Francis Bacon

Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban was an English philosopher and statesman who served as Attorney General and as Lord Chancellor of England. Bacon has been called the father of empiricism. He argued for the possibility of scientific knowledge based only upon inductive reasoning and careful observation of events in nature. Most importantly, he argued science could be achieved by the use of a skeptical and methodical approach whereby scientists aim to avoid misleading themselves. Although his most specific proposals about such a method, the Baconian method, did not have long-lasting influence, the general idea of the importance and possibility of a skeptical methodology makes Bacon the fath...View all