The Renaissance and Scientific Revolution were pivotal moments in history that transformed the world as we know it. These periods saw a revolution in art, science, medicine, and philosophy, as well as the social, economic, and political life of Europe.
New ideas and facts generated by the exploration of the world, the heavens, and the human body challenged ancient concepts. The transformation was so profound that it gave birth to two overlapping movements that proposed radically different approaches to natural philosophy.
One was rational and theoretical in approach, while the other was practical and empirical. In this article, we will explore the philosophical methods of these two great thinkers and how they contributed to shaping our understanding of the world.
Who Was Bacon And Descartes
Bacon and Descartes were two of the most influential philosophers of their time. They both believed that a critique of preexisting natural philosophy was necessary, but their respective critiques proposed radically different approaches to natural philosophy.
Bacon advocated for the collection of all possible facts and phenomena and the processing of these through a sort of automatic logical mill. He warned scientists against four famous false notions, called Idols. These were fallacies in humankind, misconceptions inherent in individuals’ thoughts, errors that arose from received systems of thought, and fallacies arising from the misuse of language.
On the other hand, Descartes began with a doubt of anything which cannot be known with absolute certainty and included in this realm of doubt the impressions of sense perception. He attempted to provide a metaphysical principle which cannot be doubted, on which further truths must be deduced. In this method of deduction, the philosopher begins by examining the most general axioms and then proceeds to determine the truth about particulars from an understanding of those general axioms.
Bacon endorsed the opposite method of Induction, in which the particulars are first examined, and only then is there a gradual ascent to the most general axioms. While Descartes doubted the ability of the senses to provide us with accurate information, Bacon doubted the ability of the mind to deduce truths by itself as it is subjected to so many intellectual obfuscations.
The Renaissance And Scientific Revolution
The Renaissance and Scientific Revolution were two important periods in European history that brought about significant changes in the fields of art, science, medicine, and philosophy. During this time, people began to challenge ancient concepts and traditional ways of thinking, leading to a transformation of social, economic, and political life.
Natural philosophers, physicians, and surgeons were confronted with new plants, animals, and diseases that were unknown to the ancient authorities. As a result, Francis Bacon and René Descartes developed different methodologies that helped to guide and systematize the new sciences and define the modern scientific method.
Under the scientific method defined and applied in the 17th century, natural and artificial circumstances were abandoned, and a research tradition of systematic experimentation was slowly accepted throughout the scientific community. The philosophy of using an inductive approach to nature was in strict contrast with the earlier Aristotelian approach of deduction.
During the scientific revolution, changing perceptions about the role of the scientist in respect to nature, the value of evidence, experimental or observed, led towards a scientific methodology in which empiricism played a large role. The term British empiricism came into use to describe philosophical differences perceived between two of its founders—Francis Bacon, described as an empiricist, and René Descartes, who was described as a rationalist.
The Renaissance and Scientific Revolution were really a revolution in thought. Bacon and Descartes rejected Aristotle’s scientific assumptions and challenged the scholarly traditions of the medieval universities that sought to make the physical world fit in with the teachings of the Church. They both argued that truth is not known at the beginning of inquiry but at the end after a long process of investigation. While Bacon stressed experimentation and observation, Descartes emphasized human reasoning as the best road to understanding.
The Birth Of Two Overlapping Movements
Bacon and Descartes were both instrumental in the birth of two overlapping movements that defined the intellectual landscape of their time. The Renaissance and Scientific Revolution were characterized by a transformation of art, science, medicine, philosophy, and the social, economic, and political life of Europe. Ancient concepts were challenged by new ideas and facts generated by the exploration of the world, the heavens, and the human body.
Bacon and Descartes developed different methodologies that helped to guide and systematize the new sciences and define the modern scientific method. Under this new scientific method, natural and artificial circumstances were abandoned, and a research tradition of systematic experimentation was slowly accepted throughout the scientific community. The philosophy of using an inductive approach to nature (to abandon assumption and to attempt to simply observe with an open mind) was in strict contrast with the earlier Aristotelian approach of deduction, by which analysis of known facts produced further understanding.
In practice, many scientists and philosophers believed that a healthy mix of both was needed—the willingness to both question assumptions and to interpret observations assumed to have some degree of validity. Bacon’s works established and popularized inductive methodologies for scientific inquiry, often called the Baconian method or sometimes simply the scientific method. His demand for a planned procedure of investigating all things natural marked a new turn in the rhetorical and theoretical framework for science, much of which still surrounds conceptions of proper methodology today.
Descartes distinguished between the knowledge that could be attained by reason alone (rationalist approach), as in mathematics, and the knowledge that required experience of the world, as in physics. His method of deduction began with examining general axioms before proceeding to determine truths about particulars from an understanding of those general axioms. This approach was in contrast to Bacon’s endorsement of induction, where particulars are first examined before there is a gradual ascent to the most general axioms.
The birth of these two overlapping movements marked a new era in human thought and inquiry. The Age of Enlightenment or the Enlightenment was an intellectual and philosophical movement that dominated Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries. It included a range of ideas centered on the value of human happiness, the pursuit of knowledge obtained by means of reason and the evidence of the senses, and ideals such as natural law, liberty, progress, toleration, fraternity, constitutional government, and separation of church and state. The central doctrines of the Enlightenment were individual liberty and religious tolerance, in opposition to an absolute monarchy and the fixed dogmas of the Church.
Rational And Theoretical: The Philosophy Of Descartes
Descartes was a crucial figure in the history of philosophy and is often considered the progenitor of the modern spirit of philosophy. His philosophy was dominated by a mathematical bias, which clearly predominated in his work. He believed that philosophy was the study of wisdom or the perfect knowledge of all one can know, and its chief utility was for the conduct of life, the conservation of health, and the invention of all the arts.
Descartes defined philosophy as a physics founded upon metaphysics. He believed that the most important part of the tree was the trunk, indicating that he busied himself with metaphysics only to provide a firm foundation for physics. Descartes believed that knowledge meant power and that theoretical science ultimately served practical needs.
In his method of deduction, Descartes began by examining the most general axioms and then proceeded to determine the truth about particulars from an understanding of those general axioms. He believed that doubt was necessary to arrive at absolute truth and aimed to establish progressive stages of certainty.
Descartes combined various influences from the past into a synthesis that was strikingly original yet congenial to the scientific temper of his time. He profoundly respected Galileo’s work and withdrew his own cosmological treatise after Galileo’s condemnation by the Inquisition in 1633.
Practical And Empirical: The Philosophy Of Bacon
Francis Bacon’s philosophy was focused on practical and empirical methods for acquiring knowledge. He believed that knowledge could only be gained through observation and experimentation. Bacon advocated for the collection of all possible facts and phenomena and the processing of these through a sort of automatic logical mill. He warned scientists against four famous false notions, called Idols. These were fallacies in humankind, misconceptions inherent in individuals’ thoughts, errors that arose from received systems of thought, and fallacies arising from the misuse of language.
In contrast to Descartes’ deductive approach, Bacon believed that knowledge was not innate but had to be acquired through experience. He also believed that scientific knowledge should be used for practical purposes, such as improving medicine and technology.
Bacon’s philosophy had a significant impact on the development of modern science. His emphasis on empirical observation and experimentation laid the groundwork for the scientific method, which is still used today. Additionally, his ideas about collaboration among scientists helped to establish the Royal Society, one of the world’s oldest scientific organizations.
Contributions To Our Understanding Of The World
Bacon and Descartes contributed significantly to our understanding of the world. Their ideas were instrumental in shaping the Scientific Revolution, which saw a shift towards empirical observation and experimentation as the basis for scientific knowledge.
Bacon’s emphasis on the collection of all possible facts and phenomena and the processing of these through a logical mill laid the foundation for modern scientific inquiry. His method of induction, which involves starting with the particulars and gradually ascending to the most general axioms, is still widely used today.
Descartes’ approach to natural philosophy was equally groundbreaking. His insistence on doubting everything that cannot be known with absolute certainty paved the way for a new way of thinking about knowledge. His famous phrase “I think, therefore I am” became a touchstone for modern philosophy and is still widely discussed today.
Both Bacon and Descartes were important figures in the development of modern science, and their ideas continue to shape our understanding of the world around us. Their contributions to the Scientific Revolution helped to establish science as a discipline based on empirical observation and experimentation, rather than abstract reasoning alone.
