Transcript Francis Bacon & John Locke







lived during a time period in which there were varying
cultural and political ideas and many social conflicts
(Empiricism: The Influence of Francis Bacon, John Locke,
and David Hume)
attended Trinity College, Cambridge, and at Gray’s Inn
(Francis Bacon (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy))
1577-1578: went to Paris and his father died (Francis Bacon
(Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy))
left with financial problems so he entered the House of
Commons (Francis Bacon (Stanford Encyclopedia of
Philosophy))
tried to make revisions for the new system of sciences, but
were too lofty (Francis Bacon (Stanford Encyclopedia of
Philosophy))
Queen Elizabeth and Lord Burghley did not approve of
these reforms. (Francis Bacon (Stanford Encyclopedia of
Philosophy))








went into law and became a Parliamentarian (Francis Bacon
(Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy))
1593: forced to become a patron of the Earl of Essex (Francis
Bacon (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy))
1610: became one of James I knights (Francis Bacon (Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy))
1607: appointed Solicitor General (Francis Bacon (Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy))
1613: appointed Attorney General (Francis Bacon (Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy))
1616: became a member of the Privy Council (Francis Bacon
(Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy))
1617: entered into the House of Lords and became Lord Keeper
of the Great Seal (Francis Bacon (Stanford Encyclopedia of
Philosophy))
1618: appointed Lord Chancellor and Baron of Verulam (Francis
Bacon (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy))
the same year that he was named Viscount
of St. Albans, he was impeached for his
corruption as a judge (Francis Bacon
(Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy))
 was found to be the scapegoat to the
Duke of Buckingham from public anger and
aggression (Francis Bacon (Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy))
 In losing all of his political offices, he ended
his life with his work in philosophy (Francis
Bacon (Stanford Encyclopedia of
Philosophy))


Aristotle’s philosophy had axioms for each scientific
discipline, but Bacon thought he was lacking a
principle or theory of science (Francis Bacon
(Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy))
- axiom= a truth that doesn’t need any proof



1620: wrote Novum Organum, to propose a new way
of thinking about the world based on direct
experience (Ways of Knowing: How We Choose What
We Believe)
The book was ultimately an outline for his scientific
method (Ways of Knowing: How We Choose What
We Believe)
talks about the distortions that the mind introduces
(Ways of Knowing: How We Choose What We
Believe)


our mind wants to put order in the universe and so it
will unconsciously add order (Ways of Knowing: How
We Choose What We Believe)
four categories of distortions (Ways of Knowing: How
We Choose What We Believe)
- ones that are common to the human tribe all
together (idols of the tribe)
- ones that are apply more to one group than
another (idols of the cave)
- ones that come about from our unclear use of
words (idols of the marketplace)
- ones that are caused by the variation in
philosophies and world visions that people follow
(idols of the theater)




Idols of the Tribe: in the desire to see more order
everyone will suffer (Ways of Knowing: How We
Choose What We Believe)
Idols of the Caves: while some people are attracts to
new ideas, some people are drawn to more
traditional ideas. (Ways of Knowing: How We Choose
What We Believe)
Idols of the Marketplace: when describing the world
in a way that we talk in regular conversation we can
have serious misapprehensions (Ways of Knowing:
How We Choose What We Believe)
Idols of the Theater: we interpret the world through
our view and it’s easier to see others doing it than
ourselves. (Ways of Knowing: How We Choose What
We Believe)




came about from his desire to form progressive
areas of certainty (Golden)
rejected the commonly used inductive method
and said that we should derive “axioms from
the senses and particular, rising by a gradual
and unbroken ascent, so that it arrives at the
most general axioms last of all” (Golden)
could lead to conclusions that are not reliable
or valid (Golden)
thought that human beings paid much more
attention to events that are successful than to
those that have failed (Myers, 2004)




empiricists, who believed that knowledge comes
from our senses and experiences. (Myers, 2004)
helped to form the study of the mind and how it
works (Empiricism: The Influence of Francis Bacon,
John Locke, and David Hume)
empiricism influenced psychology today how it is a
science that studies human behavior through
observation and experiment (Empiricism: The
Influence of Francis Bacon, John Locke, and David
Hume)
John Locke continued on the research of Francis
Bacon (Empiricism: The Influence of Francis Bacon,
John Locke, and David Hume)





lived during a time where Civil War resulting from
poverty and religious and social divides
1632: got into Oxford University, which his father
probably helped(Cranston, 1957)
early ideas were to “enquire into the original
certainty and extent of human knowledge” and
started with the Essay Concerning Human
Understanding(Cranston, 1957)
claims that certain acts have been said to be innate,
but only because people caught recall where they
learned it and that all ideas come from experience
(Cranston, 1957)
“all knowledge is founded on and ultimately derives
itself from sense, or something analogous to it, which
may be called sensation” (Cranston, 1957)



feels all ideas come from some sort of sensation
(Cranston, 1957)
calls an idea that object of understanding and that
there are two types of ideas (Cranston, 1957)
- simple ideas: that are received through thought
- complex ideas: that are produced by using your
mind’s powers
In perception, an important part of the sensation
model, there are three elements (Cranston, 1957)
- the observer
- the idea
- the object


ideas are based on what we think is always an
idea and that there are three different types of
knowledge (Cranston, 1957)
- intuitive: the mind sees agreement or
disagreement with ideas without influence
from other ideas
- demonstrative: knowledge received from the
proposing of other ideas
- sensitive: which is in front of our senses at any
time
Anything not within one of these criteria is not
knowledge, in Locke’s opinion, instead is faith
or opinion (Cranston, 1957)
If a man will begin with certainties, he
shall end in doubts, but if he will content
to begin with doubts, he shall end in
certainties.
- Francis Bacon
 No man's knowledge here can go
beyond his experience.
- John Locke








"Axiom | Define Axiom at Dictionary.com." Dictionary.com |
Free Online Dictionary for English Definitions. Web. 14 Feb. 2011.
<http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/axiom>.
Cranston, M. John Locke: A biography. London: Longman’s
Green & Co. 1957.
“Empiricism: The Influence of Francis Bacon, John Locke, and
David Hume.” SBC Psychology. Web. 13 Feb. 2011.
<http://www.psychology.sbc.edu/Empiricism.htm>.
“Francis Bacon (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy).” Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Web. 13 Feb. 2011.
<http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/francis-bacon/>.
Golden, James L. The Rhetoric of Western Thought: From the
Mediterranean World to the Global Setting. 8th ed. Dubuque, IA:
Kendall/Hunt, 2003. Print.
Myers, D. Psychology.7th ed. Michigan: Hope College. 2004.
Ways of Knowing: How We Choose What We Believe. Web. 13
Feb. 2011. <http://waysofknowing.info/lecsite/baconlec.html>.