Francis Bacon was born in 1561 in England during the period of the English Renaissance. He became a lawyer in London in the 1580s, but he was always very interested in science, particularly scientific inventions and achievements (Bacon et. al. 2000). Bacon was a prominent figure in the humanities who has shaped, enhanced and enriched the thinking of today’s world scientifically and philosophically through his contributions, particularly regarding his ideas of seeking, capturing and sharing collective knowledge through the common use of the scientific method and building on previous scientific principles.
For much of his life he was fascinated by science and the phenomena of the universe. He spent a considerable amount of time and effort keeping up to date with advances, and he was one of the first to realize the dramatic possibilities of new technologies such as the microscope. Bacon was also the first to describe what would become known as the scientific method, the idea that observation and experiment as providing neutral proof or refute of an idea or theory (Bacon et. al. 2000). Bacon formally described the scientific method in 1620, and it continues to be taught and used today.
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"Influential Persons in the Humanities: Francis Bacon".
Bacon also studied learning, and had in mind a new system which he thought would simplify teaching as well as progress in the sciences. Bacon was deeply influenced by the idea of Common Law, which saw each law reinterpreted with each successive court decision. Bacon saw this as a model for the advancement of the sciences, as each small discovery could build on all that which came before (Martin 1992). Bacon published several books and thoughts on these ideas, which he saw as his life’s work.
Bacon was an experimental scientist himself, noting that liquids, when heated, form a gas and dissipate into the air, for one (Ibid.) Bacon’s greatest invention, for which we owe a great debt of gratitude, is the importance and impacts of refrigeration on the spoilage of food (Ellis 2015). In fact, the experiment which Bacon undertook to prove his idea that food keeps longer when cold also caused his death (Ibid). Bacon took advantage of a snowfall to conduct his experiment, where he stuffed a fresh chicken carcass with snow to see if it lasted longer than the typical chicken. Being sixty five, which was old at the time, his time in the wet snow brought on illness and he passed away soon after.
Bacon became a Minister of Parliament early in his career, although he often used his position to propose reforms of the sciences (Bacon et. al. 2000). He also made clear his opinion that religious thought often interfered with scientific progress (Ibid.). In Bacon’s later years he became a confidante of the king, and he was likely a great influence on the monarch’s thoughts and decisions (Ibid.). While Bacon is mostly known today for his thoughts on the positioning of sciences, his occupation was in fact as a political and legal thinker and philosopher.
Francis Bacon had a great impact on the way that we think today about the and on the way that we live today through his inventions; in fact, his approach was revolutionary. We continue to use his scientific method to explore nature and the universe, and his thoughts on the process of the advancement of science have become a standard. While Bacon’s contribution was that of the need for scientific objectivity, it was a major contribution to the humanities as it provided a framework and standardized steps that allowed for collaboration and building from the works of others.
