Romanticism and Bacon facts for kids

The Romantics, a group of thinkers and artists, wanted to understand nature in a deep, living way. They studied Sir Francis Bacon, who is often called the "father of science." The Romantics saw Bacon's ideas about how we learn, especially his "inductive method," differently from how others saw it.

Most people, like John Stuart Mill later on, thought Bacon's method was just about observing things and making general rules from those observations. But the Romantics felt this wasn't enough to truly understand nature. They believed Bacon also thought nature was like a maze. You couldn't just wander through it or try random experiments. Instead, you needed a "clue" or a plan to guide your steps from the very beginning.

Coleridge and Bacon's Ideas

Samuel Taylor Coleridge was a main speaker for Romantic philosophy. He talked about the "science of science," which means how we gain knowledge. In 1840, an article said that Coleridge's ideas influenced many British thinkers.

Coleridge believed Bacon thought that nature's deepest secrets, what Bacon called natura naturans (nature naturing), needed a special "way of knowing." This wasn't just using your normal brain. It was a "super-conscious mind," a way of knowing that felt like you were part of nature itself.

Coleridge referred to Bacon's idea of the 'Lumen siccum'. This means "dry light" or a "Platonic Idea." It's like a guiding thought or concept that exists before you even observe anything in nature. This idea helps direct and influence what you see and how you understand it.

Coleridge asked: "Must there not be some power... that stands in human nature... by which man is enabled to question... the irresistible impressions of his own senses... to challenge and disqualify them, as partial and incompetent?"

A good example of this is how we moved from believing the Earth was the center of the universe (Ptolemaic view) to knowing the Sun is the center (Copernican view). Our immediate senses tell us the sun moves around the Earth. But reason, guided by a higher idea, showed us the truth. Without these guiding ideas, science might only look at surface-level things instead of nature's true, essential properties.

Richard Saumarez, who lived at the same time as Coleridge, agreed. He said that current philosophy wasn't natural. He felt it ignored Bacon's first rule: "Man, being the servant and interpreter of Nature, can do and understand so much and so much only as he has observed in fact or in thought of the course of nature. Beyond this he neither knows anything nor can do anything."

An example of this difference is how Isaac Newton studied color by bending light through a prism. This looked at a secondary effect. In contrast, Goethe studied color by directly observing it, using a deeper way of thinking that Coleridge talked about.

Coleridge believed Bacon's method for science involved two key things. First, clearing away "idols," which are like false ideas that twist our thinking. Second, developing a higher way of thinking.

Coleridge said Bacon was the "father of science," but not for the reasons most people thought. He wanted to correct this misunderstanding. He explained that Bacon also called for an "organizing idea" in science. This idea helps shape and carry out experiments.

Coleridge explained that Bacon believed in a "mental initiative." This means having a clear purpose or a good guess about what might happen before you start an experiment. Bacon said that asking a question well means you already know half the answer. So, for Bacon and Coleridge, an idea is like a proposed experiment, and an experiment is an idea that has come true.

Bacon did value experiments over just using our senses. But this was only if there was a good organizing idea to begin with. Without such an idea, just observing things or doing random experiments might lead to new tools, but not to new scientific understanding or laws.

Coleridge explained that our senses can only see what an experiment shows us. But the same part of our mind that came up with the experiment can also judge if there's a natural law that matches what we observed.

So, for Bacon, the organizing idea is different from what we learn just through our senses. It's a deeper understanding that comes from a "dry light" or pure intellect.

In short, Coleridge believed Bacon's system of science came from a "supersensible realm." This means it came from a place beyond what our normal senses can detect.

Coleridge said this is the real Baconian philosophy. It means deeply thinking about the laws that our pure reason shows us. We trust that these laws will match certain laws in nature. Nature itself is like a big mirror where we see our own being and understand the great Being whose eternal reason is the basis for all ideas in our minds and all realities in nature.

Bacon taught that science gets better as it makes things less about physical objects. For example, when we study planets, we mostly look at things like their mass and distance. Light itself, which some have doubted is even physical, is like a beautiful geometry. In magnetism, we don't see it, but we know it by its power.

So, the scientific method involves organizing what we see with our senses according to an idea. This idea doesn't come from our senses. Instead, it guides the data, revealing its true meaning. This order isn't random. It's directed by the idea itself, whether we are aware of it or not.

Coleridge believed that parts of a system get their purpose and qualities from an earlier method or a self-organizing goal. This is why he focused so much on this idea.

We feel a connection to nature, even though we are separate from it. This means there's a dynamic, active relationship between us and nature.

Coleridge said that this deep feeling leads us to believe that the power that creates things in nature is the same as the intelligence in the human mind. This belief is so strong that it's part of every language. When we look at anything built as a whole, we assume there was a plan or intention behind it.

Therefore, the way Coleridge developed his inquiry is a "holistic, relational metaphysic." This means it's a way of understanding everything as connected and always improving itself. This scientific inquiry has two main parts: a leading thought and progress. It's a direct result of philosophy and helps connect philosophy with science.