Francis Bacon: Essays and Major Works

How does Bacon emphasize the value of experience and what rules of study does he prescribe in his essay "Of studies"?

How does Bacon emphasize the value of experience and what rules of study does he prescribe in his essay "Of studies"?

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Bacon believed in Empiricism which was a movement in philosophy: the main idea being that experience was the source of all human knowledge, and not innate ideas (creationism) or a result of the mind's capacity to reason (rationalism, which was largely championed by Rene Descartes). Bacon, who believed in intensive scientific enquiry, championed the cause of the Empiricists. As we will see later, a lot of his work on induction was based on inferring general principles after a highly detailed study of specific instances, and gradually building up a stable edifice of knowledge, which could not tumble down any time, as all elements comprising the final principle had been individually analyzed and verified to be correct.

Bacon believed in Empiricism which was a movement in philosophy: the main idea being that experience was the source of all human knowledge, and not innate ideas (creationism) or a result of the mind's capacity to reason (rationalism, which was largely championed by Rene Descartes). Bacon, who believed in intensive scientific enquiry, championed the cause of the Empiricists. As we will see later, a lot of his work on induction was based on inferring general principles after a highly detailed study of specific instances, and gradually building up a stable edifice of knowledge, which could not tumble down any time, as all elements comprising the final principle had been individually analyzed and verified to be correct.