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Unit 2: Francis Bacon-Of Studies: Introduction

The scholar Harvey Wheeler attributed to Bacon, in his work “Francis Bacon’s Verulamium - the Notes
Common Law Template of The Modern in English Science and Culture”, the creation of these
distinguishing features of the modern common law system:
• Using cases as repositories of evidence about the “unwritten law”;
• Determining the relevance of precedents by exclusionary principles of evidence and logic;
• Treating opposing legal briefs as adversarial hypotheses about the application of the
“unwritten law” to a new set of facts.
As late as the eighteenth-century some juries still declared the law rather than the fact, but already
before the end of the seventeenth century Sir Matthew Hale explained modern common law
adjudication procedure and acknowledged Bacon as the inventor of the process of discovering
unwritten laws from the evidences of their applications. The method combined empiricism and
inductivism in a new way that was to imprint its signature on many of the distinctive features of
modern English society.
In brief, Bacon is considered by some jurists to be the father of modern Jurisprudence. Political

scientist James McClellan, from the University of Virginia, considered Bacon to have had “a great
following” in the American colonies.
Self-Assessment
1. Choose the correct options:
(i) Bacon had the goals ............... .
(a) To uncover truth (b) To serve his country
(c) To serve his church (d) All of these
(ii) The King created Bacon Baron Verulam, of Verulam, in the peerage of England on
............... .
(a) 14th July, 1615 (b) 12th June, 1618
(c) 12th July, 1618 (d) None of these
(iii) The Government’s report on ‘the Virginia Colony’ was submitted in ............... .
(a) 1609 (b) 1705
(c) 1805 (d) 1510
(iv) The magazine ‘New Scientist’ was published in ............... .
(a) 1961 (b) 1960
(c) 1958 (d) 1962

2.4 Summary

• It was at Cambridge that he first met Queen Elizabeth, who was impressed by his precocious
intellect, and was accustomed to calling him “the young Lord Keeper”.
• Bacon had three goals: to uncover truth, to serve his country, and to serve his church.
• On 12 July 1618 the king created Bacon Baron Verulam, of Verulam, in the Peerage of
England.
• In the nineteenth century his emphasis on induction was revived and developed by William
Whewell, among others. He has been reputed as the “Father of Experimental Science”.
• History of Life and Death, with natural and experimental observations for the prolongation of

life.
• Johannes Kelpius and his fellows moved to Wissahickon Creek, in Pennsylvania, and became
known as “Hermits of Mystics of the Wissahickon” or simply “Monks of the Wissahickon”.

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