First, Bacon's life
Bacon was born in 156 1 1 22, a bureaucratic family in London. Father Nicholas Bacon is Queen Elizabeth's minister in charge of the seal. He is studying law at Cambridge University. His thoughts tend to be progressive, he believes in the British capital and opposes the Pope's interference in British internal affairs. Anne's mother is a famous talented woman. She is proficient in Greek and Latin and a believer in Calvinism. Good family education made Bacon mature earlier and showed extraordinary intelligence in all aspects. /kloc-At the age of 0/2, Bacon was sent to Trinity College, Cambridge University for further study. During his study at school, he became suspicious of traditional ideas and beliefs and began to think about the true meaning of society and life alone.
After studying at Cambridge University for three years, Bacon came to France as an attache of Sir Emo Polly, the British ambassador to France. During his two and a half years in Paris, he traveled almost all over France, met many new things and absorbed many new ideas, which played a great role in the formation of his world outlook. 1579, bacon's father died suddenly, and his plan to prepare for bacon's future pension was shattered, and bacon's life began to fall into poverty. After returning to China to attend his father's funeral, Bacon lived in Gray Law School, where he studied law and looked for jobs everywhere. 1582 finally qualified as a lawyer, 1584 was elected as a member of parliament, and 1589 became a court secretary after the vacancy. However, this position has not been vacant for 20 years. He ran around, but never got any position. Bacon was more mature in thought at this time. He is determined to reform all knowledge divorced from reality and nature, and introduce empirical observation, factual basis and practical effects into epistemology. This great ambition is the main goal of his "great rejuvenation of science" and the ambition he has been fighting for all his life.
1602, Elizabeth died and James I succeeded to the throne. Bacon was very appreciated by James because he advocated the merger of Scotland and England. Bacon climbed to the top and soared. 1602 was knighted, 1604 was appointed as James' adviser, 1607 as deputy attorney general, 16 13 as chief prosecutor,16 as privy Council adviser, and 650. 16 18 was promoted to be an official of the mainland of England and was awarded the title of Baron Verulan. 162 1 year, was awarded the title of Viscount Albens. However, Bacon's talent and interest lie not in state affairs, but in his existence and pursuit of scientific truth. During this period, he made great achievements in academic research. Many books have been published.
162 1 year, Bacon was accused of corruption and bribery by Congress, fined 40,000 pounds by the High Court, imprisoned in the Tower of London, and expelled from the court for life, and was not allowed to serve as a member of parliament or official position. Although he was later exempted from fines and imprisonment, Bacon was destroyed. From then on, Bacon ignored politics and began to concentrate on theoretical writing.
1626 At the end of March, Bacon drove through the northern suburbs of London. He was studying the theory of cold and heat and its practical application. Passing through a piece of snow, he suddenly wanted to do an experiment. He slaughtered a chicken, filled it with snow, and observed the effect of freezing on antisepsis. However, due to his weak body, he couldn't stand the attack of a cold, and his bronchitis recurred and his condition deteriorated. He died in the early morning of April 9th. 1626.
After Bacon's death, people built a monument to commemorate him, and Sir Henry Walden wrote an epitaph for him:
Viscount St. Albans
If you use a more mysterious name, you should
Call it "the light of science" and "the tongue of law"
……
Two. Bacon's Philosophical Thought
Bacon's philosophical thought is inseparable from his social thought. He is a representative of the emerging bourgeoisie, advocating the development of production, eager to explore nature and demanding the development of science. He believes that scholasticism hinders the development of contemporary science. Therefore, he strongly criticized the authority of scholasticism and theology. He further exposed the root of the fallacy of human cognition and put forward the famous "four pseudo-phase theory" He said that this is a pathological state that generally occurs in people's minds, rather than confusion and problems arising under specific circumstances. The first is the "illusion of race", which is a cognitive error caused by human nature; The second is that "fairyland" is a one-sided mistake in personal understanding caused by personality, hobbies, education and environment; The third is the "illusion of the market", that is, people's thinking confusion caused by the uncertainty of language concepts when communicating. The fourth is "theater illusion", which refers to the misunderstanding caused by blind superstition of authority and tradition. Bacon pointed out that scholasticism obliterated the truth and created fallacies with four illusions, which dealt a heavy blow to scholasticism. However, Bacon's "illusion theory" permeates the empiricism of Bacon's philosophy and fails to strictly distinguish the essence of rationality from the illusion of idealism.
Bacon believed that the academic tradition at that time was poor because of the loss of contact between academics and experience. He advocates that scientific theory and science and technology complement each other. He advocated breaking "idols" and eradicating all kinds of prejudices and fantasies. He put forward that "truth is the daughter of time, not authority", which strongly attacked scholasticism.
Bacon's view of scientific method is mainly experimental qualitative and inductive. He inherited and developed the ancient thought that matter is the source of all things, and thought that the world is made of matter, which has the characteristics of movement and movement is the attribute of matter. From the standpoint of materialism, Bacon pointed out that the task of science lies in understanding nature and its laws. However, due to the limitations of the times, his world outlook also has the characteristics of simple materialism and metaphysics.
Three. Bacon's works
1597, bacon published his first work, essays. In his book, he condensed his understanding of society and life into many philosophical aphorisms, which were welcomed by readers.
From 65438 to 0605, Bacon completed two volumes of On Academic Progress in English. This is a book with knowledge as the research object, which is part of Bacon's grand ideal and plan to transform knowledge in an all-round way. In his book, Bacon lashed out at obscurantism in the Middle Ages, demonstrated the great role of knowledge, and put forward the unsatisfactory knowledge status and remedial measures. In this book, Bacon put forward a systematic scientific encyclopedia outline, which played an important role in the compilation of encyclopedias by the French Encyclopedia School headed by Diderot in the18th century.
1609, Bacon published his third book "On the Wisdom of the Ancient People" when he was the Deputy Attorney General. He believes that in ancient times, there was the oldest wisdom of mankind, and the oldest lost wisdom can be found by studying ancient fables.
Bacon originally intended to write a six-volume encyclopedia "Great Rejuvenation", which is his masterpiece of reviving science and reshaping human knowledge. However, he failed to complete the expected plan and only published the first two parts. The new tool released by 1620 is the second part of this book. New Tools is Bacon's most important philosophical work, which puts forward the principles and methods of empirical cognition initiated by Bacon in modern times. This book is the antithesis of Aristotle's tools.
After finishing his political career, Bacon completed the book Biography of henry vii in only a few months, which was highly praised by later historians and was hailed as "a milestone in modern history".
Around 1623, Bacon wrote The New Island, an unfinished utopian work, which was first published by Luo Lai in the second year after his death. In the book, the author describes his new pursuit and yearning for the blueprint of an ideal society, and designs a country called "Natural Pillar", in which science dominates everything, which is a concentrated expression of the thought and belief of "great rejuvenation" of science advocated by Bacon after graduation.
In addition, Bacon left many works after his death, which were later compiled and published by many experts and scholars, including On the Essence of Things, Clues in the Maze, Criticism of Various Philosophies, Events in Nature, and On Human Knowledge.
Four. Bacon's position in the history of science
Francis Bacon is the first philosopher who put forward the principle of empiricism in the history of modern philosophy. He attached importance to the role of sensory experience and inductive logic in the process of cognition, initiated a new era of empirical philosophy of perceptual nature with experience, played a positive role in promoting the establishment of modern science, and made great historical contributions in the history of human philosophy and science. To this end, Russell revered Bacon as "a pioneer in logically organizing scientific research procedures".