Bacon's Premise

Bacon’s admonition of the Aristotelian Sciences is persuasive in its argument and decisive in its conclusions. The experiment which Bacon suggests concentrates on deriving 'axioms from the senses and particulars, rising by a gradual and unbroken ascent, so that it arrives at the most general axioms last of all,' and as he admits, is 'as yet untried.' It is clear that Bacon insists on allowing experiment to 'dwell duly and orderly' among nature so as to discern the 'quiescent principles whereby things are produced.' Bacon would perhaps be surprised to learn now just how far humanity has delved into these quiescent principles.

The astonishing aspect of modern science that has enabled it to obtain such results is the very premise that rests throughout Bacon’s argument; namely, that nature adheres to some regular form that may be observed and charted. It is this isolated and self-sustaining certainty of nature that supplies science with the ability to align observations to theories, thereby predicting and manipulating nature. In practice and daily experience, the immutability of nature seems banal, (for instance few are surprised by the boiling of water when heated), however to philosophy the systematic form of nature is astounding in that it appears to be guided by intangible principles to an assiduous degree, despite vast trenches of space and time separating individual events. It is easy to see how the firm fabric of experience would inspire Bacon to advocate experiment in obedience to experiment, and regretful that humans before his day were so myopic as to rely on much more restricted and faulty methods. I find reflections concerning the nature of the underlying principles of nature to be vexing- why and by what means such principles seem to command matter is an enigma. Natural philosophy is forever progressing on explaining them phenomenally, yet of the operations of the principles themselves I remain curiously interested.