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Unit 11: Of Revenge by Francis Bacon

principles.” However, it is one thing to collect instances in order to compare species and show Notes
a relationship among them; it is quite another to theorize a mechanism, namely evolution by
mutation and natural selection, that elegantly and powerfully explains their entire history and
variety.)

Science, that is to say, does not, and has probably never advanced according to the strict,
gradual, ever-plodding method of Baconian observation and induction. It proceeds instead by
unpredictable—and often intuitive and even (though Bacon would cringe at the word) imaginative—
leaps and bounds. Kepler used Tycho’s scrupulously gathered data to support his own heart-
felt and even occult belief that the movements of celestial bodies are regular and symmetrical,
composing a true harmony of the spheres. Galileo tossed unequal weights from the Leaning
Tower as a mere public demonstration of the fact (contrary to Aristotle) that they would fall
at the same rate. He had long before satisfied himself that this would happen via the very
un-Bacon-like method of mathematical reasoning and deductive thought-experiment. Harvey,
by a similar process of quantitative analysis and deductive logic, knew that the blood must
circulate, and it was only to provide proof of this fact that he set himself the secondary task
of amassing empirical evidence and establishing the actual method by which it did so.
One could enumerate – in true Baconian fashion – a host of further instances. But the point
is already made: advances in scientific knowledge have not been achieved for the most part
via Baconian induction (which amounts to a kind of systematic and exhaustive survey of
nature supposedly leading to ultimate insights) but rather by shrewd hints and guesses – in
a word by hypotheses – that are then either corroborated or (in Karl Popper’s important term)
falsified by subsequent research.
In summary, then, it can be said that Bacon underestimated the role of imagination and
hypothesis (and overestimated the value of minute observation and bee-like data collection)
in the production of new scientific knowledge. And in this respect it is true that he wrote of
science like a Lord Chancellor, regally proclaiming the benefits of his own new and supposedly
foolproof technique instead of recognizing and adapting procedures that had already been
tested and approved. On the other hand, it must be added that Bacon did not present himself
(or his method) as the final authority on the investigation of nature or, for that matter, on any
other topic or issue relating to the advance of knowledge. By his own admission, he was but
the Buccinator, or “trumpeter,” of such a revolutionary advance – not the founder or builder
of a vast new system, but only the herald or announcing messenger of a new world to come.

11.3 Reputation and Cultural Legacy

If anyone deserves the title “universal genius” or “Renaissance man” (accolades traditionally
reserved for those who make significant, original contributions to more than one professional
discipline or area of learning), Bacon clearly merits the designation. Like Leonardo and Goethe,
he produced important work in both arts and science. Like Cicero, Marcus Aurelius, Benjamin
Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson, he combined wide and ample intellectual and literary interests
(from practical rhetoric and the study of nature to moral philosophy and educational reform)
with a substantial political career. Like his near contemporary Machiavelli, he excelled in a
variety of literary genres – from learned treatises to light entertainments – though, also like
the great Florentine writer, he thought of himself mainly as a political statesman and practical
visionary: a man whose primary goal was less to obtain literary laurels for himself than to
mold the agendas and guide the policy decisions of powerful nobles and heads of state.

In our own era Bacon would be acclaimed as a “public intellectual,” though his personal
record of service and authorship would certainly dwarf the achievements of most academic

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