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The Empirical Philosophy of Roger and Francis Bacon

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2022

Herbert Hochberg
Herbert Hochberg*
Affiliation:
State University of Iowa
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Extract

To this date Roger Bacon remains one of the controversial and colorful figures in the history of empirical science. This paper is an attempt to ascertain his views regarding the nature and function of empirical science and to compare his writings on this topic with those of the more famous Francis Bacon. The ground for comparison is the fact that both men have often been cast in the same role in the history of science; i.e., they have both been acclaimed as the first in the western world to emphasize and bring out the importance of experimental method in the accumulation of knowledge. In this connection Francis, of the sixteenth century, has long been acknowledged as the father of the experimental method in preference to Roger, of the thirteenth century. In effect, therefore, this paper probes the relative merits of the claims for each thinker.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 20 , Issue 4 , October 1953 , pp. 313 - 326
Copyright
Copyright © 1953, The Williams & Wilkins Company

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