Baconian method facts for kids

The Baconian method is a way of discovering new knowledge. It was created by Sir Francis Bacon, who was an important thinker in the early days of modern science. He wrote about this method in his book Novum Organum (which means 'New Method') in 1620. Bacon wanted his method to replace older ways of thinking, especially those from Aristotle. His ideas greatly helped shape how science developed.

How it Works: The Novum Organum

Bacon's Idea of Learning from Facts

Bacon's method is a type of inductive reasoning. This means it focuses on learning general rules from many specific observations. It's more than just making guesses from what you see.

First, Bacon said you need to make very careful and organized observations. This helps you get good, reliable facts. Then, you use these facts to figure out general ideas or "axioms." But he warned against making big guesses that the facts don't truly support.

The next step might be to collect even more information. Or, you can use the facts you have and your new ideas to find even more rules. Some types of facts are extra helpful. These include "negative instances" (when something doesn't happen), "exceptional instances" (unusual cases), and facts from experiments.

This whole process is repeated step-by-step. It helps build a strong base of knowledge. This knowledge is always supported by things you have observed or tested.

Bacon believed this careful method was the only way to build true knowledge. He thought older ways of learning were often not based on facts. They relied on big guesses or ideas that weren't well-proven. Even when old theories used facts, they often made huge generalisations from only a few casual observations.

Using Bacon's process, people could start fresh. They could set aside old beliefs, over-generalizations, and unproven "facts." Researchers could slowly and accurately build a solid base of knowledge from the ground up. Bacon said that old ways of thinking often led to mistakes because they didn't look closely enough at the facts.

Bacon was a religious man. He believed his work had a religious purpose. He thought that by doing careful scientific work, people could better understand God's amazing creation.

Finding Causes: How Things Happen

Bacon's method also helps find the form nature, or cause, of something. He suggested a few steps for this:

• Method of Agreement: Make a list of all the times the thing you want to explain happens.
• Method of Difference: Make another list of times when that thing does not happen.
• Method of Concomitant Variation: Rank your lists by how much the thing happens in each case.

Then, you look for factors that are present when the thing happens and absent when it doesn't. Also, look for factors that change along with how much the thing happens.

For example, imagine an army wins battles when a certain commander, Essex, leads it. And it doesn't win when Essex is not in charge. If the army's success changes based on how much Essex is involved, then it's reasonable to say Essex's command is linked to the army's success.

From this, Bacon suggested you can guess the underlying cause, which he called the "form." This first guess is called the "First Vintage." It's not the final answer, just a starting idea. You then need to check it and compare it to other ideas. This way, you get closer to the truth "by gradual degrees," as he wrote.

Making the Method Better

The Baconian method doesn't stop at the "First Vintage." Bacon described many "Instances with Special Powers." These are special cases where the thing you are studying is very important. These instances help speed up the process of finding answers.

Bacon also mentioned other "aids to the intellect." These were meant to be the next steps in his method. However, he didn't fully explain them beyond their first mention in his book.

Studying Nature

Pliny the Elder wrote a famous Roman encyclopedia called Natural History. Bacon's followers wanted to apply strict rules to facts, unlike the "Plinian" approach, which just collected examples. They believed a more complete study was needed before drawing conclusions. Bacon wanted more than just a list of plants; he wanted to understand why things happened.

For example, a "cabinet of curiosities" (a collection of interesting objects) was seen as something to study scientifically, not just to admire. Bacon's book Sylva Sylvarum suggested a more organized way to collect data to find causes.

The method relies on "tables of natural history." These are ways to organize observations. Bacon's background in common law (a type of legal system) might have influenced this idea of careful investigation.

Bacon's ideas about "natural history" also influenced many British writers in the 1600s. This included thinkers in economics and members of the Royal Society, a famous scientific group.

Mind Traps (idola mentis)

Bacon also warned about what he called "idols" or "false images" of the mind. He said these things stop us from thinking clearly and scientifically.

• Idols of the Tribe (Idola tribus): This is when humans tend to see more order or patterns than really exist. It happens because people often follow their own ideas about how things should be.
• Idols of the Cave (Idola specus): These are personal weaknesses in thinking. They come from each person's unique personality, likes, and dislikes.
• Idols of the Marketplace (Idola fori): This happens because of confusion in how we use language. Sometimes, scientific words are used differently than their everyday meaning.
• Idols of the Theatre (Idola theatri): This is when people just follow old academic rules or beliefs without questioning them. They don't ask new questions about the world.

Influence of the Method

The doctor Thomas Browne (1605–1682) was one of the first scientists to use Bacon's method. His encyclopedia Pseudodoxia Epidemica (first published in 1646) shows many examples of Bacon's investigative style. Its introduction even sounds like Bacon's writings. Isaac Newton's famous saying, hypotheses non fingo (meaning "I don't make hypotheses"), shows his preference for rules that could be proven, not just guessed.

The Baconian method was further developed by John Stuart Mill. In his 1843 book, A System of Logic, he tried to explain more about how things cause other things. In this book, he created five rules for learning from observations, which are now called Mill's methods.

See also

• Corroborating evidence