Valerius Terminus: Of the Interpretation of Nature

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

Bacon, Francis

Science -- Methodology

| still not appropriately analyzed.
                                           | Contemproary musicologists like to quote
                                           | the passages on sound in NEW ATLANTIS
                                           | for being compatible with today’s approach
                                           | to music.
                                           |
                                           | By the time of the Novum Organum Bacon
                                           | was seeking a more "general theory of
                                           | science." Its 'logic machine' (Hooke) was
                                           | designed to be relevant to all
                                           | non-theological domains.
                                           |
                                           | However, most Bacon interpreters evaluate
                                           | his science in contrast to the prior
                                           | Aristotelian approaches and in comparison
                                           | to the Ramist approaches of Bacon’s day.
                                           | He rejected them both.
                                           |
                                           | Scholars then look beyond Bacon and
                                           | evaluate his logic machine in contrast to the
                                           | "classical mechanics" of Newtonian Optics
                                           | (physics): linear time-sequence prediction.
                                           |
                                           | Bacon was not seeking that type of
                                           | "cause/prediction"science. He was seeking
                                           | hidden, "unwritten" "laws" of nature,
                                           | more on the model of Pasteur than of
                                           | Newton.
                                           |
                                           | Any treatment that tries to interpret
                                           | Bacon's Logic Machine in the light of what
                                           | classical physics called "science" will
                                           | distort Bacon's meaning and achievement.
                                           |
                                           | Note: if a scholar's interpretation of
                                           | Bacon's Science does not square with the
                                           | detailed description of the application of
                                           | Bacon's science in "Salomon's House" in
                                           | NEW ATLANTIS, it should be viewed with

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Valerius Terminus: Of the Interpretation of Nature

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