New Organon & Related Writings

I first read this book 50 years ago. At the time, my perception was that it is an account of the scientific method, in simple terms. I look forward to reading it again, especially in light of living so long in this "scientific" age. As an aside, there is an abridgement of the "scientific method" by modern scientists who ushered in the quantum revolution. Karl Popper is a major philosopher there. Putting that aside, Bacon describes the process as formulating hypotheses and performing experiments based on facts. (As I dimly remember) Here are a few observations about this treatise. 1. There have been suspicions the method was predated from classical antiquity and kept alive by muslim scholars. 2. Worth saying is the Baconian method is unknown to most modern scientists and especially the public. I suspect many people think that "science" is the white coats and instruments used. Along with this charade is the human need for certainty. I believe this "mental lockup" causes rigid thinking and even widespread death, in medical practice. That may be, but the reality of medical practice demands specific solutions on the spot. In any case, this work is a pillar of western civilization, and required reading for seekers of truth.

Francis Bacon (1561-1626) was a Christian lawyer who made his mark on history by writing the "Great Instauration" [called the "Great Renewal" on this edition] which included "the New Organon". "The New Organon" (1620) and the rest of the "Great Renewal" was to be one of his last contributions to man and it was to be one of his greatest critiques of knowledge, and it's inefficiency from the time of the ancients til then on acquiring information on natural phenomenon. At the time he had done a few critiques of knowledge already such as "The Advancement on Learning" and others found in Francis Bacon: The Major Works (Oxford World's Classics). The knowledge that he was critiquing was the "knowledge of nature" or "natural philosophy" or as it is called today, "Science". "The New Organon" is the "Scientific Method", or inductive reasoning, and its variants. After the publication, knowledge of nature was to be derived from experiences of the senses via systematic experiments, systematic inquiry, formation of efficient axioms, and organized to further increase inquiry and increase certainty for controlling nature and fulfilling God's purpose in man and nature - to discover and increase in knowledge or as he called it, "The Divine Providence". The book includes his vision for the structure of the "Great Renewal", "the New Organon", and his "Outline of a Natural and Experimental History". This translation is helpful for the footnotes, but it's pretty stiff in terms of translation and does not bring out the eloquence he intended. At times this translation sounds slightly corny and doesn't flow smoothly. I recommend you read the other version: Francis Bacon: The New Organon and Related Writings, which has the eloquent 1863 translation (without the footnotes) which brings out Bacon's original eloquent voice with the power and the fury of the philosophers and the Christian rationalists. The New Organon is divided into two books. Here is a summary of what you will find in Bacon's work on the "Scientific Method' and its variants: Book 1 (Basically, Critiques of Knowledge): Critiques of letting pure reason be the guide to acquiring knowledge of nature and redirecting to letting nature be the guide to interpreting nature; consider more than just anticipations in nature; the 4 Idols of understanding that give men false understanding, error, speculation: Idols of the Tribe, Cave, Marketplace, and Theatre (XXXIX-LXII); critique of Aristotle's manipulation of nature to suit his philosophy and lack of experimentation; full blown critiques of problems in the 3 classes of Rational Schools of Philosophy: Sophistry [dependence on wit] , Empirical [big claims, little evidence, dogmas], Superstitious [mixing weird theology and philosophy] (LXII-LXV); making a science of the Book of Genesis [in context of his time, Bacon saw this useless because there was no way to verify the origins of the universe, let alone archeology to validate stories in Genesis] (LXV); stupi

Though somewhat obscure, this book should be more widely known and read. Very enlightening and well ahead of it's time. Terrific, readable translation. You'll never look at the world again in the same way!

This is a very clear and readily assimilated translation of what may be considered the manifesto of the scientific revolution. Translating a seventeenth century Englishman, writing in latin, back into english: should it be the english he would have written at that time, or is a more ahistorical rendering ppropriate? Sometimes I wondered if the translation might be a little too up-to-date in its sensibilities and I found myself returning to the latin original to be reassured that Bacon's original intent had been rendered. Although the text is admirably clear a few more footnotes would have been welcome. Those provided are either somewhat cryptic and brief notes of textual readings, or on the other hand, notes on personages that seem to pander too much to the ignorance of today's students - vero media est. Though the second part of Novum Organon seem but little removed from the alchemists den, Bacon's first part is as relevant to the scientific enterprise today as it ever was - modern physicists and geneticists should consider carefully whether, as aphorism LXIV warns, empiricism may be a greater danger than sophistic dogma ever was.