Novum Organum

Francis Bacon’s 1620 work argues that inquiry should proceed through disciplined observation and induction rather than inherited authority and reliance on syllogisms.

Baconian method: An inductive approach to inquiry that uses organized observations and experiments to establish knowledge. Novum Organum sets out this approach as a corrective to premature theorizing.
Francis Bacon: An English philosopher and statesman whose writings advocated empirical inquiry and reform of knowledge. Bacon authored Novum Organum and presented it as part of a broader renewal of learning.
Robert Boyle: An Anglo-Irish natural philosopher whose experiments helped establish the experimental culture of the Royal Society. Boyle’s experimental program reflects the Baconian ideal of producing knowledge through organized trials.
Syllogism: A deductive argument in which a conclusion follows from two premises sharing a middle term. Bacon argues that syllogisms rearrange accepted premises rather than discover new facts about nature.
Scientific Revolution: A period of major changes in European natural philosophy and scientific practice from the sixteenth through seventeenth centuries. Novum Organum became a prominent manifesto for reforming how knowledge of nature should be gained.
Inductive reasoning: Reasoning that draws general conclusions from particular observations or cases. Bacon builds knowledge upward from observed particulars instead of beginning with universal axioms.
Aristotelianism: A philosophical tradition grounded in Aristotle’s writings on logic, nature, and metaphysics. Bacon challenges the scholastic use of Aristotelian logic to establish claims about nature.
Robert Hooke: An English natural philosopher and instrument maker who investigated nature through observation and experiment. Hooke’s experimental practice exemplifies the investigative culture associated with Bacon’s methodological reform.
Deductive reasoning: Reasoning that derives conclusions from general premises according to valid inference rules. Novum Organum gives priority to induction where deduction alone cannot establish trustworthy natural principles.
Royal Society: A British learned society founded in 1660 to promote scientific investigation and exchange. Its experimental ideals and motto, “Nullius in verba,” echo resistance to accepting claims on authority alone.

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InductionBroader topic: It presents Bacon's program for building knowledge through carefully organized evidence.