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Background
Background
The Renaissance was a time of great intellectual upheaval. In the last year of his life, Nicolaus Copernicus (1473 - 1543) published his heliocentric theories - theories that stated that the earth revolved around the sun and not the other way around. These were not new ideas. Aristarchus of Samos (c. 310 BCE - c. 210 BCE) had proposed the same idea. And initially, the Catholic Church wasn’t particularly interested in the idea. The Council of Trent, which took place two years after Copernicus died, wasn’t concerned about it. In fact, the council actually used his calculations in their reform of the calendar.
Calvin and Luther, the chief architects of the reformation, were definitely against the idea, however. In his commentary on Genesis Calvin wrote that ‘We indeed are not ignorant that the circuit of the heavens is finite, and that the earth, like a little globe, is placed in the centre.’
Giordano Bruno (1548 - 1600) was put on trial for his views which the Catholic Church considered heretical. These views were described in a, now lost, list of 8 propositions. Whilst we know that Bruno adhered to Copernicus’ view, we don’t know whether that was on the list. Bruno held other views that were controversial at the time, such as believing that there might be other planets with intelligent life, and that the universe was infinitely large rendering all distances and positions relative. Refusing to recant his views convincingly, Bruno was tortured and hung upside-down naked, before being burnt at the stake.
Galileo Galilei (1564 - 1642) also defended heliocentrism in his popular work Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems. The work caused quite a lot of controversy, however, and the Roman Inquisition tried Galileo in 1633, and found him ‘vehemently suspect of heresy’. He was sentenced to house arrest where he remained until his death in 1642. After the trial, heliocentric books were banned.
Francis Bacon (1561 - 1626) was born into a wealthy family in London and was grandson of a famous renaissance humanist called Anthony Cooke, who had been tutor to the King. Bacon stated his aims in life as being to uncover truth, to serve his country, and to serve his church.
The Idols of the Mind
The Idols of the Mind
Francis Bacon’s project was very much in line with renaissance humanism: to return humanity to its place in charge of nature. He is often associated with the phrase knowledge is power, though what he actually wrote was:
‘Human knowledge and human power meet in one; for where the cause is not known the effect cannot be produced. Nature to be commanded must be obeyed; and that which in contemplation is as the cause is in operation as the rule.’
–Novum Organum, book IHe argued, however, that there were four ‘idols of the mind’ preventing us from finding the truth and thus, achieving such power. These four idols were ideas that he thought we value more than we should (nowadays we might call them biases):
Idols of the tribe – dogmas common to the race or group. Prejudices.
Idols of the cave – dogmas common to the individual – your own assumptions.
Idols of the marketplace – dogmas of language: silly ideas that spread, and imprecision and ambiguity in language.
‘But the Idols of the Market-place are the most troublesome of all: idols which have crept into the understanding through the alliances of words and names. For men believe that their reason governs words; but it is also true that words react on the understanding; and it is this that has rendered philosophy and the sciences sophistical and inactive. Now words, being commonly framed and applied according to the capacity of the vulgar, follow those lines of division which are most obvious to the vulgar understanding. And whenever an understanding of greater acuteness or a more diligent observation would alter those lines to suit the true divisions of nature, words stand in the way and resist change. Whence it comes to pass that the high and formal discussions of learned men end oftentimes in disputes about words and names.’
—Novum Organum, book 1Idols of the theatre – dogmas of culture.
Against Aristotle
Against Aristotle
Since the onset of the Renaissance, there had been a reaction against the Aristotelian way of thinking that had dominated education in Universities. The title of Bacon’s book Novum Organum was a reference to Aristotle’s Organon, a collection of six books relating to logical analysis - the word Organon literally means tool. Bacon wanted to update, revise and improve upon Aristotle’s works.
A key part of that thinking was Aristotle’s description of four different kinds of explanation, four different becauses or answers to ‘why…?’ questions:
We can give a material because… we answer the question by referring to the material that something is made out of. For example, ‘Why is this table hard?’ – ‘because it is made out of wood.’ ‘Why does this feel cold?’ – ‘because it is made out of metal.’
We can give a formal because… we can explain something in terms of a formula, rule, or definition. For example, ‘Why does this shape have 3 sides?’ – ‘Because it is a triangle’. ‘Why does x=5’ – ‘because x=2+3’ ‘Why did you call Dave a bachelor?’ – ‘because he is an unmarried man’.
We can give an efficient because… this is an answer that relates to causes and consequences. What causes something to happen? For example, ‘Why is the pencil on the floor?’ – ‘because Dave dropped it’. ‘Why does the Sun go down in the evening?’ – ‘because the earth rotates’.
We can give a final because… we can explain something in terms of purpose or function, in terms of reasons. For example, ‘Why is the heart important?’ – ‘because it pumps blood around the body.’ ‘Why is the knife sharp?’ – ‘So it can cut things’. ‘Why were you late?’ – ‘because I wanted to go to the toilet.’
Francis Bacon wanted to redefine these four kinds of explanations. The final because was normally considered the most important because it related to the purpose of things. Bacon, however, thought that it was of little interest to science and often quite misleading. He thought this because we can’t often know the purpose of things in nature, and thus we're often reduced to speculation which makes us susceptible to the idols of the mind.
The most important for Bacon was the formal because:
‘he who knows forms grasps the unity of nature beneath the surface of materials which are very unlike.’
For Bacon, science should seek the form of things, the rules that bind things together, that define things – these, he thought, were the universal laws of nature. A formal explanation was a general and underlying truth about how the universe works.
Tasks
Tasks
Explain the four idols of the mind.
Explain Aristotle's views on explanation.
What was Bacon's objection to Aristotle's view?
Evaluate the two positions. Do you think Bacon's objection is convincing?
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