Francis Bacon







Francis Bacon was born on January 22, 1561 in London England to Sir Nicholas Bacon. He attended Trinity College at the age of 12. At the age of 18, he was already without a father and without any money. He then turned to studying the law in order to make a living and became a leading lawyer in England. At the age of 23, he was in the House of Commons and He rose to become Baron Verulam, Viscount St. Albans and Lord Chancellor of England. He later wrote "The Refutation of Philosophies" and came to be known as a prophet of modern science for his advocacy of the scientific method. In it, he discourages the trust in one way of thinking based on old theories or philosophers and encourages people to study all that surrounds them and to make discoveries of their observations. He also discuss of the Four Idols, which are false notions that hamper human understanding. The first idol is the Idols of the Tribe in which he explains that humans should not use themselves as a standard of what is right or wrong in this universe for our senses are heavily flawed with misconceptions. The Idols of the Cave explains that men prevent himself from seeing anything new due to something that is already instilled in them or the society in which they live. Many factors, such as ideas that already exist in a society and a fear to defy those ideas, hinder them from discovering anything on their own. The Idols of the Market Place explains that what is true becomes distorted as it is passed along from person to person. Language in itself gets in the way of communicating the correct message. The concept behind the Idols of the Theater is that ideas are false and so are generalities. They are devised by humans when the truth cannot be seen
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