Bacon, Roger


Roger Bacon

In the Questiones altere super libros prime philosophie Aristotelis (1240s), Bacon takes up and develops the well known treatment of knowledge, science, and intuition presented in Grosseteste's Commentary on Aristotle's Posterior Analytics

Bacon holds that scientific knowledge is twofold: first, there is the “imperfect and confused knowledge” by which the mind is inclined to the love of the good and of truth. This implicit knowledge is innate. Second, there is explicit rational knowledge. One part of this has to do with the knowledge of the principles of science; the other is the knowledge of conclusions. This latter is complete knowledge though it is not exhaustive. Bacon's account of sense, memory, and experience is more extensive than that found in Grosseteste's Commentary and reflects his own reading of Avicenna, the medical tradition, and works on optics. Bacon distinguishes experientia from experimentum. Experience (experientia) is the distinct knowledge of singular things, and all animals have this distinct knowledge of singulars. But not all animals have experimentum, that is, a science of principles based on experience. As he puts it, “ experience is the distinct reception of singulars under some aspect of universality, as is stated in the text [of Aristotle], but only the universal is grasped by the intellect. Therefore, only humans and not other animals have experience [experimentum] ([OHI, XI], 16). Many animals have an image (imaginatio) of singular things and live by innate art and industry, naturally knowing how to adapt to changing weather conditions. Human art, however, is acquired and is a science of principles based on experience (experimentum principium).

One can express Bacon's position as follows: experimentum is the universal source for our discovery of scientific principles. Scientific knowledge, once established, proceeds by demonstration. Experientia designates the simple perception of singulars. Only in a very loose sense can it be used of scientific knowledge. Sometimes, however, these two terms about experience are used interchangeably. In this account, Bacon has not yet come to his later notion of a scientia experimentalis, and the experimental verification (certificatio) of the conclusions of demonstrative knowledge (ca. 1267). He is dealing only with experience as the source of the principles of our knowledge of art and science. [cf. 3.1.4 The Syllogism in Particular]

In other words, at this stage, Bacon is mainly concerned with Aristotle's definition of experience in the Metaphysics and Posterior Analytics, although one already notices that he relates the Aristotelian subject matter to the discussion in Alhacen's Perspectiva. Nevertheless, it is also important to note that these Aristotelian concerns with Experimentum are repeated in 1267 at the beginning of Opus majus, Part Six on exprimental science, and thus, Aristotle's Metaphysics, Posterior Analytics and Meteorology together with the Optics of Ibn al-Haytham will form the necessary philosophical background for Bacon's later c. 1266 notions of the experimental sciences.

Bacon on Matter .
Bacon on Universals and Individuation .
Bacon's Realism: On the Way to Late Medieval Nominalism? .

Resources
Bacon, Roger. Opera Majoris, Pars Quarta, Mathematicae in Divinas Utilitas (Mathematics in the Service of Theology), Herbert M. Howe trans., maintained by the History of Cartography Project.
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Al-Farabi | Al-Kindi | Aquinas, Saint Thomas | Aristotle | Aristotle, General Topics: ethics | Aristotle, Special Topics: natural philosophy | Augustine, Saint | Bacon, Francis | Cicero | Duhem, Pierre | Duns Scotus, John | form vs. matter | Giles of Rome | Grosseteste, Robert | Ibn al-Haytham | Ibn Rushd [Averroes] | Ibn Sina [Avicenna] | individuals and individuation | Kilwardby, Robert | logic: ancient | natural philosophy: in the Renaissance | nominalism: medieval versions of | Ockham [Occam], William | properties | realism | Richard the Sophister [Ricardus Sophista, Magister abstractionum] | semiotics: medieval | Seneca | soul, ancient theories of | substance | William of Auvergne

Roger Bacon OFM Latin: Rogerus or Rogerius Baconus, Baconis, also Frater Rogerus; c. 1219/20 – c. 1292), also known by the scholastic accolade Doctor Mirabilis, was an English philosopher and Franciscan friar who placed considerable emphasis on the study of nature through empiricism. In the early modern era, he was regarded as a wizard and particularly famed for the story of his mechanical or necromantic brazen head. He is sometimes credited (mainly since the 19th century) as one of the earliest European advocates of the modern scientific method inspired by Aristotle and by Arab scientist Alhazen.

His linguistic work has been heralded for its early exposition of a universal grammar. However, more recent re-evaluations emphasise that Bacon was essentially a medieval thinker, with much of his "experimental" knowledge obtained from books in the scholastic tradition. He was, however, partially responsible for a revision of the medieval university curriculum, which saw the addition of optics to the traditional quadrivium. A survey of how Bacon's work was received over the centuries found that it often reflected the concerns and controversies that were central to his readers.

Bacon's major work, the Opus Majus, was sent to Pope Clement IV in Rome in 1267 upon the pope's request. Although gunpowder was first invented and described in China, Bacon was the first in Europe to record its formula.


Bacon’s rejection of the blind following of earlier authorities and his view of personal experiments as the ideal seems to be much more in tune with Newton’s era than the medieval world, but Bacon was truly a product of his times. In 1178 there were reports of a bright light appearing on the Moon, which some think could have been due to a meteor collision. Gervase of Canterbury saw the event, but also collected the observations of five monks who also witnessed the event. Gervase didn’t simply trust his own eyes, but gathered data to confirm his observations. In the early 1200s, Vincent of Beauvais wrote about the Earth as a spherical globe, and noted that gravity pulled everywhere toward its center. He even speculated on what would happen if you dropped a stone into a hole going through the globe."
posted by mediea
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