Francis Bacon 1561 – 1626

Francis Bacon was a 16th and early 17th-century English philosopher, statesman, and essayist, regarded as one of the founders of the modern scientific method and a major figure of early modern philosophy. His 1620 work Novum Organum proposed a new method of inductive inquiry to replace the deductive logic of Aristotle, and his sweeping vision of organised collaborative scientific research, sketched in The New Atlantis, prefigured the modern research institution. His Essays, first published in 1597 and expanded over later editions, are concise treatments of moral and political topics that established the philosophical essay in English. He served as Lord Chancellor of England under James I until his political career ended in disgrace in 1621. His empiricism profoundly influenced the British empiricist tradition that runs through Locke, Berkeley, and Hume.