Baconian method Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
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2 Baconian Method 3 Idols of The Mind 4 Followers 5 See also |
Introduction
The Baconian method is the investigative method developed by Francis Bacon. It is an early forerunner of the scientific method. The method was put forward in Bacon's book Novum Organum, which means New Organ, and was supposed to replace the methods put forward in Aristotle's Organum.
Bacon suggests that you draw up a list of all things in which the phenomena you are trying to explain occurs, as well as a list of things in which it does not occur. Then you rank your lists according to the degree in which the phenomena occurs in each one. Thenyou should be able to deduces what factors match the occurence of the pheonmena in one list and don't occur in the other list, and also what factors change in accordnce with the way the data had been ranked. From this Bacon concludes you should be able to deduce by good inductive reasoning what is the form underlying the phenomena.
Thus, if an army is successful when commanded by Essex, and not successful when not commanded by Essex: and when it is more or less successful according to the degree of involvement of Essex as its commander, then it is scientifically reasonable to say that being commanded by Essex is causally related to the army's success.
Baconian Method
The Baconian method consists of procedures for isolating the cause of a phenomenon, including the method of agreement, method of difference, and method of concomitant variation. Idols of The Mind
Bacon also listed what he called the Idols of The Mind. he described these as things which obstructed the path of correct scientific reasoning.
Followers
The English physician Sir Thomas Browne (1605-82) was one of the earliest scientists'']] to adhere to the scientific empiricism of the Baconian method.
His encyclopaedia Pseudodoxia Epidemica (1646-76) includes numerous examples of Baconian investigative methodology; its preface even paraphrases lines from Bacon's essay On Truth from his 1605 work The Advancement of Learning. The Baconian method was further developed and promoted by John Stuart Mill.