Bacon wrote this work in a time of discovery, exploration, skepticism and religious turmoil.
Bacon was critical of what passed for knowledge and reasoning in his time, as did Descartes. Bacon argued for a new empiricism and the scientific method. This is a founding document of the scientific revolution. It is a call for the use of induction. Is he the father of modern philosophy?
The texts used in this video can be found at: www.stephenhicks.org/wp-conte... and www.stephenhicks.org/wp-conte...
Timestamps:
00:27 The text
01:30 The human intellect makes its own difficulties
03:01 How did these errors of mind arise?
04:39 Bacon's plan
06:17 Dedication to King James
08:28 Don't look for wisdom in books, look to nature
09:51 Critical of the stagnation in the sciences
11:43 Critical of traditional sources
13:39 We are progressing in the mechanical arts
15:16 Philosophy does not progress
16:49 Science is not yet complete
17:48 The age of knowledge does not establish its truth
19:51 The New Logic
24:59 We need new tools
27:07 Observation is key
28:04 Bacon leads us to facts, to the things
29:47 The marriage of the empirical and the rational
31:25 The place of religion
33:58 The true end of knowledge: the benefit and use of life.
36:26 Bacon's New Logic
39:10 Induction
42:59 A sophisticated induction
45:54 The information of the senses
48:50 The 4 Idols: the need for self-criticism
53:48 The obstacles to knowledge
54:55 The need to reconstruct the sciences
57:20 Objectivity
58:40 Some aphorisms
59:54 Nature to be commanded must be obeyed
1:00:00 Emphasis on what is new.
Philosophers, Explained covers major philosophers and texts, especially the great classics. In each episode, Professor Hicks discusses an important work, doing a close reading that lasts 40 minutes to an hour.
Stephen R. C. Hicks, Ph.D., is Professor of Philosophy at Rockford University, USA, and has had visiting positions at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., University of Kasimir the Great in Poland, Oxford University’s Harris Manchester College in England, and Jagiellonian University in Poland.
Other links:
Explaining Postmodernism audiobook: • Explaining Postmoderni...
Nietzsche and the Nazis audiobook: • Nietzsche and the Nazi...
Playlists:
Education Theory: • Education Theory
Entrepreneurship and Values: • Entrepreneurship and V...
Nietzsche: • Nietzsche