Knowledge is Power (Icon Science)
How Magic, the Government and an Apocalyptic Vision Helped Francis Bacon to Create Modern Science
Published on 2. November 2017
192 pages
978-1-78578-251-0 (ISBN)
Description
Francis Bacon - a leading figure in the history of science - never made a major discovery, provided a lasting explanation of any physical phenomena or revealed any hidden laws of nature. How then can he rank as he does alongside Newton? Bacon was the first major thinker to describe how science should be done, and to explain why. Scientific knowledge should not be gathered for its own sake but for practical benefit to mankind. And Bacon promoted experimentation, coming to outline and define the rigorous procedures of the 'scientific method' that today from the very bedrock of modern scientific progress. John Henry gives a dramatic account of the background to Bacon's innovations and the sometimes unconventional sources for his ideas. Why was he was so concerned to revolutionize the attitude to scientific knowledge - and why do his ideas for reform still resonate today?
More details
Other editions
Additional editions
John Henry
Knowledge is Power (Icon Science)
How Magic, the Government and an Apocalyptic Vision Helped Francis Bacon to Create Modern Science
Book
11/2017
Icon Books
€31.13
Article not available at the moment
Person
John Henry is a Senior Lecturer in Science Studies at Edinburgh University. He is the author of Moving Heaven and Earth: Copernicus and the Solar System (2001), and has also illustrated a book on darts.
Content
- Intro
- Contents
- Title Page
- Copyright
- Dedication
- About the Author
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- 1 'Kindling a Light in Nature'
- 2 Inventing Modern Science
- 3 'Believing That I was Born for the Service of Mankind'
- 4 'Being of All Men of My Time the Most Busied in Affairs of State'
- 5 'Enlarging of the Bounds of Human Empire': Bacon and Magic
- 6 'Effecting of All Things Possible': Magic and the Experimental Method
- 7 'Seeking for Experiments of Light': Bacon and the Decline of Magic
- 8 Separating Science and Religion?
- 9 Restoring Lost Dominion: Bacon and the Millennium
- 10 Building a Model of the World: Bacon and Utopia
- 11 Writing Philosophy Like a Lord Chancellor: Bacon and the Bureaucracy of Science
- 12 Extending the Empire of Man? Bacon, the Law and Mother Nature
- 13 Leaving It to the Next Ages
- 14 Waiting for the Harvest?
- Glossary
- Further Reading
- Notes
