Francis Bacon analyzes the scientific method in his Great Instauration of Learning (Magna Instauratio)

Literary/ Cultural Context Note

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.03: English Writing and Culture: Renaissance (Elizabethan and Jacobean periods) , 1485-1625.
Vol. editors: William M. Hamlin (Washington State University), J A Roe (University of York), Virginia Mason Vaughan (Clark University), Ema Vyroubalova (Trinity College Dublin)

Domains

Philosophy of Science

Dates

Date of occurrence 1620

Places

United Kingdom (Location)

Resources

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Statesman, writer and natural philosopher Francis Bacon was at the height of his political career in 1620, holding the position of Lord Chancellor, when he published the preliminary outline of what he planned to be his greatest work, his

Magno Instauratio or 'Great Edifice'. Most of the proposed six volumes were never completed, but the first part was published in 1623 as De Dignitate et Augmentis Scientiarum, and the second part was brought out in 1620. This was his Novum Organum, which revolutionised the scientific method by arguing for the value of empiricism over syllogism.

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