Francis Bacon and the Experimental Method

The English statesman and philosopher Francis Bacon argued that knowledge should be built from careful observation and experiment, working step by step from particular facts to general laws, a process called induction. In his 1620 book Novum Organum he warned against four 'idols', habits that distort thinking: human nature's tendency to see patterns (tribe), personal bias (cave), the confusion of language (marketplace) and the dogmas of philosophical schools (theatre).

Bacon believed science should be collaborative and useful, improving human life rather than only winning arguments. His unfinished utopia, New Atlantis, imagined a research institution, Salomon's House, devoted to experiment. Critics note that Bacon underrated mathematics and that his own career, which ended with his removal as Lord Chancellor for accepting bribes, was not a model of virtue. Still, his vision of organized, practical research inspired the Royal Society and the Enlightenment ideal of knowledge as a tool for progress.