Aristotle vs Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon's Novum Organum (1620) was a programmatic attack on the Aristotelian inheritance that had dominated scholastic natural philosophy for four centuries. The contrast between Aristotelian and Baconian method is the foundational episode of early modern philosophy of science.
At a glance
| Aristotle | Francis Bacon | |
|---|---|---|
| Dates | 384 BC – 322 BC | 1561 – 1626 |
| Nationality | Greek | English |
| Era | Ancient | Modern |
| Movements | Peripatetic School, Ancient Greek Philosophy | Empiricism, Early Modern Philosophy, Renaissance |
| Profile | Aristotle → | Francis Bacon → |
Where they agree
Both held that systematic inquiry into nature is the proper task of philosophy, both rejected the appeal to mere authority and tradition in matters of natural knowledge, and both took the analysis of method as central. Bacon's framework for inquiry inherits as much from Aristotle as it rejects, and the rules of inductive collection in the Novum Organum presuppose Aristotelian categories.
Where they disagree
Aristotle's natural philosophy proceeds from clearly grasped first principles through the analysis of essences — what a thing is, by what cause, for what purpose. Bacon held that this method had collapsed under its own weight: the scholastic syllogism reproduced received error rather than uncovering new truth, and the search for final causes had displaced the experimental investigation of efficient causes. Bacon's Novum Organum proposes a method of disciplined induction by tables of presence and absence, the elimination of the idols of the mind, and the systematic interrogation of nature through experiment. Where Aristotle's natural philosophy aimed at understanding what things are, Bacon's aimed at gaining power over nature for the relief of the human estate.
Representative quotes
Aristotle
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“All men by nature desire to know.”
Metaphysics Book I, 980a.21 : Opening paragraph of Metaphysics | Variant: All men by nature desire knowledge. | The first sentence is in the Oxford Dictionary of Scientific Quotations (2005), 21:10 -
“Friendship is a single soul dwelling in two bodies.”
A friend is one soul abiding in two bodies. -
“The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.”
Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers
Francis Bacon
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“Knowledge is power.”
Nam et ipsa scientia potestas est. -
“Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.”
Of Studies -
“If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties.”
Book I, v, 8
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