Skip to main content Skip to Search Box
Definition: BACON, Francis Thomas, 1561-1626 from A Biographical Dictionary of People in Engineering: From Earliest Records to 2000

English natural philosopher; proponent of scientific method, proposed inductive logic, lectured and wrote about scientific method, held several government positions (BEST DOTHOS HOFL IAI IIA MISAT MWBD 1000Y SAI-MP TGS WWWIS: see References.)

Francis Bacon 1561–1626

From Key Thinkers on the Environment
Human knowledge and human power meet in one; for where the cause is not known the effect cannot be produced. Nature to be commanded must be obeyed; and that which in contemplation is as the cause is in operation as the rule. 1 Bacon was a politician, jurist, royal councillor, natural scientist and essay writer, who spent his entire life within the highest political, courtly and intellectual circles around Queen Elizabeth and King James I. His maternal uncle, Lord Burghley, was the most powerful statesman of his age. After Cambridge University and a period in France, he became a lawyer and Member of Parliament. Despite his earlier friendship with the charismatic Earl of Essex, he was active in the prosecution of Essex for treason – a deed which has inspired some, probably unfairly, to accuse Bacon of the worst sort of betrayal. Bacon was also involved in the prosecution of Sir Walter Raleigh, once an associate of Essex. The first edition of Bacon's Essays and Counsels (1591) dates from…
1,081 results

Full text Article Bacon, [Sir] Francis

From Continuum Encyclopedia of British Literature
Lord Chancellor of England, philosopher, and man of letters, Bacon was one of the most original thinkers of the 16th and 17th cs., and one of the first modern philosophers of science. Taking “all knowledge for my province,” he proposed to reorganize natural philosophy and to found it on the…
| 875 words
Key concepts:

Full text Article Bacon, Francis (1561-1626)

From Encyclopedia of Philosophers on Religion
Although the sympathies of Bacon’s father, Keeper of the Great Seal to Elizabeth I, lay with the established Church of England, Bacon’s intelligent and strong-willed mother was a zealous Puritan who enthusiastically supported the extensive reform of religion and church government being advocated by…
| 913 words
Key concepts:

Full text Article Francis Bacon

From Great Thinkers A-Z
Francis Bacon owes his place in intellectual history to his exploration of the fundamental principles of scientific thought and his role in popularising experimental science. He gave the study of natural philosophy prestige through his literary ability and personal standing as a member of Jacobean…
| 780 words
Key concepts:

Full text Article Bacon, Francis

From Philosophy of Science A-Z
English lawyer, statesman and philosopher. In Novum Organum ( New Organon , 1620), Bacon placed method at centre-stage and argued that knowledge begins with experience but is guided by a new method: the method of eliminative induction . His new method differed from Aristotle ’s on two counts: on the…
| 389 words
Key concepts:

Full text Article BACON, FRANCIS

From The Essentials of Philosophy and Ethics
Francis Bacon was the lawyer, philosopher and politician at the court of Queen Elizabeth (and later King James) in Tudor England who was traditionally counted as the first British ‘empiricist’. He epitomised the Renaissance faith in scientific method, and devoted himself to developing a system…
| 167 words
Key concepts:
Viscount St Albans 1561-1626 English philosopher and statesman Francis Bacon was born in London, the younger son of Sir Nicholas Bacon , and nephew of William Cecil , Lord Burghley. He studied at Trinity College, Cambridge, and at Gray's Inn, being called to the Bar in 1582. He became an MP in 1584…
| 478 words
Key concepts:

Full text Article Bacon, Sir Francis Viscount Verulam

From Palgrave Macmillan Dictionary of Political Thought
English philosopher, essayist, jurist, and Lord Chancellor. Bacon’s The Advancement of Learning , 1623, is one of the foundational texts of modern science, arguing for a new approach to explanation, in which quantitative laws would replace arduous classifications, and in which relations of cause and…
| 126 words
Key concepts:
English philosopher and statesman. He became an MP in 1584, and was knighted by James VI and I in 1603. He was in turn Solicitor-General (1607), Attorney-General (1613), Privy Counsellor (1616), Lord Keeper (1617) and Lord Chancellor (1618). He became Lord Verulam in 1618, and was made viscount in…
| 108 words
Key concepts:

Full text Article Bacon, Francis (1561-1626)

From The Hutchinson Dictionary of Scientific Biography
Place : Germany Subject : biography, philosophy English politician and philosopher of science. Son of Sir Nicholas Bacon, courtier and Keeper of the Great Seal, Francis Bacon first attended Trinity College, Cambridge, and was trained in the law with a view to following the same path as his father. …
| 320 words
Key concepts:

Full text Article Bacon, Francis (1561–1626),

From Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy
English philosopher, essayist, and scientific methodologist. In politics Bacon rose to the position of lord chancellor. In 1621 he retired to private life after conviction for taking bribes in his official capacity as judge. Bacon championed the new empiricism resulting from the achievements of…
| 732 words
Key concepts:
Mind Map

Stack overflow
More Library Resources