Francis Bacon

Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon
Born	22 January 1561 Strand, London,England
Died	9 April 1626 Highgate,Middlesex,England
Cause of death	Pneumonia
Nationality	English
Alma mater	Cambridge University
Era	English Renaissance,The Scientific Revolution
Region	Western philosophy
School	Renaissance Philosophy,Empiricism
Influences Presocratics(Democritus,Empedocles,Parmenides),Plato,Aristotle,Cicero,Niccolò Machiavelli,Michel de Montaigne,Vanoccio Biringuccio,Bernard Palissy,Bernardino Telesio,William Gilbert,Roger Bacon
Influenced Thomas Hobbes,Isaac Newton,John Locke,Encyclopédistes,Basil Montagu,Thomas Jefferson
Signature

Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St. AlbanKC,(22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626),was anEnglishphilosopher,statesman,andauthor.He has been described as one of the greatest thinkers ever whose ideas have changed the way people think.

Life

He was born in London, the son of Sir Nicholas Bacon, and the nephew of QueenElizabeth'sadvisor,William Cecil.He was educated atTrinity College, Cambridge.His first job was as alawyer.He later became a Member of Parliament and in 1586 he took a leading part in havingMary Queen of Scotsexecuted.He became a friend of Robert Deveraux, the Earl of Essex, in 1591, and received many valuable gifts from him.After Essex led arebellionagainst the Queen, Bacon was one of the people who led the investigation which led to Essex's execution in 1601.

Bacon was often in trouble for spending too much, and in 1601 he was arrested fordebt.WhenKing Jamesbecame king in 1603, Bacon's position improved. He was knighted in 1603. He was one of the people who argued for the joining of England and Scotland together as one country, which happened after his lifetime, in the 1700s. Bacon married Alice Barnham in 1606, and the next year he was made the Solicitor General.He continued to be given better paying positions including Attorney General, Lord Keeper, andLord Chancellor.

He was madeBaron Verulamin 1618, andViscount St Albansin 1621. Because he did not have children both titles ended when he died.

He used his positions to make more money for himself, and in 1621 the Parliament found that he was corrupt. He was fined £40,000 and removed from all his jobs. King James overturned the fine, but he was kept as a prisoner in the Tower of London for a while.

Studies

He became best known as a leading thinker in new ways of looking at the world. His writings started and made famous a way of thinking aboutscience.This way of thinking is now called theBaconian method.It is based on looking at the world by making experiments. After watching the results the scientist comes up with an idea to explain what has happened. This idea orhypothesisis then further tested by more experiments. This way of thinking about science is called inductive methodology. In Bacon's time these methods were linked withmagicincludinghermeticismandalchemy.Alchemy was the study of fire, earth, water and air. Alchemists tried to makegoldfromlead.

Other websites

• Archival material relating to Francis Baconlisted atthe UK National Archives
• Francis Baconentry by Juergen Klein in theStanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• Works by Francis BaconatProject Gutenberg
• The Francis Bacon SocietyArchived2019-05-03 at theWayback Machine
• Contains the New Organon, slightly modified for easier reading
• Francis Bacon of Verulam. Realistic Philosophy and its Age(1857) byKuno FischerandJohn Oxenfordin English

Political offices
Preceded by Sir Thomas Egerton	Lord High Chancellor 1617–1621	Succeeded by In Commission
Preceded by Henry Hobart	Attorney General of England and Wales 1613–1617	Succeeded by Henry Yelverton
Parliament of England(to 1707)
Preceded by Miles Sandys	Member of Parliament forTaunton 1586–1588	Succeeded by William Aubrey
Preceded by Arthur Atye	Member of Parliament forLiverpool 1588–1594	Succeeded by Thomas Gerard
Preceded by William Fleetwood	Member of Parliament forMiddlesex 1594–1598	Succeeded by Sir John Peyton
Peerage of England
New title Title granted by James I of England	Baron Verulam 1618–1626	Extinct
New title Title granted by James I of England	Viscount St Alban 1621–1626