Scientific Revolutions: A Historical Perspective - Essay Example

Bacon was of the view that Aristotle corrupted philosophy by his logic, through which he fashioned the world out of the logical categories. Bacon was of the view that we cannot arrive at the truth of the physical world through the use of logic, and without recourse to the experience of the physical realities. Bacon, however, had respect to the antiquity scholars and he termed the ancient Greek scholars as having “ample wit”. Bacon’s respect for the ancient Greek scholars like Aristotle was due to the fact that some of the ancient Greek learning was based on factual matters, and not abstract superstitions.

For this reason, Bacon was of the view that some of the ancient Greek learning yielded true knowledge, and this knowledge ought to be retained. Bacon, however, was of the view that the antiquity disputations method of inquiry had led them astray in many instances, leading to superstitions and other alleged forms of knowledge that have no any basis, whatsoever, on the physical realities. Bacon argues that the ancients, or the people of the antiquity, were caught up in the “labyrinth of disputations”, which was not based on the material, sensible realities.

For Francis Bacon, therefore, true scientific method should be based on the experience of the physical, material realities. And for this reason, Beacon dismissed the Greek antiquity methods of learning that were not based on the factual realities of the material world. On the medieval period and the Arab civilization, Bacon was o the view that these two historical epochs were unfavourable to science and learning in general (Lindbergh, 1999). These is because these two historical epochs were solely concerned with metaphysical superstitions that have no any basis, whatsoever, on the world of experience.

Bacon attributed the sorry state of learning in the medieval period mainly to the following causes; the loss of contact between the theological speculations