Francis Bacon and Redemption

While the idea of empiricism began to overtake the previous idea of rationalism, Francis Bacon saw that a marriage of the two was was the best way to go about the sciences.  Bacon believed that scientists should follow two rules: “lay aside received opinions and notions, an the other, to restrain the mind for a time from the highest generalizations.”  He believed that there were four sources of error that could contaminate scientific observation and research.  These, he referred to as idols- the idols of the cave, the tribe, the marketplace, and the theatre.  All these idols refer to the different biases that the scientist or observer may have.  This focus of Bacon’s and the critique of the way to do science resembles the Biblically historic stage of Redemption.  Bacon claimed that we can only command nature by obeying her, hence concluding that “knowledge is power.”  By this understanding of human weakness, he is able to actually make humanity stronger.  The book claims that Bacon was ahead of his time in insisting that scientists rid themselves of bias. I classify him as a redemption philosopher because this understanding comes with a hindsight of the fall.  Seeing the mistakes in the the sciences and philosophies of the medieval period, he sees the affects of the fall and desires to correct it in hopes of a better future of scientific inquiry.  There is also an element in redemption of knowing our weakness. Bacon embraces the Renaissance focus on humanity, but claims his fallenness and seeks to correct it.  Ultimately this idea has transformed the way empirical data is collected.