Bacon, Francis 1561–1626 English Politician and Philosopher

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Bacon, Francis
1561–1626
English politician and philosopher

Francis Bacon was an important figure in both the public world of politics and the private world of scholarship in Renaissance England. His public life was a drama in which he fell from high office to prison, while his achievements as a thinker helped transform the sciences.

Political Rise and Fall. Bacon was born in London to a family with political connections—his father held a position at the court of Queen Elizabeth I. At the age of 12, Bacon entered Trinity College, Cambridge. Two years later he left Cambridge without a degree. Soon afterward, in his only trip abroad, he accompanied a diplomatic* mission to France. Bacon returned to England after his father died in 1579. He studied law and entered politics as an elected member of Parliament.

During Elizabeth's reign, Bacon hoped to gain a desirable position in government. His rivals kept him from advancing, so he formed an alliance with the powerful Earl of Essex. However, Essex was unsuccessful in obtaining a position for Bacon. When Essex went to trial for treason in 1601, Bacon had the disagreeable task of presenting the case against him in court. The episode haunted him for years.

After James I came to the throne in 1603, Bacon's fortunes improved. He received a knighthood and in 1613 became attorney general of the kingdom. Five years later the king made him lord chancellor, the highest appointed post in the land. Bacon also received two noble titles, becoming Baron Verulam and Viscount St. Albans.

Although Bacon was among the most talented men of his time, he did not remain in power long. A former rival, whom Bacon had helped to remove from an earlier position, led a movement against the privileges of nobles. To save a more favored member of the court, King James reluctantly allowed investigators to accuse Bacon of bribery and corruption. In reality, Bacon had accepted only the usual fees of office, and no one could show that they had affected his judgment. Nonetheless, he was forced to resign from his post, briefly imprisoned, and banished from the court and from politics. He devoted the rest of his life to intellectual pursuits.

The Science of Knowing. "I have taken all knowledge for my province [realm]," Bacon wrote in 1592, and he was true to his word. During his career, he wrote masterful histories, religious translations, and literary essays. Bacon's major works, however, dealt with science and logic.

Rather than contributing new information to particular fields, Bacon examined ways to achieve and organize knowledge. He divided human reasoning into two distinct processes, invention and judgment. People showed invention when they discovered the basic principles of an art or science and how they related to knowledge in general. They used judgment, by contrast, when they applied these principles to specific questions or problems. Each realm of understanding, Bacon thought, had its own fundamental ideas and its own particular pitfalls and errors. He believed that his theory applied to all areas of knowledge except society, politics, and divine revelation*.

Bacon's overall intellectual goal was to develop a science of reasoning and an empirical* method for achieving knowledge. In works such as The Advancement of Learning (1605), Description of the World of Thought (1612), New Instrument (1620), and Natural and Experimental History (1622), he helped establish concepts of critical thinking and organized knowledge that became part of modern science.

(See alsoGovernment, Forms of; Science; Shakespeare, William. )