this video is about the philosopher and statesman.
For the 20th century painter, see Francis Bacon.
For other people, see Francis Bacon.
Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban PC KC was an English philosopher, statesman, scientist,
jurist, orator, and author.
He served both as Attorney General and as Lord Chancellor of England.
After his death, he remained extremely influential through his works, especially as philosophical
advocate and practitioner of the scientific method during the scientific revolution.
Bacon has been called the father of empiricism.
His works argued for the possibility of scientific knowledge based only upon inductive and careful
observation of events in nature.
Most importantly, he argued this could be achieved by use of a skeptical and methodical
approach whereby scientists aim to avoid misleading themselves.
While his own practical ideas about such a method, the Baconian method, did not have
a long lasting influence, the general idea of the importance and possibility of a skeptical
methodology makes Bacon the father of scientific method.
This marked a new turn in the rhetorical and theoretical framework for science, the practical
details of which are still central in debates about science and methodology today.
Bacon was generally neglected at court by Queen Elizabeth, but after the ascension of
King James I in 1603, Bacon was knighted.
He was later created Baron Verulam in 1618 and Viscount St. Alban in 1621.
Because he had no heirs, both titles became extinct upon his death in 1626, at 65 years
of age.
Bacon died of pneumonia, with one account by John Aubrey stating that he had contracted
the condition while studying the effects of freezing on the preservation of meat.
Francis Bacon was born on 22 January 1561 at York House near the Strand in London, the
son of Sir Nicholas Bacon by his second wife, Anne Bacon, the daughter of the noted humanist
Anthony Cooke.
His mother's sister was married to William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, making Burghley
Bacon's uncle.
Biographers believe that Bacon was educated at home in his early years owing to poor health,
which would plague him throughout his life.
He received tuition from John Walsall, a graduate of Oxford with a strong leaning toward Puritanism.
He entered Trinity College, Cambridge, on 5 April 1573 at the age of 12, living for
three years there, together with his older brother Anthony Bacon under the personal tutelage
of Dr John Whitgift, future Archbishop of Canterbury.
Bacon's education was conducted largely in Latin and followed the medieval curriculum.
He was also educated at the University of Poitiers.
It was at Cambridge that he first met Queen Elizabeth, who was impressed by his precocious
intellect, and was accustomed to calling him "The young lord keeper".
His studies brought him to the belief that the methods and results of science as then
practised were erroneous.
His reverence for Aristotle conflicted with his loathing of Aristotelian philosophy, which
seemed to him barren, disputatious, and wrong in its objectives.
A literal translation of the painting at right would be "If a worthy picture were given,
I would prefer the mind."
Note the first person I, suggesting perhaps that Bacon himself said this, not the painter.
On 27 June 1576, he and Anthony entered de societate magistrorum at Gray's Inn.
A few months later, Francis went abroad with Sir Amias Paulet, the English ambassador at
Paris, while Anthony continued his studies at home.
The state of government and society in France under Henry III afforded him valuable political
instruction.
For the next three years he visited Blois, Poitiers, Tours, Italy, and Spain.
During his travels, Bacon studied language, statecraft, and civil law while performing
routine diplomatic tasks.
On at least one occasion he delivered diplomatic letters to England for Walsingham, Burghley,
and Leicester, as well as for the queen.
The sudden death of his father in February 1579 prompted Bacon to return to England.
Sir Nicholas had laid up a considerable sum of money to purchase an estate for his youngest
son, but he died before doing so, and Francis was left with only a fifth of that money.
Having borrowed money, Bacon got into debt.
To support himself, he took up his residence in law at Gray's Inn in 1579, his income being
supplemented by a grant from his mother Lady Anne of the manor of Marks in Essex, which
generated a rent of £46.