Sir Francis Bacon
1561-1626 · Scientific Revolution · Prominent
Bacon was an English statesman and a prophet of the new science. Stop reasoning about nature from an armchair, he said. Vex it with experiment, and build general claims upward from what the particulars show. He named four idols, the habits of mind and language that corrupt thought, and imagined a research institution the Royal Society later resembled. He set this out in the Novum Organum of 1620.
Signature
The position Bacon is most identified with in the Profiler:
- Nature
- leans Mastery
- Knowledge
- Sense Experience
Positions on the 12 axes the sources answer
- Natural Processes
- mildly leans Mechanistic (32 on a 0–100 scale from Mechanistic to Purposeful)
- Mind
- leans Beyond Brain (75 on a 0–100 scale from Brain Only to Beyond Brain)
- The Divine
- leans Describable (25 on a 0–100 scale from Describable to Indescribable)
- Universals
- mildly leans Realism (35 on a 0–100 scale from Realism to Nominalism)
- Meaning
- leans Inherent (72 on a 0–100 scale from Constructed to Inherent)
- Order
- leans Vertical (17 on a 0–100 scale from Vertical to Horizontal)
- Ground of Being
- mildly between Immanence and Transcendence (54 on a 0–100 scale from Immanence to Transcendence)
- Truth
- leans Objective (83 on a 0–100 scale from Subjective to Objective)
- Nature
- leans Mastery (14 on a 0–100 scale from Mastery to Harmony)
- War
- leans Militarism (86 on a 0–100 scale from Pacifism to Militarism)
- Ignorance
- leans Bondage (21 on a 0–100 scale from Bondage to Bliss)
- Conviction
- leans Uncertain (29 on a 0–100 scale from Uncertain to Certain)
8 of 20 axes are left blank: the sources do not answer them, or Bacon refused the framing. Nothing is imputed; a blank is not a middling score.
Foundational questions
- Theology
- Trinitarian Monotheism
What is your position on the existence and nature of God or gods? - Government
- Monarchy / Technocracy
What is your ideal form of government? - Highest Good
- Knowledge
What is the highest good? - Good and Evil
- Moral Realism
What is the fundamental nature of good and evil? - End of Things
- Apocalyptic Renewal
What is the ultimate end of all things? - Perception
- Indirect Realism
What do we directly perceive? - Knowledge
- Sense Experience
What is the ultimate foundation of knowledge? - Ethics Basis
- Natural Law
What is the ultimate basis of ethics? - Beginning of Things
- Creation ex Nihilo
What is the origin of reality? - Authority
- Rational Expertise / Sacred Tradition
What is the legitimate source of authority? - Language
- Representation
What is the fundamental nature of language? - Paradox
- Paradox as Error
What is the status of paradox? - Death
- Ascent of the Soul
What happens at death? - Role of Emotion
- Obstacle to Reason
What is the proper role of emotion? - Human Nature
- Imago Dei / Redeemably Corrupted
What is human nature? - Primary Bond
- Nation / Humanity
What is your primary bond and loyalty?