Philosophers of Science

Roger Bacon (c. 1220-1292)

Roger Bacon received much of his university training in Paris. He taught in Paris from about 1240 to 1247, following which he went to Oxford. In about 1257 he became a Franciscan friar.

An English scholastic philosopher, Roger Bacon's three works proposing reforms of education, the Opus maius, Opus minus, and Opus tertium (prepared in 1267-68 at the request of Pope Clement IV), emphasized the importance of mathematics and experimentation. Through his emphasis on the study of the natural world using observation and exact measurement, Roger Bacon influenced subsequent scientific thought.

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Francis Bacon (1561-1626)

An English essayist, lawyer, statesman, and philosopher, Francis Bacon had a major influence on the philosophy of science. After studying the law, Bacon was elected to Parliament in 1584, and served in the government until 1621, when he retired after being found guilty of accepting bribes. Francis Bacon was a contemporary of William Shakespeare: he was born a few years before Shakespeare, and died ten years after Shakespeare.

In 1623 Francis Bacon published "On the Dignity and Growth of Sciences," which classified sciences under the general headings of history, poetry, and philosophy, and culminated in an inductive philosophy of nature.

Francis Bacon's works were respected by Robert Boyle, Robert Hooke, Isaac Newton, and Thomas Hobbes. Voltaire and Diderot considered him a founder of modern science.

A group of Francis Bacon enthusiasts have created an interesting and entertaining Web site at http://www.sirbacon.org/toc.html.

The primary source for these comments is the 1996 Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia. Additional information on Francis Bacon came from the Britannica On-Line and from the 1961 Edition of the hardcopy Encyclopedia Britannica.

Dick Piccard revised this file (http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~piccard/entropy/bacon.html) on December 1, 2003.

Please E-Mail comments or suggestions to "piccard@ohiou.edu".