The Birth of a New Science

Observation. Question. Hypothesis. Experiment. Analysis. Conclusion. It’s a progression we all learn in middle school — so ingrained in us that we perhaps never wonder if science was ever done differently. But, solely applying skeptical inductive reasoning to the natural world is a rather new development in the grand scheme of the history of scientific discovery.

Aristotle’s scientific tracts on biology and medicine have very little of the scientific method involved. Copernicus and Galileo spent as much time deducing the way the stars worked based on Pythagorean principles as they did just watching the stars. (READ MORE from Aubrey Gulick: The Colony That Wasn’t Invited)

Then, there was Francis Bacon, a precocious Cambridge graduate who — like most men of the Renaissance era — enjoyed dabbling in a bit of philosophy, a bit of astronomy, some politics, and the occasional bit of science. As unlikely as it seemed, Bacon is the man responsible for the underpinnings of what would become the scientific revolution.

Bacon was born on Jan. 22, 1561, the second child of a middling lord. He was a rather sickly child, and as a result, spent a lot of his childhood with his nose in a book — enough time, in fact, that at the tender age of 12, he was ready to go to Cambridge. While there, Bacon made the connection of a lifetime. He became friends with Queen Elizabeth I. That connection allowed Bacon to serve as a diplomat before his father’s death, and would eventually help him win a seat in Parliament and garner several titles. (READ MORE: Now We’re Misdiagnosing Chronic Kidney Disease for Racial Equity)

Intellectually, Bacon was a skeptic. There’s no doubt he was influenced by Renaissance thinkers (like them, he detested Aristotle’s methodology, although he had plenty of respect for the philosopher) but decided to go in a rather different direction. Bacon argued, in his work Novum Organum, that man comes to know things by induction rather than deduction and proposed the first sketch of the scientific method.

Bacon wasn’t the only one questioning the methodological underpinnings of knowledge in the early 17th century. His French contemporary René Descartes (also a skeptic) was far more popular at the time. It would be almost a century before Bacon’s ideas dominated the scientific world. Of course, by the 18th century, Enlightenment philosophers were picking and choosing. Bacon was — at least by all appearances — a devout Anglican (you had to be to be friends with Elizabeth) and saw science as a way of understanding God. Philosophers during the Enlightenment tended to be a bit more godless about their approach to science. (READ MORE: Ignorance to the Fourth Degree)

Bacon stands at an odd place in the history of the scientific movement. His diverse resume (politician, lawyer, philosopher, and poet) makes him the ideal Renaissance man — a jack of all trades. Nonetheless, he is also considered the father of the scientific revolution. He stands with one foot in the old world and one in the new. Perhaps he had to, to birth a new science.

This article originally appeared on Aubrey’s Substack, Pilgrim’s Way, on Jan. 22, 2024.

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