Valerius Terminus: Of the Interpretation of Nature

Name: Valerius Terminus: Of the Interpretation of Nature
Author: Bacon, Francis

Bacon, Francis

Science -- Methodology

| first truths and to manage a secure
                                           | deduction of practical consequences.
                                           | And, as the critique of the old logic
                                           | has to be understood as a whole, so
                                           | the interpretation of nature has to be
                                           | conceived as a continuous attempt,
                                           | proceeding by degrees, by successive
                                           | stages, to invent truth and to derive
                                           | works. ("Bacon's method of science",
                                           | in: THE CAMBRIDGE COMPANION TO BACON.
                                           | ed. by Markku Peltonen [1996], 76-82).
                                           |
                                           | 1C.
                                           | Harvey Wheeler comments:
                                           |
                                           | Most historians of the philosophy of science
                                           | are unfamiliar with Bacon's transformation
                                           | of his innovative theory of juridical
                                           | lawfinding into scientific empiricist
                                           | lawfinding. Baconian law-finding is not to
                                           | be confused with cause-finding in modern
                                           | "classical" physics.
                                           |
                                           | Bacon's quest changed as he matured. In
                                           | VALERIUS TERMINUS he is writing in
                                           | English, trying to lay the groundwork for
                                           | the validity of the co-existence of Religion
                                           | and Science.
                                           |
                                           | Bacon’s early experimental treatises--like
                                           | Dense and Rare--are experimental and of
                                           | limited value. Historians of the philosophy
                                           | of science have little trouble in disposing
                                           | these early experimentalist efforts of Bacon.
                                           |
                                           | His work on sound was somewhat better--
                                           | experimental-theoretical.  It is a
                                           | post-pythagorean theory of harmonics and

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Valerius Terminus: Of the Interpretation of Nature

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