HKB
And an | entirely new one must be proposed, | which will be able to carry the human | mind from empirical data to the real | causes, to supply it with the means of | invention, to justify the position of | first truths and to manage a secure | deduction of practical consequences. | And, as the critique of the old logic | has to be understood as a whole, so | the interpretation of nature has to be | conceived as a continuous attempt, | proceeding by degrees, by successive | stages, to invent truth and to derive | works. ("Bacon's method of science", | in: THE CAMBRIDGE COMPANION TO BACON. | ed. by Markku Peltonen [1996], 76-82). | | 1C. | Harvey Wheeler comments: | | Most historians of the philosophy of science | are unfamiliar with Bacon's transformation | of his innovative theory of juridical | lawfinding into scientific empiricist | lawfinding. Baconian law-finding is not to | be confused with cause-finding in modern | "classical" physics. | | Bacon's quest changed as he matured. In | VALERIUS TERMINUS he is writing in | English, trying to lay the groundwork for | the validity of the co-existence of Religion | and Science. | | Bacon’s early experimental treatises--like | Dense and Rare--are experimental and of | limited value. Historians of the philosophy | of science have little trouble in disposing | these early experimentalist efforts of Bacon. | | His work on sound was somewhat better-- | experimental-theoretical. It is a | post-pythagorean theory of harmonics and | still not appropriately analyzed. | Contemproary musicologists like to quote | the passages on sound in NEW ATLANTIS | for being compatible with today’s approach | to music. | | By the time of the Novum Organum Bacon | was seeking a more "general theory of | science." Its 'logic machine' (Hooke) was | designed to be relevant to all | non-theological domains. | | However, most Bacon interpreters evaluate | his science in contrast to the prior | Aristotelian approaches and in comparison | to the Ramist approaches of Bacon’s day. | He rejected them both. | | Scholars then look beyond Bacon and | evaluate his logic machine in contrast to the | "classical mechanics" of Newtonian Optics | (physics): linear time-sequence prediction. | | Bacon was not seeking that type of | "cause/prediction"science. He was seeking | hidden, "unwritten" "laws" of nature, | more on the model of Pasteur than of | Newton. | | Any treatment that tries to interpret | Bacon's Logic Machine in the light of what | classical physics called "science" will | distort Bacon's meaning and achievement. | | Note: if a scholar's interpretation of | Bacon's Science does not square with the | detailed description of the application of | Bacon's science in "Salomon's House" in | NEW ATLANTIS, it should be viewed with | scepticism. | | Bacon's science is more applicable to what | we call post-modern neo-hermeutics than to | Newtonian mechanics. (Patrick Heelan is | good on post-modern neo-hermeneutics.) | | Consider: