The famous English thinker is one of the first major philosophers of modern times, age of reason. The very nature of his teaching is very different from the systems of ancient and medieval thinkers. Bacon does not even mention knowledge as a pure and inspired striving for the highest truth. He despised Aristotle and religious scholasticism because they approached philosophical knowledge with such points of view. In accordance with the spirit of the new, rational-consumer era, Bacon is characterized primarily by the desire to domination over nature. Hence his famous aphorism knowledge is power .

Before he devoted himself entirely to philosophy, Francis Bacon was one of the most prominent officials of the English royal court. His social activities were marked by extreme unscrupulousness. Having started his career in parliament as an extreme oppositionist, he soon turned into a loyal loyalist. By betraying his original patron, Essex, Francis Bacon became a lord, a member of the secret council and the keeper of the state seal, but then was caught by parliament in large bribes. After a scandalous trial, he was sentenced to a huge fine of 40 thousand pounds and imprisonment in the Tower. The king forgave Bacon, but he still had to part with his political career (for more details, see the article Bacon, Francis - a brief biography). In his philosophical writings, Francis Bacon proclaimed the goal of conquest of material power with the same ruthless one-sidedness and dangerous disregard for moral laws with which he acted in practical politics.

Portrait of Francis Bacon. Painter Frans Pourbus the Younger, 1617

Mankind, according to Bacon, must subjugate nature and dominate it. (This goal, however, animates the entire Renaissance.) The human race moved forward thanks to scientific discoveries and inventions.

Recognizing the genius of many ancient philosophers, Bacon argued, however, that their genius was of no use, since it was misdirected. All of them disinterestedly searched for abstract metaphysical and moral truths, without thinking about practical benefits. Bacon himself thinks that "science should not be reduced to the fruitless satisfaction of idle curiosity." It should turn to extensive material and productive work. In the aspirations and personality of Bacon, the practical Anglo-Saxon spirit was exhaustively embodied.

Bacon's New Atlantis

Francis Bacon was imbued with the idea that the development of science would lead in the future to the onset of a golden age. With almost undeniable atheism, he wrote about the great discoveries ahead with the elevated enthusiasm of a religious prophet and treated the fate of science as a kind of shrine. In his unfinished philosophical utopia, The New Atlantis, Bacon depicts the happy, comfortable life of a wise, small nation of islanders who systematically apply in the "house of Solomon" all previously made discoveries for new inventions. The inhabitants of the "New Atlantis" have a steam engine, a balloon, a microphone, a telephone, and even a perpetual motion machine. With the brightest colors, Bacon depicts how all this improves, decorates and lengthens human life. The thought of the possible harmful consequences of "progress" does not even cross his mind.

Bacon "The Great Restoration of the Sciences"

All the main books of Francis Bacon are combined into one gigantic work called "The Great Restoration of the Sciences" (or "The Great Revival of the Sciences"). The author sets himself three tasks in it: 1) a review of all sciences (with the establishment and special role of philosophy), 2) the development of a new method of natural science, and 3) its application to a single study.

Bacon's writings "On the Progress of Knowledge" and "On the Dignity and Multiplication of the Sciences" are devoted to the solution of the first problem. The book On the Dignity and Multiplication of the Sciences constitutes the first part of The Great Restoration. Bacon gives in her overview of human knowledge(globus intellectualis). According to the three main abilities of the soul (memory, imagination and reason), he divides all sciences into three branches: "history" (experimental knowledge in general, humanitarian and natural), poetry and philosophy.

Philosophy has three objects: God, man and nature. However, the knowledge of God, according to Francis Bacon, is inaccessible to the human mind and must be drawn only from revelation. The sciences that study man and nature are anthropology and physics. Experienced physics Bacon considers " mother of all sciences". He includes metaphysics (the doctrine of the original causes of things) among the sciences, but he is inclined to look at it as an excessive speculation.

Monument to Francis Bacon in London

Bacon believes that the task of equipping a person with methods for obtaining new knowledge is much more important. He gives its solution in the work "New Organon". A significant obstacle in the development of real knowledge are prejudices, ingrained, rooted, or even innate ideas and fictions, which contribute to the fact that the world in our minds is not fully adequately reflected.

Bacon calls these representations idols. The doctrine of idols, according to Bacon, is an important means of overcoming these ideas. Regarding the relation of the science of idols to the new logic and the new method of cognition, he says: "The science of idols is related to the explanation of nature in the same way as the science of sophistical proofs is to ordinary logic."

Bacon presupposes the problem of cleansing the human mind from the following "idols" (false ideas, ghosts):

Idol kind . These are prejudices rooted in the nature of man as a generic being, in the imperfection of the sense organs, in the limitations of the mind. Sensations deceive us, they have boundaries beyond which objects cease to be perceived by us. To be guided only by sensations is naive. The mind helps, but the mind often gives a distorted picture of nature (likens a crooked mirror). The mind ascribes to nature its properties (anthropomorphism) and purposes (teleology). Hasty generalizations (for example, circular orbits).

The idols of the family are not only natural, but also innate. They proceed from the natural imperfection of the human mind, which manifests itself in the fact that "it implies a greater order and balance in things than those that are in them."

The idol of the family is the most irremovable according to Bacon. One can hardly free oneself from one's nature and not add one's nature to ideas. The way to overcome the idols of the race lies in the realization of this natural property of the human mind and the consistent implementation of the rules of new induction in the process of cognition (this is a necessary, certainly, the main and most reliable means for overcoming other idols).

Cave Idol . If the idols of the race come from the natural defects of the human mind, which are more or less common, then the idols of the cave are also caused by the innate defects of the human mind, but of an individual nature.

"The idols of the cave are the idols of man as an individual. For each individual, in addition to the errors generated by the nature of man as a species, has his own individual cave or lair. This cave refracts and distorts the light of nature, on the one hand, because each has a certain, own nature on the other hand, because each received a different upbringing and met other people.

It was also because everyone read only certain books, revered and adored different authorities, and finally, because his impressions were different from others, according to what kind of souls they had - prejudiced and full of prejudices, or souls calm and balanced, as well as for other reasons of the same kind. Similarly, the human spirit itself (since it is contained in individual people) is very changeable, confusing, as if random. "The human mind is the mind of a being belonging to the human race, but at the same time possessing individual characteristics: body, character, education, interest Each person looks at the world as if from his own cave.“Imperceptibly, passions stain and spoil the mind.” It is easier to get rid of this “idol” than the first one - collective experience levels out individual deviations.

Market Idol . Its danger lies in relying on collective experience. An idol is a product of people's communication, mainly verbal. "There are, however, such idols that arise through mutual communication. We call them idols of the market because they arose by mutual agreement in society. People agree with the help of speech; words are determined by a common understanding. A bad and incorrect choice of words greatly interferes with the mind These hindrances cannot correct either definitions or explanations. Words simply rape the mind and confuse everything, and lead people to innumerable unnecessary disputes and ideas. People believe that their mind commands words. But they involuntarily penetrate into consciousness. "

Harmfully misused. Mistaking words for things, people are mistaken. Here his criticism is directed against the scholastics. One can overcome an idol by realizing that words are signs of things. Realizing that there are single things - that is, you need to take the position of nominalism. Words do not represent reality, but only the generalizing activity of the mind.

Bacon pays more attention, but does not find an effective way to overcome them. Therefore, he defines the idols of the market as the most harmful.

theater idol . The product of a collective experience. If a person has blind faith in authorities, especially in the ancient ones. The older, the greater the illusion of authority causes. Like actors on a stage in the limelight, the ancient thinkers are in the halo of their glory. This is the result of "aberration of vision". And they are the same people as the readers. It must be understood that the older, the more naive the thinker, for he knew less.

“These are idols that have migrated into human thoughts from various philosophical teachings. I call them idols of the theater, because all the traditional and still invented philosophical systems are, in my opinion, as if theatrical games that created worlds, fictional as if in a theater. I am not talking here about current philosophies and schools, nor about those old ones, because such games can be added up and many more can be played together. Therefore, the true causes of errors, which are completely different from each other, are more or less almost the same.

Cave Idol

If the idols of the race come from the natural defects of the human mind, which are more or less general, then the idols of the cave are also caused by the innate defects of the human mind, but at the same time they are of a more individual character.

The idols of the cave are the idols of man as an individual. For each individual, in addition to the errors generated by the nature of man as a species, has his own individual cave or lair. This cave refracts and distorts the light of nature, on the one hand, because everyone has a certain, own nature, and on the other hand, because everyone received a different upbringing, education and had his own specific circle of friends.

Also, because each read only certain books, revered and adored various authorities, and, finally, because his impressions were different from others, according to what kind of consciousness they had - biased and full of prejudices, or calm and balanced, and for other reasons of the same kind. In the same way, the human spirit itself is very changeable, confused, and, as it were, random. Each person looks at the world as if from his own cave. "Imperceptibly, passions stain and spoil the mind." It is easier to get rid of this "idol" than the first - the collective experience levels out individual deviations.

Market Idol

Its danger lies in relying on collective experience. An idol is a product of human communication, mainly verbal.

"There are, however, such idols that arise through mutual communication. We call them idols of the market because they arose by mutual agreement in society. People agree with the help of speech; words are determined by a common understanding. A bad and incorrect choice of words greatly interferes with the mind These hindrances cannot correct either definitions or explanations.

Words simply rape the mind and confuse everyone, and lead people to countless unnecessary arguments and ideas. People believe that their mind commands words. But they involuntarily penetrate into consciousness.

Wrong word usage is also harmful. Mistaking words for things, people are mistaken."

Here his criticism is directed against the scholastics. One can overcome an idol by realizing that words are signs of things. Realizing that there are single things - that is, you need to take the position of nominalism. Words do not represent reality, but only the generalizing activity of the mind.

Bacon pays more attention to them, but does not find an effective way to overcome them. Therefore, he defines the idols of the market as the most harmful.

theater idol

It is a product of collective experience. It manifests itself in a person's blind faith in authorities, especially in the ancient ones. The older, the greater the illusion of this authority.

Like actors on a stage, ancient thinkers are in the halo of their glory. This is the result of "aberration of vision". It should be understood that the older the thinker, the more naive his point of view, because the knowledge of that time was much less than the knowledge of modernity.

“These are idols that have migrated into human thoughts from various philosophical teachings. I call them idols of the theater, because all the traditional and still invented philosophical systems are, in my opinion, as if theatrical games that created worlds, fictional as if in a theater. I am not talking here about current philosophies and schools, nor about those old ones, because such games can be added up and many more can be played together. Therefore, the true causes of errors, which are completely different from each other, are more or less almost the same. Mikhalenko Yu.P. F. Bacon and his teachings. M: "Science" 1975, S.95-103

The doctrine of the method of empiricism and the basic rules of the inductive method

Bacon's works are characterized by a certain approach to the method of human knowledge and thinking. The starting point in any cognitive activity is for him, first of all, feelings.

Therefore, he is often called the founder of "empiricism" - a direction that builds its epistemological premises mainly on sensory knowledge and experience. Bacon himself says about this: "I do not overestimate too direct and proper sensory perception, but I act in such a way that only the experiment evaluates the senses, and the experiment itself speaks about things, because the subtlety of experience far exceeds the subtlety of the senses themselves, perhaps armed with exceptional instruments" .

Therefore, Bacon's philosophy should be defined as empirical . Empiricism is experience based on experiment - it is for him the starting point of a new scientific method, which he himself characterizes as "the science of a better and more perfect use of reason in the study of things and of the true aids of reason, which knows them in order to the knowing mind has risen (as far as the existing conditions and its mortality allow a person) and so that it has the ability to overcome what in nature is hard to reach and dark.

One of the main merits of Francis Bacon is considered to be his development of methodology, that is, the doctrine of the method. He created a new method in complete opposition to scholasticism, which he rejects because of its barrenness.

Bacon's method is an empirical-inductive derivation of true generalizations from existing experience.

According to Bacon, the object of knowledge is nature, the task is to obtain true knowledge, and the goal of knowledge is domination over nature, while the method consists in solving cognitive problems.

The starting point of the method is experience. One of its extremes is blindness, a huge pile of experiences and knowledge. On the other hand, it is also possible to get into the "web of the scholastic" - the experience must be supplemented by a rational organization, and the researcher needs a rational understanding and processing of experimental knowledge.

Bacon considers induction to be the main working method of his logic. In it, he sees a guarantee against shortcomings, not only in logic, but in all knowledge in general.

He characterizes it as follows: "Under induction I mean a form of proof that looks closely at feelings, strives to comprehend the natural character of things, strives for deeds and almost merges with them."

Induction is the true method of rational thinking - it is a continuous, without jumps, careful generalization from the particular to the general.

Bacon rejects the induction, which, he says, is carried out by a simple enumeration. Such an induction "leads to an indefinite conclusion, it is subject to the dangers that threaten it from the opposite cases, if it pays attention only to what it is accustomed to, and does not come to any conclusion." Therefore, he emphasizes the need for a revision or, more precisely, the development of an inductive method: “The sciences, however, need such forms of induction that will analyze experience and distinguish individual elements from each other and only then, when responsibly excluded and rejected, will come to a convincing conclusion.” Bacon does not accept the extension of induction through enumeration, since only that which confirms the fact is taken into account, he believes that it is necessary to take into account "negative instances", that is, facts that refute our generalizations, falsify our inductive generalizations. Only then does true induction take place.

Experienced knowledge should be treated not as the result of passive knowledge, but one should actively intervene in the process being studied, create artificial conditions that will determine what circumstances are responsible for the result. In other words, an experiment is needed, not just an observation. "If nature locks itself up and does not reveal its secrets, it must be tortured."

Secondly, the condition of true induction is analysis. That is, the "anatomization" of nature in order to reveal its laws. We have already encountered the analytic orientation in Galileo. But Bacon does not go as far as Galileo, he moves not to quantitative, but to qualitative knowledge. According to Bacon, the combination of simple forms is the deep essence of natural things. The one who comprehended it possesses natural magic. His qualitative reductionism has Aristotelian roots, but falls short of Galileo's mechanistic reductionism. The position of qualitative reduction brings him closer to natural philosophers. But still, in the field of method, Bacon is the ancestor of the philosophy of modern times.

Analysis, according to Bacon, is only the initial stage of induction. On the basis of the analysis it is necessary to make generalizations leading to the knowledge of the causes. There are the following tables to organize the results:

Table of positive instances

Bacon called it the table of essence and presence. It "must present to the mind a survey of all known cases which in this natural property agree, although their substances are not similar. Such a survey must be made historically, without undue speculation or detail." The table gives a relatively complete overview of the main manifestations of the studied properties.

Francis Bacon, who lived at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries, formulated many ideas that psychologists and cognitive scientists repeat to this day.

In The New Organon, or True Directions for the Interpretation of Nature, Bacon speaks of the need to revise and restore the sciences, laying the foundations for the scientific method that we know today. And there he talks about the difficulties that anyone who seeks to explain the world faces.

"Organon" (from the Greek word "tool, method") was then called the logical writings of Aristotle. He, through his works, presented the method not only to the scholastics, who based their own “sums” and disputes on Aristotelian logic, but also to the entire European scientific thought. Bacon decided to create something no less ambitious, which is why he called the "New Organon" the second part of the work on the "great restoration of the sciences." Bacon considered the main method of scientific knowledge of the world to be induction, which involves reasoning from the particular to the general and is based on experience.

On the path of knowledge, even intelligent and enlightened people encounter many obstacles. These obstacles he called idols or ghosts - from the word "idolum", which in Greek meant "ghost" or "vision". This emphasizes that we are talking about a hassle, an illusion - about something that does not really exist.

We offer to look at these idols and find out if they still exist today.

Idols of the clan

"Ancestral idols" are, according to Bacon, delusions that "found their foundation in the very nature of man." It would be a mistake to believe that the world is exactly as it is seen by our senses. “It is false to say that the feelings of man are the measure of things,” writes Bacon. But the experience that we get by communicating with the external environment is also subject to interpretation, which also creates inevitable errors. The human mind in the "New Organon" is compared to an uneven mirror, which adds its own errors to the reflected things, distorting nature.

The idea that our perceptions are relative was subsequently developed by many scientists and has shaped the modern understanding of the human and natural sciences. The figure of the observer influences the interpretation of famous quantum experiments, be it Schrödinger's cat or Klaus Jensonoms' experiment with electron diffraction. The study of subjectivity and individual human experiences has been a major theme in culture since the 20th century.

Bacon notes that all people have delusions of a "tribal" nature: they are called so because they are characteristic of all of us as a species, and there is no escape from this baggage of one's own nature. But a philosopher - a person who follows the path of knowledge - can at least realize this nature and make allowances for it, putting forward judgments about the essence of phenomena and things.

Cave idols

Before talking about these misconceptions, we first need to dwell on the symbolism of the cave. In classical texts, this image always refers to Plato's cave, which he describes in the dialogue "The State".

According to the myth of the cave, human knowledge and ignorance can be described as follows. Standing with his back to the light of a fire in a dark cave, a person looks at the shadows cast by things on the walls of the cave, and, seeing them, believes that he is dealing with true reality, while he sees only shadow figures. According to Plato, our perception is based on the observation of illusions, and we only imagine that we know the true reality. Thus, the cave is a sensually perceived world.

Bacon specifies that each person has his own cave, which distorts the light of nature. Unlike "idols of the family", "cave" delusions are different for each of us: this means that the errors in the work of our organs of perception are individual. Education and development conditions also play an important role. Like several hundred years ago, today each of us has our own experience of growing up, the behavior patterns learned in childhood, which formed the inner language of our favorite books.

“Besides the mistakes inherent in the human race, everyone has his own special cave, which weakens and distorts the light of nature. This happens either from the special innate properties of each, or from education and conversations with others, or from reading books and from the authorities before whom one bows, or due to a difference in impressions. Francis Bacon, New Organon

In thinking about this, Bacon was ahead of his time in many ways. It was only in the second half of the 20th century that anthropologists, psychologists, and cognitivists began to talk massively about how different perceptions of different people differ. Both and which, ultimately, determine the peculiarities of thinking, not to mention the difference in cultures and the peculiarities of family education, can become a divisive factor.

Idols of the Square

https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/beta/asset/the-wedding-dance/pAGKgN6eHENosg?hl=ru

(source:)

These "idols" Bacon proposes to detect (and neutralize) in close communities of people united by common ties, interests and problems. Social communication is our best skill as a species, but it can also be the root of the errors that go from individual to collective as people pass on their delusions to each other.

Bacon pays special attention to words, because people are united through speech, and the main mistake that can arise in this regard is “bad and absurd establishment of words.” Let the word "square" not deceive you: these idols got their name simply because the square is a noisy place. And this sin of knowledge, according to the philosopher, affects not only greengrocers in the markets, but also scientists. After all, even when a dispute is started between scientists, it most often gets bogged down in the need to “define concepts”. Everyone who has ever participated in scientific discussions knows that you can decide for as long as you like. Therefore, Bacon advised to turn to the "custom and wisdom" of mathematicians - to begin with definitions.

“People believe that their mind commands words. But it also happens that words turn their power against reason. This has made the sciences and philosophy sophistical and ineffectual. Most of the words have their source in common opinion and separate things within the limits most obvious to the mind of the crowd. Francis Bacon, New Organon

There is a lot of talk today about how important linguistics is for consciousness - and not only cognitive psychologists and linguists, but also specialists who are engaged in machine learning. Since the twentieth century, social philosophers have been actively talking about the significance of words and definitions. By using a language in which there are many reduced concepts, we grossly simplify the thought; using harsh words to define other people - we plant aggression in society. At the same time, giving competent and detailed definitions of things and phenomena, we speak about them more calmly and balancedly, create more competent descriptions.

What Bacon could never have predicted was the development of the means of communication, unprecedented for his time. However, human psychology has not changed much with the receipt of new tools - it's just that now we can even more effectively create communities with our own rules, ideas, prejudices, and the language that reinforces it all.

Theater idols

The last kind of "idols" that take us prisoner of delusions are the idols of the theatre. This refers to the ideas that a person borrows from other people. These include incorrect philosophical teachings, erroneous scientific ideas and false axioms, myths that exist in society. We can blindly trust the authority of other people, or simply repeat the wrong things after others without thinking.

These idols got their name because "how many philosophical systems are accepted or invented, so many comedies are staged and played, representing fictional and artificial worlds." Bacon points out that the interpretations of the universe, which are offered by incorrect theoretical systems, are similar to theatrical performances. They do not give descriptions of the true reality.

This idea still seems to be relevant today. For example, you can remember about the idols of the theater when you hear another pseudoscientific theory or just everyday stupidity based on prejudice.

Epochs are different, but the distortions are the same

In addition to listing the four idols, Bacon left in the New Organon many references to thinking errors that we would today call cognitive distortions.

• Illusory correlation and several other similar distortions: “The human mind, by virtue of its tendency, easily assumes more order and uniformity in things than it finds,” Bacon writes, arguing that people tend to create connections that are not really there.
• Description of the subject's propensity to confirm his point of view: “The mind of a person attracts everything to support and agree with what he once accepted, whether because it is a matter of common faith, or because he likes it. Whatever the strength and number of facts to the contrary, reason either does not notice them, or neglects them, or diverts and rejects them by means of distinctions with a great and pernicious prejudice, so that the reliability of those former conclusions remains intact.
• “The mistake of the survivor” (the hero of this parable did not fall into it): “The one who, when they showed him the images of those who escaped shipwreck by taking a vow, displayed in the temple and at the same time sought an answer, did he now recognize the power of the gods, asked in turn : "And where are the images of those who died after they made a vow?"

Bacon also talked about the nature of superstition, based on the principles of human thinking (namely, he pointed out that people tend to notice events that fit their expectations and ignore prophecies that do not come true) and pointed out that positively and negatively colored Arguments have different strengths.

He noted that the mind is more strongly affected by images and events that can "immediately and suddenly hit him." The rest of the events go more or less unnoticed. It's no secret that the information we're interested in is remembered best, especially if our lives depend on it. It is interesting that Bacon drew attention to these features of human perception so long ago.

So, if you are going to read Daniel Kahneman, it makes sense to supplement his books with a volume of Bacon - or even several dialogues of Plato.