Francis Bacon & John Locke (1561-1626)(1632-1704)

1. Francis Bacon & John Locke(1561-1626)(1632-1704) Alyssa Burns

2. Francis Bacon: Background • lived during a time period in which there were varying cultural and political ideas and many social conflicts (Empiricism: The Influence of Francis Bacon, John Locke, and David Hume) • attended Trinity College, Cambridge, and at Gray’s Inn (Francis Bacon (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)) • 1577-1578: went to Paris and his father died (Francis Bacon (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)) • left with financial problems so he entered the House of Commons (Francis Bacon (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)) • tried to make revisions for the new system of sciences, but were too lofty (Francis Bacon (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)) • Queen Elizabeth and Lord Burghley did not approve of these reforms. (Francis Bacon (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy))

3. Francis Bacon: Background • went into law and became a Parliamentarian (Francis Bacon (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)) • 1593: forced to become a patron of the Earl of Essex (Francis Bacon (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)) • 1610: became one of James I knights (Francis Bacon (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)) • 1607: appointed Solicitor General (Francis Bacon (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)) • 1613: appointed Attorney General (Francis Bacon (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)) • 1616: became a member of the Privy Council (Francis Bacon (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)) • 1617: entered into the House of Lords and became Lord Keeper of the Great Seal (Francis Bacon (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)) • 1618: appointed Lord Chancellor and Baron of Verulam (Francis Bacon (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy))

4. Francis Bacon: Background • the same year that he was named Viscount of St. Albans, he was impeached for his corruption as a judge (Francis Bacon (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)) • was found to be the scapegoat to the Duke of Buckingham from public anger and aggression (Francis Bacon (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)) • In losing all of his political offices, he ended his life with his work in philosophy (Francis Bacon (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy))

5. Francis Bacon: Philosophy • Aristotle’s philosophy had axioms for each scientific discipline, but Bacon thought he was lacking a principle or theory of science (Francis Bacon (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)) - axiom= a truth that doesn’t need any proof • 1620: wrote NovumOrganum, to propose a new way of thinking about the world based on direct experience (Ways of Knowing: How We Choose What We Believe) • The book was ultimately an outline for his scientific method (Ways of Knowing: How We Choose What We Believe) • talks about the distortions that the mind introduces (Ways of Knowing: How We Choose What We Believe)

6. Francis Bacon: Philosophy • our mind wants to put order in the universe and so it will unconsciously add order (Ways of Knowing: How We Choose What We Believe) • four categories of distortions (Ways of Knowing: How We Choose What We Believe) - ones that are common to the human tribe all together (idols of the tribe) - ones that are apply more to one group than another (idols of the cave) - ones that come about from our unclear use of words (idols of the marketplace) - ones that are caused by the variation in philosophies and world visions that people follow (idols of the theater)

7. Francis Bacon: Philosophy • Idols of the Tribe: in the desire to see more order everyone will suffer (Ways of Knowing: How We Choose What We Believe) • Idols of the Caves: while some people are attracts to new ideas, some people are drawn to more traditional ideas. (Ways of Knowing: How We Choose What We Believe) • Idols of the Marketplace: when describing the world in a way that we talk in regular conversation we can have serious misapprehensions (Ways of Knowing: How We Choose What We Believe) • Idols of the Theater: we interpret the world through our view and it’s easier to see others doing it than ourselves. (Ways of Knowing: How We Choose What We Believe)

8. Bacon’s Sense Perception • came about from his desire to form progressive areas of certainty (Golden) • rejected the commonly used inductive method and said that we should derive “axioms from the senses and particular, rising by a gradual and unbroken ascent, so that it arrives at the most general axioms last of all” (Golden) • could lead to conclusions that are not reliable or valid (Golden) • thought that human beings paid much more attention to events that are successful than to those that have failed (Myers, 2004)

9. Francis Bacon v. John Locke • empiricists, who believed that knowledge comes from our senses and experiences. (Myers, 2004) • helped to form the study of the mind and how it works (Empiricism: The Influence of Francis Bacon, John Locke, and David Hume) • empiricism influenced psychology today how it is a science that studies human behavior through observation and experiment (Empiricism: The Influence of Francis Bacon, John Locke, and David Hume) • John Locke continued on the research of Francis Bacon (Empiricism: The Influence of Francis Bacon, John Locke, and David Hume)

10. John Locke: Background • lived during a time where Civil War resulting from poverty and religious and social divides • 1632: got into Oxford University, which his father probably helped(Cranston, 1957) • early ideas were to “enquire into the original certainty and extent of human knowledge” and started with the Essay Concerning Human Understanding(Cranston, 1957) • claims that certain acts have been said to be innate, but only because people caught recall where they learned it and that all ideas come from experience (Cranston, 1957) • “all knowledge is founded on and ultimately derives itself from sense, or something analogous to it, which may be called sensation” (Cranston, 1957)

11. John Locke: Philosophy • feels all ideas come from some sort of sensation (Cranston, 1957) • calls an idea that object of understanding and that there are two types of ideas (Cranston, 1957) - simple ideas: that are received through thought - complex ideas: that are produced by using your mind’s powers • In perception, an important part of the sensation model, there are three elements (Cranston, 1957) - the observer - the idea - the object

12. John Locke: Philosophy • ideas are based on what we think is always an idea and that there are three different types of knowledge (Cranston, 1957) - intuitive: the mind sees agreement or disagreement with ideas without influence from other ideas - demonstrative: knowledge received from the proposing of other ideas - sensitive: which is in front of our senses at any time • Anything not within one of these criteria is not knowledge, in Locke’s opinion, instead is faith or opinion (Cranston, 1957)

13. Quotes • If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts, but if he will content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties. - Francis Bacon  • No man's knowledge here can go beyond his experience. - John Locke

14. Works Cited • "Axiom | Define Axiom at Dictionary.com." Dictionary.com | Free Online Dictionary for English Definitions. Web. 14 Feb. 2011. <http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/axiom>. • Cranston, M. John Locke: A biography. London: Longman’s Green & Co. 1957. • “Empiricism: The Influence of Francis Bacon, John Locke, and David Hume.” SBC Psychology. Web. 13 Feb. 2011. <http://www.psychology.sbc.edu/Empiricism.htm>. • “Francis Bacon (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy).” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Web. 13 Feb. 2011. <http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/francis-bacon/>. • Golden, James L. The Rhetoric of Western Thought: From the Mediterranean World to the Global Setting. 8th ed. Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt, 2003. Print. • Myers, D. Psychology.7th ed. Michigan: Hope College. 2004. • Ways of Knowing: How We Choose What We Believe. Web. 13 Feb. 2011. <http://waysofknowing.info/lecsite/baconlec.html>.