Darleen Stampler, age 16, of Providence, R.I., for her question:
WHO WAS FRANCIS BACON?
Francis Bacon was an English philosopher and statesman and one of the pioneers of modern scientific thought. He lived from 1561 until 1626 and was also the First Baron Verulam and the Viscount Saint Albans.
Bacon was educated at Trinity College of the University of Cambridge and was elected to the House of Commons in 1584 at the age of 23. He served for 30 years.
Bacon wrote letters of sound advice to Elizabeth I, Queen of England, but his suggestions were never implemented. He was out of favor with the queen. He regained the respect of the royal court, however, with the accession of James I to the English throne in 1603.
Schemes for the union of England and Scotland and recommended measures for dealing with Roman Catholics were proposed by Bacon. For these efforts he was knighted in 1603.
In 1605 Bacon's "Advancement of Learning" was published and two years later he was appointed solicitor general. In 1613 he was appointed attorney general. In 1616 he became a privy councillor and two years later was appointed lord chancellor.
In 1621 he was charged by Parliament with accepting bribes. He confessed but said that he was "heartily and penitently sorry." He submitted himself to the will of his fellow peers, who ordered him fined, imprisoned and banished from Parliament and the court. In 1621 the king pardoned him but prohibited his return to court or the Parliament. Bacon then resumed his writing, completing his "History of Henry VII" in 1622.
Bacon's writings fall into three categories: philosophical, purely literary and professional. His best philosophical work is "The Advancement of Learning."
Bacon's philosophy emphasized the belief that people are the servants and interpreters of nature, that truth is not derived from authority and that knowledge is the fruit of experience.
Bacon is generally credited with having contributed to logic the method known as ampliative inference, a technique of inductive reasoning.
Previous logicians had practiced induction by simple enumeration, that is, drawing general conclusions from particular data. Bacon's method was to infer by use of analogy, from the characteristics or properties of the larger group to which that datum belonged, leaving to later experiences the correction of evident efforts. Because it added significantly to the improvement of scientific hypotheses, this method was a fundamental advance of the scientific method.
Bacon's "Novum Organum" successfully influenced the acceptance of accurate observation and experimentation in science.
Bacon's "Essays," his chief contribution to literature, were published at various times between 1597 and 1625.
The theory that Bacon, rather than an obscure actor from Stratford upon Avon, is the true author of William Shakespeare's plays has been thoroughly discredited.