Roger Bacon Experimental Approach

Roger Bacon was a famous medieval thinker and scientist. He was one of the earliest advocates of systematic experimentation and emphasised grasping truth through a scientific approach. During the time when Thomas Aquinas argued that philosophy and science were secondary to theology, Bacon was the first man to liberate science from theology and enabled this “secondary” discipline to rule the world. This essay will introduce some of Bacon’s ideas, and arguments as to why Bacon is a significant thinker will be put forward.

One of the most famous ideas of Bacon is that theories can only become truth if they are proved by experiments. Bacon realised that reason and conjectures are insecure if not tested by experience. There are mainly two ways of exploring the truth: one is through discussion and argument, the other one is through experience. Bacon pointed out that the Aristotelian way of grasping the truth, the reasoning way, can only raise questions, but suspicions can never be eliminated thoroughly. For example, a man who has never seen fire before could speculate that fire can burn things, but he cannot be certain about that. So, he will not hide from fire. Only when he gets burned will he become aware of the power of fire, as his experience has assured him that fire can burn things. Hence, conviction and certainty are what experience can provide.

Bacon was a significant thinker in history for three reasons. First of all, his experimental approach was a new way of grasping the truth, which provides more accurate results. In medieval Europe, people used to regard religion and theology as the best ways of finding the truth. People revered authority so much that they lost their ability to query or innovate. For example, medieval people thought that what Aristotle said was always true as Aristotle was regarded as a sage. Aristotle had claimed that the nerves are joined in the heart. When a certain scholastic saw from anatomy that the nerves are joined in the brain, he covered his eyes and said that he could not face this truth since the truth is different from what Aristotle had said. This was how people followed authority and custom blindly. Then a man called Roger Bacon stood out and broke these rules and limits. Bacon realised that the real truth could never be obtained if everyone is just