Francis Bacon was born in London, into a noble and respected family. His father Nicholas was a politician, and his mother Anne (nee Cook) was the daughter of Anthony Cook, a famous humanist who raised King Edward VI of England and Ireland. From a young age, his mother instilled in her son a love of knowledge, and she, a girl who knew ancient Greek and Latin, did it with ease. In addition, the boy himself showed a great interest in knowledge from a very tender age.
In general, not much is known about the childhood of the great thinker. He received the basics of knowledge at home, as he was in poor health. But this did not stop him at the age of 12, together with his older brother Anthony, from entering Trinity College (College of the Holy Trinity) at Cambridge. During his studies, the smart and educated Francis was noticed not only by the courtiers, but also by Queen Elizabeth I herself, who happily talked with the young man, often jokingly calling him the growing Lord Guardian.
After graduating from college, the brothers joined the community of teachers at Gray's Inn (1576). In the autumn of the same year, not without the help of his father, Francis, as part of the retinue of Sir Amyas Paulet, went abroad. The realities of life in other countries, seen then by Francis, resulted in the notes “On the State of Europe.”
Bacon was forced to return to his homeland by misfortune - in February 1579, his father passed away. In the same year he began practicing as a lawyer in Gray's Inn. A year later, Bacon submitted a petition to seek some position at court. However, despite Queen Elizabeth’s rather warm attitude towards Bacon, he never heard a positive result. After working at Gray's Inn until 1582, he received the post of junior barrister.
At the age of 23, Francis Bacon was given the honor of holding a position in the House of Commons. He had his own views, which sometimes did not coincide with the views of the Queen, and therefore soon became known as her opponent. A year later, he was already elected to parliament, and Bacon’s real “finest hour” came when James I came to power in 1603. Under his patronage, Bacon was appointed Attorney General (1612), and five years later Lord Privy Seal, and from 1618 to 1621 he was Lord Chancellor.
His career collapsed in an instant when, in the same 1621, Francis was charged with bribery. He was then taken into custody, but just two days later he was pardoned. During his political activity, the world saw one of the thinker’s most outstanding works - the “New Organon”, which was the second part of the main work - the “Great Restoration of the Sciences”, which, unfortunately, was never completed.
Bacon's philosophy
Francis Bacon is rightfully considered the founder of modern thinking. His philosophical theory fundamentally refutes scholastic teachings, while bringing knowledge and science to the fore. The thinker believed that a person who managed to cognize and accept the laws of nature is quite capable of using them for his own benefit, thereby gaining not only power, but also something more - spirituality. The philosopher subtly noted that during the formation of the world, all discoveries were made, essentially, by accident - without special skills or knowledge of special techniques. Consequently, when exploring the world and gaining new knowledge, the main thing to use is experience and the inductive method, and research, in his opinion, should begin with observation, not theory. According to Bacon, a successful experiment can be called such only if, during its implementation, conditions are constantly changing, including time and space - matter must always be in motion.
Empirical teaching of Francis Bacon
The concept of “empiricism” appeared as a result of the development of Bacon’s philosophical theory, and its essence boiled down to the judgment “knowledge lies through experience.” He believed that it was possible to achieve anything in one’s activities only with experience and knowledge. According to Bacon, there are three paths through which a person can gain knowledge:
- "Way of the Spider" IN in this case The analogy is drawn with the web, like which human thoughts are intertwined, while specific aspects are passed over.
- "The Way of the Ant" Like an ant, a person collects facts and evidence bit by bit, thus gaining experience. However, the essence remains unclear.
- "The Way of the Bee" In this case, use positive qualities the paths of the spider and the ant, and the negative ones (lack of specifics, misunderstood essence) are omitted. When choosing the path of a bee, it is important to put all the facts collected experimentally through the mind and the prism of your thinking. This is how the truth is known.
Classification of obstacles to knowledge
Bacon, in addition to the ways of knowledge. He also talks about constant obstacles (the so-called ghost obstacles) that accompany a person throughout his life. They can be congenital or acquired, but in any case, they are the ones that prevent you from adjusting your mind to knowledge. So, there are four types of obstacles: “Ghosts of the family” (come from human nature itself), “Ghosts of the cave” (own errors in perceiving the surrounding reality), “ghosts of the market” (appear as a result of communication with other people through speech (language)) and “ theater ghosts” (ghosts inspired and imposed by other people). Bacon is sure that in order to learn something new, you need to abandon the old. At the same time, it is important not to “lose” experience, based on which and passing it through the mind, you can achieve success.
Personal life
Francis Bacon was married once. His wife was three times his age. The great philosopher's chosen one was Alice Burnham, the daughter of the widow of London elder Benedict Burnham. The couple had no children.
Bacon died as a result of suffering from a cold, which was the result of one of the experiments being carried out. Bacon stuffed the chicken carcass with snow with his hands, trying in this way to determine the effect of cold on the safety of meat products. Even when he was already seriously ill, foreshadowing his imminent death, Bacon wrote joyful letters to his comrade, Lord Arendelle, never tired of repeating that science would ultimately give man power over nature.
Quotes
- Knowledge is power
- Nature can be conquered only by obeying its laws.
- He who hobbles along a straight road will outpace a runner who has lost his way.
- The worst loneliness is not having true friends.
- Imaginary wealth of knowledge - main reason his poverty.
- Of all the virtues and virtues of the soul, the greatest virtue is kindness.
The most famous works of the philosopher
- “Experiences, or moral and political instructions” (3 editions, 1597-1625)
- “On the dignity and increase of sciences” (1605)
- "New Atlantis" (1627)
Over the course of his life, 59 works came from the philosopher’s pen; after his death, another 29 were published.
The famous English thinker is one of the first major philosophers of modern times, era of reason. The very nature of his teaching is very different from the systems of ancient and medieval thinkers. Bacon makes no mention of knowledge as a pure and inspired striving for the highest truth. He despised Aristotle and religious scholasticism because they approached philosophical knowledge with such points of view. In accordance with the spirit of the new, rational consumer era, Bacon is characterized, first of all, by the desire for dominance over nature. Hence his famous aphorism knowledge is power .
Before he devoted himself entirely to philosophy, Francis Bacon was one of the most prominent officials of the English royal court. His public activities were marked by extreme unscrupulousness. Having started his parliamentary career as an extreme oppositionist, he soon turned into a loyal loyalist. Having betrayed his original patron, Essex, Francis Bacon became Lord, Privy Councilor and Warden state seal, but then was caught by parliament in large bribes. After a scandalous trial, he was sentenced to a huge fine of 40 thousand pounds and imprisonment in the Tower. The king forgave Bacon, but he still had to part with his political career (for more details, see the article Bacon, Francis - a short biography). In his philosophical works, Francis Bacon proclaimed the goal of conquering material power with the same merciless one-sidedness and dangerous disregard for moral laws with which he acted in practical politics.
Portrait of Francis Bacon. Artist Frans Pourbus the Younger, 1617
Humanity, according to Bacon, must subjugate nature and dominate it. (This goal, however, animates the entire Renaissance.) The human race moved forward thanks to scientific discoveries and inventions.
Recognizing the genius of many ancient philosophers, Bacon argued, however, that their genius was of no use, since it was misdirected. All of them selflessly sought abstract metaphysical and moral truths, without thinking about practical benefits. Bacon himself thinks that “science should not be reduced to the fruitless satisfaction of idle curiosity.” She should turn to extensive material and productive work. The practical Anglo-Saxon spirit was fully embodied in Bacon's aspirations and personality.
Bacon's "New Atlantis"
Francis Bacon was imbued with the idea that the development of science would lead in the future to the onset of a golden age. Despite his almost undoubted atheism, he wrote about the upcoming great discoveries with the elevated enthusiasm of a religious prophet and treated the fate of science as a kind of shrine. In his unfinished philosophical utopia "New Atlantis" Bacon paints a happy, comfortable life a wise, small nation of islanders who systematically apply all previously made discoveries to new inventions in the “house of Solomon”. The inhabitants of "New Atlantis" have a steam engine, balloon, microphone, telephone and even a perpetual motion machine. The most bright colors Bacon depicts how all this improves, beautifies and lengthens human life. The thought of the possible harmful consequences of “progress” does not even occur to him.
Bacon "The Great Restoration of the Sciences" - briefly
All of Francis Bacon's major books are combined into one gigantic work called The Great Restoration of the Sciences (or The Great Revival of the Sciences). The author sets himself three tasks in it: 1) a review of all sciences (with the establishment of the special role of philosophy), 2) the development of a new method of natural science and, 3) its application to a single study.
Bacon’s essays “On the Advancement of Knowledge” and “On the Dignity and Augmentation of the Sciences” are devoted to solving the first problem. The book “On the Dignity and Increase of the Sciences” constitutes the first part of the “Great Restoration.” Bacon gives in it review of human knowledge(globus intellectualis). According to the three main abilities of the soul (memory, imagination and reason), he divides all sciences into three branches: “history” (experimental knowledge in general, humanitarian and natural), poetry and philosophy.
Philosophy has three objects: God, man and nature. However, the knowledge of God, according to Francis Bacon, is inaccessible to the human mind and must be drawn only from revelation. The sciences that study man and nature are anthropology and physics. Bacon considers the experienced physicist “ mother of all sciences" He includes metaphysics (the doctrine of the primary causes of things) among the sciences, but is inclined to look at it as unnecessary speculation.
Monument to Francis Bacon in London
Francis Bacon (1561-1626) is considered the founder of experimental science in modern times. He was the first philosopher to set himself the task of creating scientific method. In his philosophy, the main principles characterizing the philosophy of the New Age were formulated for the first time.
Bacon came from a noble family and throughout his life he was involved in social and political activity: was a lawyer, member of the House of Commons, Lord Chancellor of England. Shortly before the end of his life, society condemned him, accusing him of bribery in the conduct of court cases. He was sentenced to a large fine (£40,000), deprived of parliamentary powers, and dismissed from the court. He died in 1626 from a cold while stuffing a chicken with snow to prove that cold kept meat from spoiling and thereby demonstrate the power of the experimental scientific method he was developing.
From the very beginning of his philosophical creative activity, Bacon opposed the scholastic philosophy that was dominant at that time and put forward the doctrine of “natural” philosophy, based on experimental knowledge. Bacon's views were formed on the basis of the achievements of natural philosophy of the Renaissance and included a naturalistic worldview with the foundations of an analytical approach to the phenomena under study and empiricism. He proposed an extensive restructuring program intellectual world, sharply criticizing the scholastic concepts of previous and contemporary philosophy.
Bacon sought to bring the “boundaries of the mental world” in accordance with all those enormous achievements that took place in Bacon’s contemporary society of the 15th-16th centuries, when the experimental sciences were most developed. Bacon expressed the solution to the task in the form of an attempt at a “great restoration of the sciences,” which he outlined in treatises: “On the Dignity and Augmentation of the Sciences” (his greatest work), “New Organon” (his main work) and other works on “natural history” , individual phenomena and processes of nature. Bacon's understanding of science included, first of all, a new classification of sciences, which he based on such abilities of the human soul as memory, imagination (fantasy), and reason. Accordingly, the main sciences, according to Bacon, should be history, poetry, and philosophy. The highest task of knowledge and all sciences, according to Bacon, is domination over nature and the improvement of human life. According to the head of the “House of Solomon” (a kind of research center. Academy, the idea of which was put forward by Bacon in the utopian novel “New Atlantis”), “the goal of society is to understand the causes and hidden forces of all things, to expand man’s power over nature, until everything will be possible for him"
The criterion for the success of sciences is the practical results to which they lead. “Fruits and practical inventions are, as it were, guarantors and witnesses of the truth of philosophy.” Knowledge is power, but only knowledge that is true. Therefore, Bacon distinguishes between two types of experience: fruitful and luminous.
The first are those experiences that bring direct benefit to a person, the luminous ones are those whose goal is to understand the deep connections of nature, the laws of phenomena, the properties of things. Bacon considered the second type of experiment more valuable, since without their results it is impossible to carry out fruitful experiments. The unreliability of the knowledge we receive is due, Bacon believes, to a dubious form of evidence, which relies on a syllogistic form of substantiation of ideas, consisting of judgments and concepts. However, concepts, as a rule, are not formed sufficiently substantiated. In his criticism of the theory of Aristotle's syllogism, Bacon proceeds from the fact that the general concepts used in deductive proof are the result of experimental knowledge made exclusively hastily. For our part, recognizing the importance general concepts, constituting the foundation of knowledge, Bacon believed that the main thing is to correctly form these concepts, since if concepts are formed hastily, by chance, then there is no strength in what is built on them. The main step in the reform of science proposed by Bacon should be the improvement of generalization methods and the creation of a new concept of induction.
Bacon's experimental-inductive method consisted of the gradual formation of new concepts through the interpretation of facts and natural phenomena. Only through such a method, according to Bacon, is it possible to discover new truths, and not to mark time. Without rejecting deduction, Bacon defined the difference and features of these two methods of knowledge as follows: “Two ways exist and can exist for the discovery of truth. One soars from sensations and particulars to the most general axioms, and, proceeding from these foundations and their unshakable truth, discusses and reveals the average axioms. This is the path that is used today. The other path deduces axioms from sensations and particulars, rising continuously and gradually until it finally comes to the most general axioms. This is the true path, but not tested."
Although the problem of induction had previously been posed by previous philosophers, only with Bacon it acquires paramount importance and acts as a primary means of knowing nature. In contrast to induction through simple enumeration, common at that time, he brings to the fore what he says is true induction, which gives new conclusions obtained not so much as a result of observing confirming facts, but as a result of studying phenomena that contradict the position being proven. A single case can refute a rash generalization. Neglect of the so-called negative authorities, according to Bacon, is the main cause of errors, superstitions, and prejudices.
Bacon's inductive method requires the collection of facts and their systematization. Bacon put forward the idea of compiling three research tables - a table of presence, absence and intermediate stages. If, using Bacon's favorite example, someone wants to find the form of heat, then he collects in the first table various cases of heat, trying to weed out everything that does not have in common, i.e. that which is when heat is present. In the second table he collects together cases which are similar to those in the first, but which do not possess heat. For example, the first table might list the rays of the sun that create heat, while the second might include things like rays coming from the moon or stars that do not create heat. On this basis, it is possible to filter out all those things that are present when heat is present. Finally, the third table collects cases in which heat is present to varying degrees. Using these three tables together, we can, according to Bacon, find out the cause that underlies heat, namely, according to Bacon, motion. This reveals the principle of studying the general properties of phenomena and their analysis. Bacon's inductive method also includes conducting an experiment.
To conduct an experiment, it is important to vary it, repeat it, move it from one area to another, reverse the circumstances, stop it, connect it with others and study it in slightly changed circumstances. After this, you can move on to the decisive experiment. Bacon put forward an experienced generalization of facts as the core of his method, but was not a defender of a one-sided understanding of it. Bacon's empirical method is distinguished by the fact that he relied as much as possible on reason when analyzing facts. Bacon compared his method to the art of the bee, which, extracting nectar from flowers, processes it into honey with its own skill. He condemned the crude empiricists who, like an ant, collect everything that comes their way (meaning the alchemists), as well as those speculative dogmatists who, like a spider, weave a web of knowledge from themselves (meaning the scholastics). According to Bacon, a prerequisite for the reform of science should be the cleansing of the mind from errors, of which there are four types. He calls these obstacles to the path of knowledge idols: idols of the clan, cave, square, theater. Idols of the race are mistakes caused by the hereditary nature of man. Human thinking has its shortcomings, since “it is likened to an uneven mirror, which, mixing its nature with the nature of things, reflects things in a distorted and disfigured form.”
Man constantly interprets nature by analogy with man, which is expressed in the teleological attribution to nature of ultimate goals that are not characteristic of it. This is where the idol of the clan manifests itself. The habit of expecting greater order in natural phenomena than in reality can be found in them - these are idols of the race. Bacon also includes the desire of the human mind for unfounded generalizations among the idols of the family. He pointed out that the orbits of rotating planets are often considered circular, which is unfounded. Idols of the cave are mistakes that are characteristic of an individual or certain groups of people due to subjective sympathies and preferences. For example, some researchers believe in the infallible authority of antiquity, while others tend to give preference to the new. “The human mind is not dry light, it is strengthened by will and passions, and this gives rise to what everyone desires in science. Man rather believes in the truth of what he prefers... In an infinite number of ways, sometimes imperceptible, passions stain and spoil the mind.”
The idols of the square are the errors generated verbal communication and the difficulty of avoiding the influence of words on the minds of men. These idols arise because words are only names, signs for communicating with each other; they do not say anything about what things are. This is why countless disputes about words arise when people mistake words for things.
The idols of the theater are mistakes associated with blind faith in authorities, uncritical assimilation of false opinions and views. Here Bacon had in mind the system of Aristotle and scholasticism, blind faith in which had a restraining effect on the development of scientific knowledge. He called truth the daughter of time, not authority. Artificial philosophical constructs and systems that have bad influence on people's minds - this is a kind of "philosophical theater", in his opinion. The inductive method developed by Bacon, which lies at the basis of science, should, in his opinion, explore the internal forms inherent in matter, which are the material essence of a property belonging to an object - a certain type of movement. To highlight the form of a property, it is necessary to separate everything random from the object. This exception to the accidental, of course, is a mental process, an abstraction. Baconian forms are the forms of "simple natures", or properties, that physicists study. Simple nature- these are things like hot, wet, cold, heavy, etc. They are like the "alphabet of nature" from which many things can be composed. Bacon refers to forms as "laws." They are the determinants and elements of the fundamental structures of the world. Combination of different simple shapes gives all the variety of real things. The understanding of form developed by Bacon was opposed by him to the speculative interpretation of form by Plato and Aristotle, since for Bacon form is a kind of movement of the material particles that make up the body. In the theory of knowledge, for Bacon, the main thing is to investigate the causes of phenomena. Causes can be different - either efficient, which is the concern of physics, or final, which is the concern of metaphysics.
The first thinker who made experiential knowledge the basis for any knowledge is Francis Bacon. Together with Rene Descartes, he proclaimed the basic principles for the New Age. Bacon's philosophy gave rise to a fundamental precept for Western thinking: knowledge is power. It was in science that he saw the most powerful tool for progressive social change. But who was this famous philosopher, what was the essence of his doctrine?
Childhood and youth
The founder Bacon was born on January twenty-second, 1561 in London. His father was a senior official at Elizabeth's court. The atmosphere at home and the education of his parents undoubtedly influenced little Francis. At twelve he was sent to Trinity College at Cambridge University. Three years later he was sent to Paris as part of a royal mission, but the young man soon returned due to the death of his father. In England, he took up law, and was very successful. However, he viewed his successful career as a lawyer only as a springboard to a political and public career. Undoubtedly, all further philosophy of F. Bacon experienced the experiences of this period. Already in 1584, he was first elected to the court of James the First Stuart, and the young politician quickly rose to prominence. The king granted him many ranks, awards and high positions.
Career
Bacon's philosophy is closely connected with the reign of the First. In 1614, the king completely dissolved parliament and ruled virtually alone. However, in need of advisers, Jacob brought Sir Francis closer to him. Already by 1621, Bacon was appointed Lord High Chancery, Baron of Verulam, Viscount of St. Albans, Keeper of the Royal Seal and an honorary member of the so-called Privy Council. When it became necessary for the king to reassemble parliament, the parliamentarians did not forgive such an elevation to the ordinary former lawyer, and he was sent to retirement. The outstanding philosopher and politician died on April 9, 1626.
Essays
During the years of busy court service, F. Bacon's empirical philosophy developed thanks to his interest in science, law, morality, religion and ethics. His writings glorified their author as a magnificent thinker and the actual founder of all modern philosophy. In 1597, the first work entitled “Experiments and Instructions” was published, which was then revised twice and republished many times. In 1605, the essay “On the meaning and success of knowledge, divine and human” was published. After his retirement from politics, Francis Bacon, whose quotations can be seen in many modern works of philosophy, delved into his mental research. In 1629, the “New Organon” was published, and in 1623 - “On the merits and enhancement of science.” Bacon's philosophy, briefly and concisely presented in allegorical form for a better understanding of the broad masses, was reflected in the utopian story “New Atlantis.” Other wonderful works: “On Heaven,” “On Beginnings and Causes,” “The History of King Henry the Seventeenth,” “The History of Death and Life.”
Main thesis
All scientific and ethical thought of the New Age was anticipated by the philosophy of Bacon. It is very difficult to briefly outline its entire array, but we can say that the main goal of this author’s work is to lead to more perfect view communication between things and the mind. It is the mind that is the highest measure of value. The philosophy of the Modern Age and the Enlightenment, developed by Bacon, placed special emphasis on correcting the sterile and vague concepts that are used in the sciences. Hence the need to “turn to things with a new look and restore, in general, all human knowledge.”
A look at science
Francis Bacon, whose quotes were used by almost all eminent philosophers of the New Age, believed that science since the times of the ancient Greeks had made very little progress in understanding and studying nature. People began to think less about the original principles and concepts. Thus, Bacon's philosophy encourages descendants to pay attention to the development of science and do this to improve all life. He opposed prejudices about science and sought recognition scientific research and scientists. It was with him that a sharp change in European culture began, and it was from his thoughts that many directions in the philosophy of the New Age grew. Science, from a suspicious activity in the eyes of the people of Europe, becomes a prestigious and important field of knowledge. In this regard, many philosophers, scientists and thinkers are following in the footsteps of Bacon. In place of scholasticism, which was completely divorced from technical practice and knowledge of nature, comes science, which has a close connection with philosophy and is based on special experiments and experiments.
A look at education
In his book The Great Restoration of the Sciences, Bacon compiled a well-thought-out and detailed plan changes in the entire education system: its financing, approved regulations and charters, and the like. He was one of the first politicians and philosophers to emphasize the importance of measures to provide funds for education and experimentation. Bacon also stated the need to revise teaching programs at universities. Even now, when reading Bacon's thoughts, one can be amazed at the depth of his insight as a statesman, scientist and thinker: the program from the “Great Restoration of the Sciences” is relevant to this day. It's hard to imagine how revolutionary it was in the seventeenth century. It was thanks to Sir Francis that the seventeenth century in England became “the century of great scientists and scientific discoveries.” It was Bacon's philosophy that became the forerunner of such modern disciplines as sociology, economics of science and science. The main contribution of this philosopher to the practice and theory of science was that he saw the need to bring scientific knowledge under methodological and philosophical justification. The philosophy of F. Bacon was aimed at the synthesis of all sciences into a single system.
Differentiation of science
Sir Francis wrote that the most correct division of human knowledge is into three natural faculties of the rational soul. History in this scheme corresponds to memory, philosophy is reason, and poetry is imagination. History is divided into civil and natural. Poetry is divided into parabolic, dramatic and epic. The classification of philosophy, which is divided into a huge number of subtypes and types, is considered in most detail. Bacon also distinguishes it from "inspired theology", which he leaves exclusively to theologians and theologians. Philosophy is divided into natural and transcendental. The first block includes teachings about nature: physics and metaphysics, mechanics, mathematics. They form the backbone of such a phenomenon as the philosophy of the New Age. Bacon thinks broadly and broadly about man. His ideas include a teaching about the body (this includes medicine, athletics, art, music, cosmetics), and a teaching about the soul, which has many subsections. It includes such sections as ethics, logic (the theory of memorization, discovery, judgment) and “civil science” (which includes the doctrine of business relations, the state, and government). Full classification Bacon does not leave without due attention any of the existing areas of knowledge at that time.
"New Organon"
Bacon's philosophy, briefly and concisely outlined above, flourishes in the book “New Organon”. It begins with the reflection that man, the interpreter and servant of nature, understands and does, comprehends in the order of nature by thought or deed. The philosophy of Bacon and Descartes, his actual contemporary, is a new milestone in the development of world thought, since it involves the renewal of science, the complete elimination of false concepts and “ghosts”, which, in the opinion of these thinkers, have deeply gripped the human mind and become entrenched in it. The New Organon sets out the opinion that the old medieval church-scholastic way of thinking is in deep crisis, and this kind of knowledge (as well as the corresponding research methods) are imperfect. Bacon's philosophy is based on the fact that the path of knowledge is extremely difficult, since knowledge of nature is like a labyrinth in which you need to make your way, and the paths of which are varied and often deceptive. And those who usually lead people along these paths often themselves stray from them and increase the number of wanderings and wanderings. That is why there is an urgent need to carefully study the principles of obtaining new scientific knowledge and experience. The philosophy of Bacon and Descartes, and then Spinoza, is built on the establishment of a holistic structure and methodology of cognition. The first task here is to cleanse the mind, free it and prepare it for creative work.
"Ghosts" - what is it?
Bacon's philosophy speaks of purifying the mind so that it gets closer to the truth, which consists of three exposures: exposure of the generated human mind, philosophies and evidence. Accordingly, four “ghosts” are distinguished. What is this? These are the hindrances that prevent true, authentic consciousness:
1) “ghosts” of the clan, which have a basis in human nature, in the clan of people, “in the tribe”;
2) “ghosts” of the cave, that is, delusions specific person or groups of people who are conditioned by the “cave” of the individual or group (that is, the “small world”);
3) “ghosts” of the market that arise from people’s communication;
4) “ghosts” of the theater, inhabiting the soul from perverse laws and dogmas.
All these factors must be discarded and refuted by the triumph of reason over prejudice. It is the socio-educational function that is the basis of the doctrine of this kind of interference.
"Ghosts" of sorts
Bacon's philosophy asserts that such disturbances are inherent in the human mind, which is apt to attribute much more uniformity and order to things than is actually found in nature. The mind strives to artificially adjust new data and facts to fit its beliefs. A person succumbs to arguments and reasons that most strongly strike the imagination. The limitations of knowledge and the connection of the mind with the world of feelings are problems of modern philosophy, which great thinkers tried to solve in their writings.
"Ghosts" of the cave
They arise from the diversity of people: some love more specific sciences, others are inclined to general philosophizing and reasoning, others revere ancient knowledge. These differences, which arise from individual characteristics, significantly cloud and distort cognition.
"Ghosts" of the market
These are the products of misuse of names and words. According to Bacon, this is where the features of modern philosophy originate, which are aimed at combating sophistic inaction, verbal skirmishes and disputes. Names and names can be given to things that do not exist, and theories, false and empty, are created about this. For a while, fiction becomes real, and this is the influence that paralyzes knowledge. More complex “ghosts” grow out of ignorant and bad abstractions that are put into wide scientific and practical use.
"Ghosts" of the theater
They do not secretly enter the mind, but are transmitted from perverse laws and fictitious theories and are perceived by other people. Bacon's philosophy classifies the "ghosts" of the theater into forms of erroneous opinion and thinking (empiricism, sophistry and superstition). There are always negative consequences for practice and science that are driven by a fanatical and dogmatic adherence to pragmatic empiricism or metaphysical speculation.
The Teaching of Method: The First Requirement
Francis Bacon addresses people whose minds are shrouded in habit and captivated by it, who do not see the need to dismember the holistic picture of nature and the image of things in the name of contemplating the one and the whole. It is with the help of “fragmentation”, “separation”, “isolation” of the processes and bodies that make up nature that one can establish oneself in the integrity of the universe.
The Teaching of Method: The Second Requirement
This paragraph specifies the specifics of “dismemberment”. Bacon believes that separation is not a goal, but a means by which the easiest and simplest components can be isolated. The subject of consideration here should be the most specific and simple bodies, as if they “reveal in their nature in its usual course.”
The Teaching of Method: The Third Requirement
The search for simple nature, a simple beginning, as Francis Bacon explains, does not mean that we are talking about specific material bodies, particles or phenomena. The goals and objectives of science are much more complex: it is necessary to take a fresh look at nature, discover its forms, and look for the source that produces nature. We are talking about the discovery of a law that could become the basis of activity and knowledge.
The Teaching of Method: The Fourth Requirement
Bacon's philosophy says that first of all it is necessary to prepare an "experienced and natural" history. In other words, we need to list and summarize what nature itself tells the mind. A consciousness that is left to itself and driven by itself. And already in this process it is necessary to highlight methodological rules and principles that can force it to turn into a true understanding of nature.
Social and practical ideas
The merits of Sir Francis Bacon as a politician and statesman. The scope of his social activity was enormous, what will become distinctive feature many philosophers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in England. He highly values mechanics and mechanical inventions, which, in his opinion, are incomparable to spiritual factors and have a better influence on human affairs. As does wealth, which becomes a social value, in contrast to the ideal of scholastic asceticism. Technology and society are unconditionally approved by Bacon, as is technical development. He has a positive attitude towards the modern state and economic system, which will also be characteristic of many philosophers of subsequent times. Francis Bacon confidently advocates the expansion of colonies and gives detailed advice on painless and “fair” colonization. As a direct participant in British politics, he speaks well of the activities of industrial and trading companies. The personality of a simple, honest businessman, an enterprising entrepreneur evokes Bacon’s sympathy. He makes many recommendations regarding the most humane and preferable methods and means of personal enrichment. Bacon sees the antidote to mass unrest and unrest, as well as poverty, in flexible policies, subtle government attention to the needs of the public and increasing the wealth of the population. The specific methods he recommends are tax regulation, the opening of new trade routes, improvement of crafts and agriculture, and benefits for manufactures.
2.1 Materialist empiricism
2.1.1 Bacon Francis (1561-1626).
Bacon's main work is the New Organon (1620). This name shows that Bacon consciously contrasted his understanding of science and its method with the understanding on which Aristotle’s Organon (collection of logical works) relied. Another important work of Bacon was the utopia "New Atlantis".
Francis Bacon is an English philosopher, the founder of English materialism. In the treatise "New Organon" he proclaimed the goal of science to increase man's power over nature, proposed a reform of the scientific method - cleansing the mind from delusions ("idols" or "ghosts"), turning to experience and processing it through induction, the basis of which is experiment. In 1605, the work “On the Dignity and Increase of the Sciences” was published, representing the first part of Bacon’s grandiose plan - the “Great Restoration of the Sciences,” which included 6 stages. The last years of his life he was engaged in scientific experiments and died in 1626, having caught a cold after the experiment. Bacon was passionate about the projects of transforming science, and was the first to approach the understanding of science as social institution. He shared the theory of dual truth, which distinguishes the functions of science and religion. Bacon's famous sayings about science were repeatedly chosen by famous philosophers and scientists as epigraphs for their works. Bacon's work is characterized by a certain approach to the method of human cognition and thinking. The starting point of any cognitive activity is feelings. Therefore, Bacon is often called the founder of empiricism - a direction that builds its epistemological premises primarily on sensory knowledge and experience. The basic principle of this philosophical orientation in the field of the theory of knowledge is: “There is nothing in the mind that has not previously passed through the senses.”
Bacon's classification of sciences, which represented an alternative to the Aristotelian one, for a long time recognized as fundamental by many European scientists. Bacon based his classification on such abilities of the human soul as memory, imagination (fantasy), and reason. Accordingly, the main sciences, according to Bacon, should be history, poetry, and philosophy. The division of all sciences into historical, poetic and philosophical is determined by Bacon by a psychological criterion. Thus, history is knowledge based on memory; it is divided into natural history, which describes natural phenomena (including miracles and all kinds of deviations), and civil history. Poetry is based on imagination. Philosophy is based on reason. It is divided into natural philosophy, divine philosophy (natural theology), and human philosophy (the study of morality and social phenomena). In natural philosophy, Bacon distinguishes theoretical (the study of causes, with preference given to material and efficient causes over formal and target ones) and practical ("natural magic") parts. As a natural philosopher, Bacon sympathized with the atomistic tradition of the ancient Greeks, but did not completely join it. Believing that the elimination of errors and prejudices is the starting point of correct philosophizing, Bacon was critical of scholasticism. He saw the main drawback of Aristotelian-scholastic logic in the fact that it ignores the problem of the formation of concepts that make up the premises of syllogistic conclusions. Bacon also criticized Renaissance humanistic scholarship, which bowed to ancient authorities and replaced philosophy with rhetoric and philology. Finally, Bacon fought against the so-called “fantastic scholarship,” which was based not on reliable experience, but on unverifiable stories about miracles, hermits, martyrs, etc.
The doctrine of the so-called "idols" distorting our knowledge forms the basis of the critical part of Bacon's philosophy. The condition for the reform of science must also be the cleansing of the mind from errors. Bacon distinguishes four types of errors, or obstacles, on the path of knowledge - four kinds of "idols" (false images) or ghosts. These are “idols of the clan”, “idols of the cave”, “idols of the square” and “idols of the theater”.
The innate “idols of the race” are based on subjective evidence from the senses and all kinds of delusions of the mind (empty abstraction, search for goals in nature, etc.) “Idols of the race” are obstacles caused by the nature common to all people. Man judges nature by analogy with his own properties. From here arises a teleological idea of nature, errors arising from the imperfection of human feelings under the influence of various desires and drives. Fallacies are caused by inaccurate sensory evidence or logical errors.
“Idols of the cave” are due to the dependence of cognition on individual characteristics, physical and mental properties, as well as the limitations personal experience of people. “Idols of the cave” are mistakes that are not inherent to the entire human race, but only to certain groups of people (as if sitting in a cave) due to the subjective preferences, likes, and dislikes of scientists: some see more differences between objects, others see their similarities; some are inclined to believe in the infallible authority of antiquity, others, on the contrary, give preference only to the new.
“Idols of the market, or square,” have social origins. Bacon calls not to exaggerate the role of words to the detriment of the facts and concepts behind the words. “Idols of the square” are obstacles that arise as a result of communication between people through words. In many cases, the meanings of words were established not on the basis of knowledge of the essence of the subject; but on the basis of a completely random impression of this object. Bacon opposes errors caused by the use of meaningless words (as happens in the market).
Bacon proposes to eradicate the “idols of the theater,” which are based on uncritical adherence to authority. “Idols of the theater” are obstacles generated in science by uncritically adopted, false opinions. “Idols of the theater” are not innate to our mind, they arise as a result of the subordination of the mind to erroneous views. False views, rooted through faith in old authorities, appear before the mental gaze of people like theatrical performances.
Bacon believed it was necessary to create the correct method, with the help of which one could gradually ascend from isolated facts to broad generalizations. In ancient times, all discoveries were made only spontaneously, while the correct method should be based on experiments (purposefully conducted experiments), which should be systematized in “natural history.” In general, induction appears in Bacon not only as one of the types of logical inference, but also as the logic of scientific discovery, the methodology for developing concepts based on experience. Bacon understood his methodology as a certain combination of empiricism and rationalism, likening it to the way of action of a bee processing collected nectar, in contrast to an ant (flat empiricism) or a spider (scholasticism, divorced from experience). Thus, Bacon distinguished three main ways of knowing:1) “the way of the spider” - the derivation of truths from pure consciousness. This path was the main one in scholasticism, which he sharply criticized. Dogmatic scientists, neglecting experimental knowledge, weave a web of abstract reasoning. 2) “the path of the ant” - narrow empiricism, the collection of scattered facts without their conceptual generalization; 3) “the path of the bee” - a combination of the first two paths, a combination of the abilities of experience and reason, i.e. sensual and rational. A scientist, like a bee, collects juices - experimental data and, theoretically processing them, creates the honey of science. While advocating this combination, Bacon, however, gives priority to experimental knowledge. Bacon distinguished between fruitful experiments, that is, immediately bringing certain results, their goal is to bring immediate benefit to a person, and luminous experiments, the practical benefits of which are not immediately noticeable, but which ultimately give the maximum result, their goal is not immediate benefit, but knowledge of the laws of phenomena and properties of things. .
So, F. Bacon, the founder of materialism and experimental science of his time, believed that the sciences that study cognition and thinking are the key to all others, for they contain “mental tools” that give the mind instructions or warn it against errors (“idols”) ).
Highertask of cognitionAndeveryonesciences, according to Bacon, is domination over nature and improvement of human life. According to the head of the House of Solomon (a kind of research center of the Academy, the idea of which was put forward by Bacon in the utopian novel “The New Atlantis”), “the goal of society is to understand the causes and hidden forces of all things, to expand the power of man over nature until everything becomes possible for him." Scientific research should not be limited by thoughts of its immediate benefits. Knowledge is power, but it can become real power only if it is based on elucidating the true causes of phenomena occurring in nature. Only that science is capable of defeating nature and ruling over it, which itself “obeys” nature, that is, guided by the knowledge of its laws.
Technocratic school. The New Atlantis (1623-24) tells of the mysterious country of Bensalem, which is led by the "House of Solomon", or "Society for the Knowledge of the True Nature of All Things", uniting the main sages of the country. Bacon's utopia differs from communist and socialist utopias in its pronounced technocratic character: the cult of scientific and technical inventions reigns on the island, which are the main reason for the prosperity of the population. Atlanteans have an aggressive and entrepreneurial spirit, and the secret export of information about achievements and secrets from other countries is encouraged." "New Atlantis" remained unfinished.
Induction theory: Bacon developed his own empirical method of knowledge, which is induction - the true tool for studying laws ("forms") natural phenomena, which, in his opinion, make it possible to make the mind adequate to natural things.
Concepts are usually obtained through too hasty and insufficiently substantiated generalizations. Therefore, the first condition for the reform of science and the progress of knowledge is the improvement of methods of generalization and the formation of concepts. Since the process of generalization is induction, the logical basis for the reform of science should be a new theory of induction.
Before Bacon, philosophers who wrote about induction directed understanding mainly to those cases or facts that confirm the propositions being demonstrated or generalized. Bacon emphasized the importance of those cases that refute the generalization and contradict it. These are the so-called negative authorities. Just one such case can completely or partially refute a hasty generalization. According to Bacon, neglect of negative authorities is the main cause of errors, superstitions and prejudices.
Bacon puts forth a new logic: “My logic differs essentially from traditional logic in three things: its very purpose, its mode of proof, and the place where it begins its investigation. The purpose of my science is not the invention of arguments, but various arts; not things that agree with principles , but the principles themselves; not some plausible relations and orderings, but a direct representation and description of bodies." Apparently, he subordinates his logic to the same goal as philosophy.
Bacon considers induction to be the main working method of his logic. In this he sees a guarantee against shortcomings not only in logic, but in all knowledge in general. He characterizes it as follows: “By induction I understand a form of proof that looks closely at feelings, strives to comprehend the natural character of things, strives for actions and almost merges with them.” Bacon, however, dwells on this state of development and the existing way of using the inductive approach. He rejects that induction which, as he says, is carried out by simple enumeration. Such induction "leads to an indefinite conclusion, it is exposed to the dangers that threaten it from the opposite cases, if it pays attention only to what is familiar to it and does not come to any conclusion." He therefore emphasizes the need to rework or, more precisely, develop the inductive method. The first condition for the progress of knowledge is the improvement of generalization methods. The process of generalization is induction. Induction starts from sensations, individual facts, and rises step by step, without leaps, to general provisions. The main task is to create a new method of cognition. The essence: 1) observation of facts; 2) their systematization and classification; 3) cutting off unnecessary facts; 4) decomposition of the phenomenon into its component parts; 5) verification of facts through experience; 6) generalization.
Bacon was one of the first to consciously begin to develop scientific method based on observation and understanding of nature. Knowledge becomes power if it is based on the study of natural phenomena and guided by knowledge of its laws. The subject of philosophy should be matter, as well as its various and diverse forms. Bacon spoke about the qualitative heterogeneity of matter, which has diverse forms of motion (19 types, including resistance, vibration.). The eternity of matter and motion does not need justification. Bacon defended the knowability of nature and believed that this issue was resolved not by disputes, but by experience. On the path of knowledge there are many obstacles and misconceptions that clog the consciousness.
Bacon emphasized the importance of natural science, but stood on the point of view of theory duality of truth(then progressive): theology has God as its object, science has nature. It is necessary to distinguish between the spheres of God's competence: God is the creator of the world and man, but only an object of faith. Knowledge does not depend on faith. Philosophy is based on knowledge and experience. The main obstacle is scholasticism. The main flaw is abstractness, the derivation of general provisions from particular ones. Bacon is an empiricist: knowledge begins with sensory data that needs experimental verification and confirmation, which means that natural phenomena should be judged only on the basis of experience. Bacon also believed that knowledge should strive to uncover internal cause-and-effect relationships and the laws of nature through the processing of data by the senses and theoretical thinking. In general, Bacon's philosophy was an attempt to create an effective way of understanding nature, its causes, and laws. Bacon significantly contributed to the formation of philosophical thinking of the New Age. And although his empiricism was historically and epistemologically limited, and from the point of view of the subsequent development of knowledge it can be criticized in many ways, in its time it played a very positive role.
Francis Bacon (1561-1626) lived and worked in an era that is a period of not only powerful economic, but also exceptional cultural growth and development of England.
17th century opens new period in the development of philosophy called the philosophy of modern times. If in the Middle Ages philosophy acted in alliance with theology, and in the Renaissance with art, then in modern times it mainly relies on science. Therefore, epistemological problems come to the fore in philosophy itself and two most important directions are formed, in the confrontation of which the history of modern philosophy takes place - empiricism (reliance on experience) and rationalism (reliance on reason).
The founder of empiricism was the English philosopher Francis Bacon. He was a talented scientist, an outstanding public and political figure, and came from a noble aristocratic family. Francis Bacon graduated from Cambridge University. In 1584 he was elected to parliament. From 1617 he became Lord Privy Seal under King James I, inheriting this position from his father; then Lord Chancellor. In 1961, Bacon was put on trial on charges of bribery by false accusation, convicted and removed from all positions. He was soon pardoned by the king, but did not return to public service, devoting himself entirely to scientific and literary work. The legends surrounding the name of Bacon, like any great man, preserved the story that he even bought the island specifically in order to create a new society on it in accordance with his ideas about the ideal state, set out later in the unfinished book “New Atlantis” , however, this attempt failed, crashing due to the greed and imperfection of the people he chose as allies.
Already in his youth, F. Bacon hatched a grandiose plan for the “Great Restoration of the Sciences,” which he strove to implement all his life. The first part of this work is completely new, different from the traditional Aristotelian classification of sciences at that time. It was proposed back in Bacon’s work “On the Advancement of Knowledge” (1605), but was fully developed in the philosopher’s main work “New Organon” (1620), which in its very title indicates the opposition of the author’s position to the dogmatized Aristotle, who was then revered in Europe as infallible authority. Bacon is credited with giving philosophical status to experimental natural science and “returning” philosophy from heaven to earth.
philosophy of francis bacon
The problem of man and nature in philosophyF. Bacon
F. Bacon was sure that the purpose of scientific knowledge is not in contemplating nature, as it was in Antiquity, and not in comprehending God, according to the Medieval tradition, but in bringing benefits and benefits to humanity. Science is a means, not an end in itself. Man is the master of nature, this is the leitmotif of Bacon’s philosophy. “Nature is conquered only by submission to it, and what appears to be the cause in contemplation is the rule in action.” In other words, in order to subjugate nature, a person must study its laws and learn to use his knowledge in real practice. The MAN-NATURE relationship is understood in a new way, which is transformed into the SUBJECT-OBJECT relationship, and becomes part of the flesh and blood of the European mentality, the European style of thinking, which continues to this day. Man appears as a cognizer and active principle(subject), and nature - as an object to be known and used.
Calling on people, armed with knowledge, to subjugate nature, F. Bacon rebelled against the scholastic scholarship and the spirit of self-abasement that was dominant at that time. Due to the fact that the basis of book science, as already mentioned, was the emasculated and absolutized logic of Aristotle, Bacon also refuses the authority of Aristotle. “Logic,” he writes, which is now used, rather serves to strengthen and preserve errors that have their basis in generally accepted concepts than to find the truth. Therefore, it is more harmful than beneficial.” He orients science towards the search for truth not in books, but in the field, in the workshop, at the forge, in a word, in practice, in direct observation and study of nature. His philosophy can be called a kind of revival of ancient natural philosophy with its naive belief in the inviolability of the truths of fact, with nature at the center of the entire philosophical system. However, unlike Bacon, natural philosophy was far from setting man the task of transforming and subjugating nature; natural philosophy retained a reverent admiration for nature.
The concept of experience in philosophyF. Bacon
“Experience” is the main category in Bacon’s philosophy, because knowledge begins and comes to it, it is in experience that the reliability of knowledge is verified, it is he who gives food to reason. Without sensory assimilation of reality, the mind is dead, for the subject of thought is always drawn from experience. “The best proof of all is experience,” writes Bacon. Experiments in science happen fruitful And luminous. The first bring new knowledge useful to man; this is the lowest type of experience; and the latter reveal the truth; it is to them that a scientist should strive, although this is a difficult and long path.
The central part of Bacon's philosophy is the doctrine of method. Bacon's method is deeply practical and social significance. It is the greatest transformative force; the method increases man's power over the forces of nature. Experiments, according to Bacon, must be carried out according to a certain method.
This method in Bacon's philosophy is induction. Bacon taught that induction is necessary for the sciences, based on the testimony of the senses, the only true form of evidence and method of knowing nature. If in deduction the order of thought is from the general to the particular, then in induction it is from the particular to the general.
The method proposed by Bacon provides for the sequential passage of five stages of research, each of which is recorded in the corresponding table. Thus, the entire volume of empirical inductive research, according to Bacon, includes five tables. Among them:
1) Presence table (listing all cases of the occurring phenomenon);
2) Table of deviation or absence (all cases of absence of one or another characteristic or indicator in the presented items are entered here);
3) Table of comparison or degrees (comparison of the increase or decrease of a given characteristic in the same subject);
4) Rejection table (excluding individual cases that do not occur in this phenomenon, not typical for him);
5) Table of “harvesting fruits” (forming a conclusion based on what is common in all tables).
The inductive method is applicable to all empirical scientific research, and since then the concrete sciences, especially those based on direct empirical research, have widely used the inductive method developed by Bacon.
Induction can be complete or incomplete. Full induction- this is the ideal of knowledge, it means that absolutely all the facts related to the area of the phenomenon being studied are collected. It is not difficult to guess that this task is difficult, if not unattainable, although Bacon believed that science would eventually solve this problem; Therefore, in most cases people use incomplete induction. This means that promising conclusions are based on partial or selective analysis of empirical material, but such knowledge always retains the nature of hypotheticalness. For example, we can say that all cats meow until we encounter at least one non-meowing cat. Bacon believes that empty fantasies should not be allowed into science, “...the human mind should not be given wings, but rather lead and weight, so that they restrain every jump and flight.”
Bacon sees the main task of his inductive logic in the study of forms inherent in matter. The knowledge of forms forms the actual subject of philosophy.
Bacon creates his own theory of form. Form is the material essence of a property belonging to an object. So, the form of heat is certain type movements. But in an object, the form of any property does not exist in isolation from other properties of the same object. Therefore, in order to find the form of a certain property, it is necessary to exclude from the object everything that is accidentally connected in it with the desired form. This exclusion from an object of everything that is not associated with a given property cannot be real. It is a mental logical exception, distraction, or abstraction.
Based on his induction and doctrines of forms, Bacon developed a new system of classification of sciences.
Bacon based his classification on a principle based on the difference between the abilities of human cognition. These abilities are memory, imagination, reason, or thinking. Each of these three abilities corresponds to a special group of sciences. Namely: the group of historical sciences corresponds to memory; poetry corresponds to the imagination; reason (thinking) - science in proper meaning this word.
The entire vast area of historical knowledge is divided into 2 parts: “natural” history and “civil” history. Natural history examines and describes natural phenomena. Civil history explores the phenomena of human life and human consciousness.
If history is a reflection of the world in the memory of mankind, then poetry is a reflection of existence in the imagination. Poetry reflects life not as it is, but according to the desire of the human heart. Bacon excludes lyric poetry from the realm of poetry. Lyrics express what is - the real feelings and thoughts of the poet. But poetry, according to Bacon, is not about what is, but about what is desirable.
Bacon divides the entire genre of poetry into 3 types: epic, drama and allegorical-didactic poetry. Epic poetry imitates history. Dramatic poetry presents events, persons and their actions as if they were happening before the eyes of the audience. Allegorical-didactic poetry also represents faces through symbols.
Bacon makes the value of types of poetry dependent on their practical effectiveness. From this point of view, he considers allegorical-didactic poetry to be the highest type of poetry, as the most edifying, capable of educating a person.
The most developed classification is the third group of sciences - those based on reason. In it Bacon sees the highest of human mental activities. All sciences in this group are divided into types depending on the differences between subjects. Namely: rational knowledge can be knowledge of either God, or ourselves, or nature. Corresponding to these three different types of rational knowledge are three different ways or the type of knowledge itself. Our direct knowledge is directed towards nature. Indirect knowledge is directed towards God: we know God not directly, but through nature, through nature. And finally, we get to know ourselves through reflection or reflection.
The concept of “ghosts”atF. Bacon
Bacon considered the main obstacle to the knowledge of nature to be the contamination of people's consciousness with so-called idols, or ghosts - distorted images of reality, false ideas and concepts. He distinguished 4 types of idols with which a person must fight:
1) Idols (ghosts) of the family;
2) idols (ghosts) of the cave;
3) idols (ghosts) of the market;
4) idols (ghosts) of the theater.
Idols of the kind Bacon believed that false ideas about the world are inherent in the entire human race and are the result of the limitations of the human mind and senses. This limitation most often manifests itself in endowing natural phenomena with human characteristics, mixing one's own human nature into the natural nature. To reduce harm, people need to compare sensory readings with objects in the world around them and thereby check their accuracy.
Idols of the cave Bacon called distorted ideas about reality associated with the subjectivity of perception of the surrounding world. Each person has his own cave, his own subjective inner world, which leaves an imprint on all his judgments about things and processes of reality. A person’s inability to go beyond the limits of his subjectivity is the reason for this type of delusion.
TO to the idols of the market or area Bacon refers to people's misconceptions generated by the incorrect use of words. People often put different meanings into the same words, and this leads to empty disputes, which distracts people from studying natural phenomena and understanding them correctly.
To category theater idols Bacon includes false ideas about the world, uncritically borrowed by people from various philosophical systems. Each philosophical system, according to Bacon, is a drama or comedy played before people. As many philosophical systems have been created in the history, so many dramas and comedies have been staged and performed, depicting fictional worlds. People took these productions at face value, referred to them in their reasoning, and took their ideas as guiding rules for their lives.
