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Philosopher

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Francis Bacon

1561–1626 · Empiricism · Renaissance

Part of:Check a quote before you share →

Francis Bacon, born in 1561, died in 1626, was a lawyer, Lord Chancellor, and the most forceful English advocate of a new instrument for the sciences. He fell from office in 1621 after a conviction for corruption. The philosophical programme is in the Advancement of Learning and, more sharply, in the Novum Organum of 1620, written in Latin.

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There he classifies idols that beset the mind before inquiry starts: tribe, cave, marketplace, and theatre. Induction, collaboration, and useful works are the proposed remedy. The Essays, in his own English, are a different genre, counsel literature revised up to 1625. Of Studies is among the surest prose in this library. The sentence that knowledge itself is power comes from a Latin religious meditation of 1597, not from a laboratory note, and the English proverb drops that setting.

He is an empiricist in programme and a politician in life. Neither fact cancels the other. Reading him well means not letting the proverb outrun the idols.

Start here

Of Studies, then Novum Organum, book 1, aphorisms 38 to 44

The essay is his English at its surest. The aphorisms show what the power of knowledge was supposed to be disciplined by.

Quotations

“Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted, nor to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consider.”

Francis Bacon · Empiricism

knowledgemind
Well attested
Meaning & application
“Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.”

Francis Bacon · Empiricism

knowledgemind
Well attested
Meaning & application

Key ideas

  • Idols

    Four classes of idol, tribe, cave, marketplace, and theatre, beset the mind before investigation begins.

  • Knowledge and power

    Knowledge is a capacity to do, and the famous sentence comes from a religious meditation as well as from the scientific hope.

  • Studies

    Reading is for weighing and considering, and only a few books are meant to be chewed rather than tasted.

Major works

  • Essays (1597, enlarged 1612 and 1625)

    English counsel literature. Of Studies is the surest short text.

  • Novum Organum (1620)

    Latin aphorisms for a new method. Aphorism 39 introduces the idols.

  • The Advancement of Learning (1605)

    The English map of knowledge that the later Latin programme sharpens.

Influences

Influenced

Common misreadings

  • Knowledge is power was written as a laboratory slogan in the Novum Organum.
  • The idols are a finished modern psychology rather than a clearing of the ground for induction.

Famous lines Francis Bacon never said

None of the lines this library files for Francis Bacon is marked Questionable or Misattributed. That is only a fact about these cards. It is not a certificate that every popular sentence is theirs.

FAQ

What is the best book to start with?

Of Studies, then Novum Organum, book 1, aphorisms 38 to 44 The essay is his English at its surest. The aphorisms show what the power of knowledge was supposed to be disciplined by.

What is the most famous quote?

This library does not measure fame, and it does not rank lines by how often they are shared. The first line it files for Francis Bacon that is not marked Questionable or Misattributed is “Knowledge itself is power.” (Meditationes Sacrae (1597), 'Of Heresies': ipsa scientia potestas est, Paraphrase or translation).

What is the most misquoted line?

None of the lines this library files for Francis Bacon is marked Misattributed or Questionable. That is a fact about these cards, not a certificate that every popular sentence is theirs.

What is one key idea, in a sentence?

Idols: Four classes of idol, tribe, cave, marketplace, and theatre, beset the mind before investigation begins.