Francis Bacon (1561～1626), the most important essayist and philosopher during the British Renaissance. Bacon was born in London in 1561, the second son of a high-ranking government official under Queen Elizabeth. He entered Trinity College, Cambridge, at the age of twelve, but dropped out three years later without receiving a degree. From the age of sixteen he served as an official for the British Ambassador in Paris for a period of time. But when Bacon was eighteen years old, his father died suddenly, leaving him little money. So he began studying law, and at the age of twenty-one found a career as a lawyer.

His political career began shortly thereafter. At the age of twenty-three he was elected to the House of Commons. Despite his connections and talents, Queen Elizabeth refused to appoint him to any important or lucrative position. One of the reasons for this was his courageous opposition in Parliament to a certain tax bill that the Queen strongly supported. He lived a luxurious life, spent extravagantly, "borrowed" a lot of debts, and had no scruples. (He was actually arrested once for debt).

Bacon became the friend and advisor of the Earl of Essex, a ambitious and popular young aristocrat, and Essex also became Bacon's friend and generous donor. But when Essex grew ambitious and plotted a coup to overthrow Queen Elizabeth, it was Bacon who warned him to put his loyalty to the queen first. Essex nevertheless staged an unsuccessful coup. Bacon took an active role in prosecuting the earl for treason, and Essex was beheaded. The whole incident made many people have a bad feeling towards Bacon.

Queen Elizabeth died in 1603, and Bacon became an adviser to her successor, King James I. Although James refused to take Bacon's advice, he admired Bacon, and during James's reign, Bacon rose through the ranks of government. In 1607, Bacon became the Undersecretary of Justice. In 1618, he was appointed Lord Chancellor of England, a position roughly equivalent to that of the President of the American Court. In the same year, he was made a baronet; in 1621, he was made a viscount.

But extreme joy brings sorrow, and Bacon's disaster soon struck. As a judge, Bacon accepted "gifts" from litigants in person, which, although very common, was clearly against the law. His political opponents in parliament are seizing the opportunity to oust him. Bacon confessed and was sentenced to imprisonment in the Tower of London. He was prohibited from holding any public office for life. At the same time, he was also fined a huge sum of money. The king soon released Bacon from prison and waived his fine, but his political career was over.

There are now numerous examples of senior politicians being arrested for taking bribes or otherwise violating public trust. When such people are caught, they often sue to defend themselves, claiming that everyone else is also committing fraud. If this defense is taken seriously, it seems to mean that cheating politicians will get away with it unless there is a precedent for punishment. Bacon's words when he pleaded guilty were different: "I have been the most just judge in England in the past fifty years, but the conviction given to me is the most just condemnation made by Parliament in the past two hundred years."

With such an active and fulfilling political career, there seems to be no time for anything else. But Bacon's enduring fame and his place in this volume are due to his philosophical writings, not to his political activities. His first important work "Essays" was originally published in 1597, and was added year by year. The book is written in a concise and concise way, with eye-catching wisdom. It contains many insightful and empirical remarks, which not only discuss politics but also discuss many philosophies of life. The following are some representative words:

Young people are more suitable for inventing rather than judging, more suitable for practical action rather than deliberation, and more suitable for innovative actions rather than established careers... Old age There are many people who deny, long consultations, and few risks... If the young and the old combine, they will benefit a lot... because each other can learn from each other's strengths and offset their weaknesses...

——"On Youth and Old Age" < /p>

Those who have wives and children have paid a pledge to their fate...

——"On Marriage and Singleness"

(Bacon himself was married, but No children)

But Bacon's most important work dealt with the philosophy of science. He planned to write a masterpiece, The Great Revival, in six parts.

It is intended that the first part reaffirms the current state of our knowledge; the second part describes a new method of scientific investigation; the third part brings together experimental data; the fourth part explains his new method of scientific work; and the fifth part proposes some tentative conclusions. ; The final section summarizes the knowledge gained using his new method. Predictably, this ambitious plan—perhaps the most ambitious since Aristotle—was never fully realized. But the Progress of Learning (1605) and the New Instruments (1620) can be regarded as the first two parts of his great work.

New Instruments is perhaps Bacon's most important work. This work is basically a call to action for experimental inquiry. Since it is ridiculous to rely solely on Aristotle's deductive logical method, a new logical method - induction is needed. Knowledge is not the known conditions in our inferences, but the conclusive things we must deduce from the conditions, or more precisely the conclusions we want to achieve our goals. If people want to understand the world, they must first observe the world. Bacon stated that facts must first be gathered and then conclusions drawn from those facts using inductive reasoning. Although scientists did not follow Bacon's induction in every detail, the basic ideas he expressed were of great significance to observation and experiment, and formed the core of the methods that scientists have used ever since.

Bacon's last work was "New Westlantis", which describes a utopian country on a fictional island in the Pacific. While the setting is reminiscent of Sir Thomas More's Utopia, the entire point of view is entirely different. In Bacon's book, the prosperity and happiness of his ideal kingdom depended on and came directly from concentrated scientific research. Of course Bacon was indirectly telling readers that the wise application of scientific research could make the people of Europe as prosperous and happy as the people on his mysterious island.

One could well say that Francis Bacon was a truly modern philosopher. His entire worldview was secular rather than religious (although he had a firm belief in God). He was a rationalist rather than a worshiper of superstition, an empiricist rather than a sophist. Politically, he was a realist rather than a ideologue. His profound knowledge and wonderful writing resonate with science and technology.

Although Bacon was a loyal Englishman, his insights extended far beyond his own borders. He divided three types of ambitions:

The first type is those who dream day and night, and manage the business in a miserable way. Within their own territory, they want to be in Long, Shu, and covet the blue clouds; To the best of my ability, I want to conquer other people's countries and expand my own country's power. The more people who bow down and become my vassals, the better. Although this generation is greedy and immoderate, they are supreme and noble. If one person overcomes obstacles and strives to climb, in order for mankind to enjoy the strategy of traversing the heavens and the earth, and control the universe. Talent, this is really ambitious,...to achieve perfection.

Although Bacon was a guide to science, he was not a scientist himself and could not keep up with the progress made by his contemporaries. He ignored Napier (who had recently invented logarithms) and Kepler, and even his English companion William Harvey. Bacon correctly pointed out that heat is a form of motion - an important scientific doctrine, but he rejected Copernicus's theory of astronomy. But one should remember that Bacon was not trying to propose a complete and correct set of scientific laws, but rather an outline of what should be learned. His scientific conjectures are intended as starting points for further inquiry rather than as final conclusions.

Francis Bacon was not the first to recognize the usefulness of inductive reasoning, nor the first to understand the various possible benefits science could bring to society. But no one before him had published these ideas so enthusiastically and widely. And partly because Bacon was a good writer, and partly because of his reputation as a leading statesman, his views on science had a huge practical impact. When the Royal Society of London was founded in 1662 to promote the growth of scientific knowledge, the founders called Bacon their inspiration. And when the massive Encyclopédie was being compiled during the French Enlightenment, leading compilers such as Diderot and Alembert credited Bacon with inspiring their work. If "New Tools" and "The New Atlantis" have fewer readers today than they once did, it is because their implications have become more widely accepted.

It is reasonable to compare Bacon with René Descartes, another pioneer of the coming scientific age.

Bacon preceded Descartes by a generation (thirty years). He emphasized the importance of observation and experiment more than Descartes did, but the Frenchman's momentous mathematical inventions tipped the balance slightly in his favor.