Scientific revolution and the influence of Bacons doctrines - Essay Example

Scientific revolution and the influence of Bacon’s doctrines The intellectual seeds of the Industrial revolution can be said to have been planted bythe principles and ideas laid out by Bacon in the seventeenth century. This aimed at expansion of the set of applicable and usefull knowledge and application of natural philosophy towards resolving technological problems, thus bringing about economic growth. The called enlightenment of the west zone had followed his thoughts via a institutional developments. These developments contributed towards the increase of knowledge and its its scope of accessibility to those people who could make good use of it.industrial revolution could not have developed into sustainable economic growth without this enlightenment. Many historians and philosophers saw this as a transformation or change in world view. According to the historian Herbert Butterfield: “Since that revolution overturned the authority in science not only of the middle ages but of the ancient world — since it ended not only in the eclipse of scholastic philosophy but in the destruction of Aristotelian physics — it outshines everything since the rise of Christianity and reduces the Renaissance and Reformation to the rank of mere episodes, mere internal displacements within the system of medieval Christendom.... looms so large as the real origin both of the modern world and of the modern mentality that our customary periodization of European history has become an anachronism and an encumbrance” (Butterfield, viii). The new ideas encompassed the idea of looking at matter to be composed of atoms and a complex chemical composition replaced the former Aristotlean view that it as made of the five elements and hence was continuous. Aristotle’s concept of motion (brought about by a cause and would last as long as the cause is there) was also changed (the new concept says that motion was continuous without any need of further cause). The most obvious change was reflected in the idea of making the Sun as the enter of the universe instead of the Earth. Francis Bacon’s philosophy basically brought about an empirical approach during the 17th century. A convention of reseach and scientific experimentation was eventually introduced in to the system in the place of Aristotlean concept of natural and artiicial circumstances. The ideas of counting, classifying, cataloguing were important components of Baconian ideas that guided the intellectual growth preceding the industrial revolution. The idea of measurement and tabulation was generated thoroughly. Instead of mere deduction from common facts (Aristotlean concept that analysis of known facs promotes a better understanding), Bacon preached the idea of an inductive approach towards nature. He advocated the abandon of assumption and observation of everything with an open mind. By the end of the scientific revolution that had begun as early as the 16 th century (with Nicolaus Copernicus publishing a book “On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres”), the last stages of the era had converted the qualitative approaches to quantitative and the book reading philosophers to methodical and researchers with a flair for Mathematics. Francis Bacon in his Aphorisms of Book I of the New Organon stated down some of the popularised doctrines regarding characteristic errors, natural tendencies, or defects that beset the mind and prevent it from achieving a full and accurate understanding of nature. His thought about errors states “The logic now in use serves rather to fix and give stability to the errors which have their foundation in commonly received notions than to help the search after truth. So it does more harm than good”(Bacon, XII) . Thus the criticises the rationale behind the approach towards understanding nature and the surroundings. His aphorisms also states “The syllogism consists of propositions, propositions consist of words, words are symbols of notions. Therefore if the notions themselves (which is the root of the matter) are confused and overhastily abstracted from the facts, there can be no firmness in the superstructure. Our only hope therefore lies in a true induction”(Bacon, XIV). This indicates a belief generated towards the empirical evaluation of things. He stressed on a proper methodical and more systematic approach and pointed out the three idols that govern a man’s mind –“ There are four classes of Idols which beset mens minds. To these for distinctions sake I have assigned names, calling the first class Idols of the Tribe; the second, Idols of the Cave; the third, Idols of the Market Place; the fourth, Idols of the Theater” (Bacon XXXIX). According to him, a method of induction and formation of ideas and axioms would lead to “the proper remedy to be applied for the keeping off and clearing away of idols” (Bacon, XL). He emphasizes on the importance of an universal law of measurement rather than individual perception which cannot be the refl;ection of truth –“ it is a false assertion that the sense of man is the measure of things. On the contrary, all perceptions as well of the sense as of the mind are according to the measure of the individual and not according to the measure of the universe. And the human understanding is like a false mirror, which, receiving rays irregularly, distorts and discolors the nature of things by mingling its own nature with it” (Bacon, XLI). This is the idol of tribe according to him, an idol that originates from the very race of man. The second idol, according to Bacon, is the idol of ‘Caves’ or that of individuals. He indicates that everyone has a “cave” of his own and hence “the spirit of man (according as it is meted out to different individuals) is in fact a thing variable and full of perturbation, and governed as it were by chance. Whence it was well observed by Heraclitus that men look for sciences in their own lesser worlds, and not in the greater or common world” (Bacon, XLII). Bacon lastly talks about the idols of Theatre where men have derived certain principles from common “dogmas of philosophies” and even “wrong laws of demonstration”. He states “all the received systems are but so many stage plays, representing worlds of their own creation after an unreal and scenic fashion” (Bacon, XLIV). The underlying fact is that qualitative approach is specific to human and human understanding is prone to be universally falsified and “human understanding when it has once adopted an opinion (either as being the received opinion or as being agreeable to itself) draws all things else to support and agree with it”. (Bacon, XLVI). Therefore, “the intellect is altogether slow and unfit, unless it be forced thereto by severe laws and overruling authority.”( Bacon, XLVII). Thus Bacon’s doctrines indicates the imjportance of practical knowledge or experiment based learning that would help to release human beings from their proneness towards falsification of their individual beliefs. It was the final stage of the scientific revolution and the preceding stage of industrial revolution that encompassed Bacon’s ideas and imparted a new outlook to the world of science. According to Aristotle, the basic scientific mode of interaction with the world was via observation and search for natural circumstances. In his times, experiments were referred as “contrivances” which reflected un-universal and artificial state of nature. The rare events were referred as “monsters” which told us nothing of nature. The era scientific revolution was marked by a changing role of scientists and the importance of evidence along with thr enhanced role of empiricism through a scientific methodology. The new cosmological model of Bacon assumes the system to be a result of experiments and speculation and it presupposes the universe to be finite, assumes a geocentric plenum and the earth to be passive and composed of tangible matter. The process of induction seems to suggest that the method of Bacon is to be applied at all stages of knowledge, and at every phase the whole process has to be kept in mind” (Malherbe, 76). The process should be such that new axioms can be created from old ones. The induction starts from a sensible experience and moves towards the lower axioms via tables of presentation and abstraction of notions. Francis Bacon has referred to all knowledge being his province. As he indicates in his Aphorisms, “that period there was but a narrow and meager knowledge either of time or place, which is the worst thing that can be, especially for those who rest all on experience. For they had no history worthy to be called history that went back a thousand years — but only fables and rumors of antiquity”. Also, according to him, only specific portions of the world were known and categories were indiscriminately assigned –“ the name of Scythians to all in the North, of Celts to all in the West” (Bacon, LXXII). This is because they were not acquainted much with the New World –“ Much less were they acquainted with the provinces of the New World, even by hearsay or any well-founded rumor… In our times, on the other hand, both many parts of the New World and the limits on every side of the Old World are known, and our stock of experience has increased to an infinite amount”. He thus draws on the transformation with the age of experimentation as the new provinces are unfolded to us and there is no difference between the thoughts of people in different parts of the world. Concepts and perceptions can be generalised and more easily and correctly understood and studied. Bacon’s principles also underly the advent of Information Technology in the current scenario where the entire world seems to have come under the knowledge zone of human beings. References: Mokyr, Joel. “The Intellectual Origins of Modern, Economic Growth”, The journal of Economic History, Vol. 65. June, 2005 < http://www-econ.stanford.edu/academics/Greif_228_2006/Mokyr%202005%20JEH%20Intellectual%20Origin.pdf> Bacon, Francis. The New Organon, Aphorisms, Butterfield, Herbert. The Origins of Modern Science, 1300-1800 Malherbe. Bacon’s method of Science, 1996 Read More