attempted by Essex in 1601, Bacon took part in the court hearings as an accuser.

Criticizing politics royal family, Francis lost the patronage of the queen and was able to resume his career in full only in 1603, when a new monarch appeared on the throne. In the same year he became a knight, and fifteen years later - a baron. Three years later he was granted the title of viscount, but in the same year he was charged with bribery and deprived of his post, closing the doors to the royal court.

Despite the fact that he devoted many years of his life to jurisprudence and advocacy, his heart was given to philosophy. He developed new tools for thinking by criticizing Aristotle's deduction.

The Thinker died because of one of his experiments. He studied how cold affects the putrefactive process that had begun and caught a cold. At the age of sixty-five, he died. After his death, one of the main works written by him, The New Atlantis, was published - unfinished. In it, he foresaw many of the discoveries of subsequent centuries, based on empirical knowledge.

General characteristics of the philosophy of Francis Bacon

Francis Bacon became the first major philosopher of his time and opened the Age of Reason. Despite the fact that he was well acquainted with the teachings of thinkers who lived in ancient times and the Middle Ages, he was convinced that the path they indicated was false. Philosophers of past centuries were focused on moral and metaphysical truths, forgetting that knowledge should bring practical benefits to people. He contrasts idle curiosity, which philosophizing has hitherto served, with the production of material wealth.

Being the bearer of a practical Anglo-Saxon spirit, Bacon did not seek knowledge for the sake of striving for truth. He did not recognize the approach to philosophy through religious scholasticism. He believed that man is destined to dominate the animal world, and he must explore the world rationally and consumerly.

He saw strength in knowledge that can be put into practice. The evolution of mankind is possible only through domination over nature. These theses became key in the worldview and philosophical teachings of the Renaissance.

Bacon's New Atlantis

One of the most important works of Bacon is considered to be "New Atlantis", named by analogy with the work of Plato. The thinker devoted time from 1623 to 1624 to writing a utopian novel. Despite the fact that the book saw the light of day unfinished, it quickly gained popularity among the masses.

Francis Bacon spoke about a society that was ruled by scientists alone. This society was found by English sailors who landed on an island in the middle of Pacific Ocean. They found that life on the island is subordinated to the House of Solomon - an organization that includes not politicians, but scientists. The house aims to expand the power of people over the world of wildlife, so that it works for them. In special rooms, experiments were carried out to call thunder and lightning, to get frogs and other living creatures out of nothing.

Later, taking the novel as a basis, they created real scientific academies involved in the analysis and verification of phenomena. An example of such an organization is the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Science and the Arts.

Now, some of the reasoning in the novel may seem naive, but in the era in which it was published, its views on scientific knowledge were popular. The power of man seemed enormous, based on divine powers, and knowledge was supposed to help him exercise power over the natural world. Bacon believed that the leading sciences should be magic and alchemy, which could help to achieve this power.

To work for man, experimental science must have large complexes of buildings, engines powered by water and air, power plants, gardens, reserves and reservoirs where experiments could be carried out. As a result, they need to learn how to work with both living and inorganic nature. Much attention is paid to the design of various mechanisms and machines that can move faster than a bullet. Military vehicles, weapons for battle - all this is described in detail in the book.

Only the Renaissance is characterized by such a strong orientation towards changing the natural world. As a supporter of alchemy, Bacon tries to present in The New Atlantis how a plant can be grown without the use of seeds, how animals can be created from the air, using knowledge of substances and compounds. He was supported by such prominent figures in medicine, biology and philosophy as Buffon, Perrault and Mariotte. In this, Francis Bacon's theory is fundamentally different from Aristotle's ideas about the immutability and constancy of animal and plant species, which had an impact on modern zoology.

The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Science and the Arts, created on the basis of the communities described in The New Atlantis, paid a lot of attention to light experiments - like scientists in Bacon's novel.

Bacon "The Great Restoration of the Sciences"

Francis Bacon believes that alchemy and magic could serve man. To keep knowledge socially controlled, he renounces the magical. In The Great Restoration of the Sciences, he emphasizes that real knowledge cannot belong to private individuals - a group of "initiates". It is public and can be understood by anyone.

Bacon also speaks of the need to reduce philosophy to deeds, and not to words, as was the case before. Traditionally, philosophy has served the soul, and Bacon thinks it right to do away with this tradition. He rejects ancient Greek philosophy, the dialectic of Aristotle, the works of Plato. Continuing the tradition accepted in philosophy, humanity will not advance in scientific knowledge and will only multiply the mistakes of past thinkers. Bacon notes that traditional philosophy is dominated by illogicality and fuzzy concepts that seem invented and have no real basis.

In contrast to what has been described, Francis Bacon proposes true induction, when science moves forward gradually, relying on intermediate axioms, controlling the knowledge gained and testing it with experience. He identifies two ways to search for truth:

1. Through feelings and special cases - to achieve the most general axioms that need to be narrowed down and concretized, commensurate with already known facts.
2. Through feelings and the particular - to general axioms, the meaning of which is not narrowed, but expanded to the most general laws.

As a result of such active cognition, mankind will come to a scientific and technical civilization, leaving behind the historical and literary type of culture. The thinker considered it necessary to harmonize the communication of the mind and things. To do this, it is necessary to get rid of the incorporeal and vague concepts that are used in the sciences and philosophy. Then, you need to re-look at things and explore them using modern, accurate means.

In The Great Restoration of the Sciences, Bacon urges his contemporaries to emphasize the sciences that are applicable in practice and improve the life of mankind. This marked the beginning of a dramatic reorientation in the culture of Europe, when science, seen by many as idle and suspicious, became an important and prestigious part of culture. Most of the philosophers of that time followed the example of Bacon and took up science instead of scholastic polyknowledge, which was divorced from the real laws of nature.

Bacon's New Organon

Bacon is a philosopher of modern times, not only because he was born in the Renaissance, but also in his views on the progressive role of science in public life. In his New Organon, he compares science to water, which can fall from the sky or come from the bowels of the earth. As water has a divine origin and a sensual essence, so science is divided into philosophy and theology.

He argues in favor of the concept of duality of true knowledge, insisting on a clear separation of the areas of theology and philosophy. Theology studies the divine, and Bacon does not deny that everything that exists is the creation of God. Just as objects of art speak of the talent and power of the art of their creator, so the creation of God says little about the latter. Francis Bacon concludes that God cannot be the object of science, but must remain only the object of faith. This means that philosophy must stop trying to penetrate the divine and concentrate on nature, knowing it by the method of experiments and observations.

He criticizes scientific discoveries saying they don't match scientific progress and lagging behind the vital needs of society. This means that all science as a collective knowledge must be improved so that it is ahead of practice, making new discoveries and inventions possible. The activation of the human mind and the control of natural phenomena is the main goal of the revival of science.

The "Organ" contains logical clues that tell how thinking and practice can be combined so that they allow you to master the forces of nature. Bacon dismisses the old method of syllogism as absolutely helpless and useless.

Francis Bacon on idols

Francis Bacon developed his own theory about the prejudices that dominate the mind of people. She speaks of "idols", which the thinker of modern times also calls "ghosts" for their ability to distort reality. Before learning to cognize things and phenomena, it is important to get rid of these idols.

In total, they singled out four types of idols:

• idols of the "kind";
• idols of the "cave";
• idols of the "market";
• idols of the theatre.

The first category includes idols-ghosts inherent in every person, since his mind and senses are imperfect. These idols make him compare nature with himself and endow it with the same qualities. Bacon rebels against Protagoras' thesis that man is the measure of all things. Francis Bacon states that the human mind, like a bad mirror, reflects the world in the wrong way. As a result, a theological worldview and anthropomorphism are born.

Idols-ghosts of the "cave" are generated by the person himself under the influence of his living conditions, the characteristics of upbringing and education. A person looks at the world from the cover of his own "cave", that is, from the point of view of personal experience. Overcoming such idols consists in using the experience accumulated by the totality of individuals - society, and constant observation.

Since people are constantly in contact with each other and live shoulder to shoulder, the idols of the "market" are born. They are supported by the use of speech, old concepts, the appeal to words that distort the essence of things and thinking. To avoid this, Bacon recommends abandoning verbal learning, which remained in those days from the Middle Ages. The main idea is to change the categories of thinking.

A sign of the idols of the "theatre" is blind faith in authorities. The philosopher refers to such authorities the old philosophical system. If you believe the ancients, then the perception of things will be distorted, prejudice and bias will arise. To defeat such ghosts, one should turn to modern experience and study nature.

All described "ghosts" are obstacles to scientific knowledge, because due to them false ideas are born that do not allow to fully understand the world. The transformation of the sciences according to Bacon is impossible without abandoning the above and relying on experience and experiment as part of knowledge, and not on the thoughts of the ancients.

Superstition - the thinker of modern times also refers to the reasons that delay the development of scientific knowledge. The theory of dual truth described above, which distinguishes between the study of God and the real world, is intended to shield philosophers from superstition.

Weak advances in science Bacon explained by the lack of correct ideas about the object of knowledge and the very purpose of study. Matter must be the correct object. Philosophers and scientists must identify its properties and study the schemes of its transformation from one object to another. Human life should be enriched by science at the expense of real discoveries introduced into life.

Bacon's empirical method of scientific knowledge

After the method of cognition - induction - is defined, Francis Bacon offers several main ways in which cognitive activity can proceed:

• "the way of the spider";
• "the path of the ant";
• "The Way of the Bee"

The first way is understood as the acquisition of knowledge in a rationalistic way, but this implies isolation from reality, because rationalists rely on their own reasoning, and not on experience and facts. Their web of thoughts is woven from their own thoughts.

The "path of the ant" is followed by those who take into account only experience. This method has been called "dogmatic empiricism" and is based on information obtained from facts and practice. Empiricists have an accessible external picture of knowledge, but not the essence of the problem.

The ideal method of cognition is the last way - empirical. In short, the thinker's idea is this: to apply the method, you need to combine two other paths and remove their shortcomings and contradictions. Knowledge is derived from a set of generalized facts using the arguments of reason. This method can be called empiricism, which is based on deduction.

Bacon remained in the history of philosophy not only as a man who laid the foundation for the development of individual sciences, but also as a thinker who indicated the need to change the movement of knowledge. He was at the origins of experimental science, which sets the right direction for the theoretical and practical activities of people.

Knowledge and experience. Francis Bacon

The ancestor of the new philosophy was the English thinker Francis Bacon, who began his reasoning with criticism of the previous 17th century. philosophy, saying that it advanced people along the path of knowledge rather little and weakly contributed to progressive development. Instead of boldly penetrating into the secrets of nature, the old philosophy was engaged in some kind of abstract sophistication and therefore treading water, by and large, in the same place. First of all, it is necessary to subject to a decisive revision, and if necessary, to negation, the entire previous philosophy, and then build a fundamentally new one that meets the requirements of the era.

The main drawback of ancient philosophizing, according to Bacon, was the imperfection of the method, which had to be reformed in the first place. A method is generally a way of doing something, the main technique for implementing some tasks. The philosophical method is, therefore, a way of thinking or knowing, the way in which we advance in the comprehension of the environment. The method of the old philosophy was deduction(from lat. deductio- "inference") - such a method of reasoning in which a conclusion is drawn from a general rule for a particular or specific case. Any deductive reasoning since Aristotle is called syllogism(from Greek. syllogismos). Let's take an example: “All people are mortal. Socrates is a man. Therefore, Socrates is mortal."

Francis Bacon 1561–1626

In this conclusion (syllogism), from the general rule (“All people are mortal”), a conclusion is drawn for a particular case (“Socrates is mortal”). As you can see, the reasoning in this case goes from the general to the particular, from the larger to the smaller, knowledge narrows, and therefore deductive conclusions are always reliable (mandatory, accurate, unconditional).

Why then criticize deduction? First, Bacon says, any deductive reasoning must be based on some general proposition (“ All people are mortal, All celestial bodies move All metals melt). But any general statement is always unreliable and is taken by us on faith. How do we know, for example, that all metals melt? You can melt, say, iron and be sure that it melts. But is it fair to say the same about all other metals, without conducting an experiment with each? What if not all metals melt? Then our generalization will be false, and if it underlies the deduction, then the deductive conclusion will also be false. So, the first drawback of the syllogism is the unverifiability of its general provisions, from which the conclusion is made. Secondly, deduction is always a narrowing knowledge, a movement inward, not outward. But after all, our task is to discover new things and yet unknown truths, which means that reasoning must necessarily go in breadth, covering the hitherto unknown, knowledge must expand, and therefore the deductive method in this case is completely unacceptable. The old philosophy, says Bacon, did not advance significantly in the matter of knowledge because it used deduction, reasoning from more to less, and not vice versa.

The new philosophy and science, according to the English philosopher, should adopt a different method - induction(from lat. induction- "guidance"). Here is an example of inductive reasoning: “Iron expands when heated, copper expands when heated, mercury expands when heated, iron, copper, mercury are metals. Therefore, all metals expand when heated.

As we see, from several special cases one becomes general rule, the reasoning goes from the smaller (only three metals) to the larger (all metals), knowledge expands: we have considered only a part of the objects from a certain group, but the conclusion has been made about this entire group, and therefore it is only probable. This is, of course, the disadvantage of induction. But the main thing is that it is an expanding knowledge that leads us from the known to the unknown, from the particular to the general, and therefore is able to discover new things and truths. And in order to make inductive inferences more accurate, it is necessary to develop rules or requirements, the observance of which will make induction much more perfect. An important advantage of this method is also that it is always based not on general, but on particular provisions (“iron melts”, “Jupiter moves”, “methane is explosive”, “a birch has roots”, etc.), which we can always verify experimentally and therefore not doubt them, while the general provisions of deduction are always accepted by us on faith, as a result of which they are doubtful.

The inductive path of cognition is, therefore, a gradual increase or enrichment of our knowledge, the collection of information about the world around us in parts, bit by bit, which occurs only in the process of everyday life. Knowledge accumulates only as a result of life experience, constant practice: if we did not contact the world, then there would be no ideas about it in our minds, since it was initially (at the birth of a person) completely empty - the baby knows absolutely nothing. But as he grows, he sees, hears and touches everything that surrounds him, that is, he gradually acquires some life experience and, thus, his mind is filled with images of the outside world, ideas about it, thoughts, enriched with emerging knowledge. Therefore, outside of experience, without it or independently of it, it is impossible to acquire any information, to learn something. Experience (from the Greek. empeiria) and the inductive method of philosophical knowledge, proposed by Bacon and based on experience, are called empiricism. Empirical philosophizing is the withdrawal of knowledge from the surrounding world in the process of life experience and the consistent filling of the initially empty or pure human mind with various ideas and information.

In this case, the source of knowledge is the external world, in the human mind there is no pre-experimental knowledge, which means that there is no reality outside and apart from the sensory world (perceived by the senses) from which such knowledge could be obtained.

This text is an introductory piece.

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§ 1. Natural knowledge and experience "Natural knowledge begins with experience and remains in experience." What does "natural knowledge" mean? If it is knowledge of animals, then it begins with a priori knowledge or instinct, and not at all with experience. And it remains there. And acquired in experience

53. Francis Bacon - founder of empiricism Francis Bacon (1561-1626) - English philosopher, founder of the methodology of experimental science. In his research, he drew attention to the need for observations and experiments to discover the truth. Bacon emphasizes that science serves

§ 29. "Clean slate" or experience above all else (Bacon, Hobbes, Locke) Modern time is an era that covers the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries in the history of mankind. The English bourgeois revolution of 1640, which marked the beginning of a new period - the era

§ 1. Natural knowledge and experience Natural knowledge begins with experience and remains in experience. So, in that theoretical setting, which we call "natural", the total horizon of possible research is denoted by one word - the world. Therefore, all sciences with such

Francis Bacon. Cognition and experience The ancestor of the new philosophy was the English thinker Francis Bacon, who began his reasoning with criticism of the previous 17th century. philosophy, saying that it advanced people along the path of knowledge rather little and contributed little

3. Knowledge and freedom. The activity of thought and the creative nature of cognition. Cognition is active and passive. Theoretical and practical cognition It is impossible to admit the complete passivity of the subject in cognition. The subject cannot be a mirror reflecting the object. Object not

2. Francis Bacon Francis Bacon (1561-1626) made a justification for new philosophical and legal ideas in the field of the theory of law. Rejecting scholasticism and speculative apriorism, he defended and developed the empirical method of studying nature (including "human nature" here).

48. KNOWLEDGE, PRACTICE, EXPERIENCE Man comprehends the secrets of nature to satisfy his material, and then spiritual needs - this is the historical meaning of the emergence of knowledge and sciences. As society developed, it expanded its needs, finding new

6. Cognition, practice, experience Man lives surrounded by the world, in the atmosphere of spiritual culture. He himself is an active being. With endless threads of material and spiritual properties, a person is connected with nature and the events of social life, being with them in constant

Knowledge and experience. Francis Bacon The founder of the new philosophy was the English thinker Francis Bacon, who began his reasoning with criticism of the previous 17th century. philosophy, saying that it advanced people along the path of knowledge rather little and contributed little

FRANCIS BACON (1561-1626) English philosopher, founder of English materialism. Lord Chancellor under King James I. Founder of the experimental science of modern times. In the treatise "New Organon" (1620), he proclaimed the goal of science to increase the power of man over nature, proposed

If bourgeois relations were born in the Renaissance, then in the 17th century. capitalism developed much more intensively. The founders of a new approach to science appeared - Francis Bacon, Rene Descartes.

F. Bacon(1561 - 1621) - English. philosopher. His work "New Organon" gives an idea of ​​the purpose of science, new principles of research. Another of his works “Knowledge is power” is a symbol of the sciences. Science cannot serve only the purposes of religion. The purpose of science is inventions, the purpose of inventions is the benefit of man.

Can science solve these problems? Bacon answered in the negative. He said that it is necessary to carry out a reform of science - critical and positive work.

The critical part is aimed at identifying the causes of human delusions, he tries to give recommendations for overcoming them:

1. Teaching about idols.

2. criticism of scholasticism.

Humanity is littered with various idols - images of reality. There are 4 types of idols:

1. Idols of the clan are false ideas about the world inherent in the entire human world, the result of the natural limitation of the senses. A person considers various things by analogy with himself, he endows things with their own characters. To reduce the harm of this idol, you need to compare the readings of the senses with real objects.

2. Idols of the cave - each person perceives the world subjectively. Each person has his own cave of the subjective inner world, which leaves an imprint on all our knowledge.

3. Idols of the market (square) are false ideas about the world, generated by the misuse of words. Different meanings are put into the same words - this leads to disputes, therefore all scholastic disputes took place in markets where there were many people.

4. The idols of the theater are those ideas about the world that people borrow from various philosophical systems. Every philosophical system is a comedy or drama played out. Philosophical systems are false.

Idols of the clan or caves are natural obstacles for a person on the path of self-education and self-education, they can be overcome. With the idols of the theater and the market, the fight must go through the transformation of public consciousness.

Problematic criticism of scholastic philosophy is the main obstacle. Its fundamental flaw is its abstractness. When the philosophy of scholasticism thinks reality, it is concentrated on concepts. Scholastics argue about concepts and do not think about the world. Bacon contrasted the theory of scholasticism with the theory of the inductive method. In the 17th century the influence of religion was great and, therefore, Bacon speaks of the duality of truth. Theology and philosophy have different methods. Theology is the knowledge of God; philosophy is the study of nature. Theology rests on divine revelation, science rests on truth. Truth is the coincidence of thoughts with reality. The central part of Bacon's teaching is the doctrine of method. Method is the way of knowledge. This is not just a theory, it has a deep practical meaning, because. method in the right hands can become a transformative force. The right method effectively improves human performance. Increases the power of people over nature. Right method contributes to human happiness. Bacon is the founder of European empiricism. Bacon's method is based on knowledge. Knowledge is a reflection

natural world. Knowledge comes from sensory perceptions,

which require experimental verification. The best evidence is experience if it is stored in an experiment. Bacon identifies the following types of experiences:

Fruitful - bring practical benefits.

Luminous - do not bring practical benefits, but contribute to the accumulation of knowledge about the world.

Experiments are set according to a certain method - the rule of induction. Induction is the only form of docking necessary for science. Philosophical understanding of induction - the movement of thought

from the particular to the general. The induction method proposed by Bacon includes 5 steps:

1. Presence table - all cases in which these phenomena occur.

2. Deviation (absence) table - all cases of the absence of a particular feature in related objects.

3. Comparison table (degrees) - a comparison of an increase or decrease in a feature in the same subject.

4. The discard table is an exception of cases that do not occur in this phenomenon, are not typical for it.

5. Table of collection of fruits - the formation of conclusions on the basis of what is common in all tables.

This method is applicable to any study. Experience gives single data.