16. - Bacon, Francis (1561–1626)

Summary

Francis Bacon was a major figure in the seventeenth-century movements to reform knowledge and build a new conception of nature different from the largely Aristotelian conceptions that then dominated the universities. In his Novum organum (1620), De augmentis scientiarum (1623), and the Sylva Sylvarum (1626/27), among many other writings, Bacon outlined a program that involved a careful analysis of the ways in which people are prone to error (the “four Idols”), a method for collecting and arranging observations and experiments into natural histories, and using them to build natural philosophies that would enable people to control nature. While Bacon’s place in the Dutch intellectual world has not been studied as carefully as that of Descartes, he was, nevertheless, a significant influence on those interested in natural history and natural philosophy in the Low Countries. While not a major influence on Spinoza, Bacon left his mark in interesting ways. Only one book by Bacon appears in Spinoza’s library at the time of his death (a Latin translation of Bacon’s Essays). However, there are a number of direct citations and allusions to him in Spinoza’s work.