Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban PC (pronounced /ˈbeɪkən/; January 22, 1561 – April 9, 1626), was an English philosopher and statesman who worked as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England during King James I’s reign. Bacon emphasized the value of natural philosophy, which uses the scientific method, and his writings remained important during the Scientific Revolution.

Bacon is known as the "father of empiricism." He believed that scientific knowledge could be built through inductive reasoning and careful observation of natural events. He argued that scientists should use a skeptical and methodical approach to avoid being misled. While his specific ideas about this method, called the Baconian method, were not widely used, his general belief in the importance of skepticism helped shape the scientific method. His focus on skepticism introduced a new way of thinking about science, and his ideas remain important in discussions about scientific methods. Bacon promoted scientific experiments as a way to honor God and follow religious teachings.

Bacon supported libraries and created a system for organizing books into three main categories: history, poetry, and philosophy. These categories could be further divided into specific subjects and subtopics. He once said, "Some books are to be tasted; others swallowed; and some few to be chewed and digested." A theory called the Baconian theory of Shakespeare authorship, which suggests Bacon wrote some or all of the plays traditionally attributed to William Shakespeare, was first proposed in the mid-19th century. This theory is not widely accepted.

Bacon studied at Trinity College, University of Cambridge, where he followed the traditional medieval curriculum, mostly taught in Latin. He was the first person to receive the Queen’s Counsel title in 1597 when Queen Elizabeth I named him her legal advisor. After King James I took the throne in 1603, Bacon was knighted, then given the title Baron Verulam in 1618 and Viscount St Alban in 1621. He had no children, so both titles ended when he died in 1626 at age 65. He is buried at St Michael’s Church in St Albans, Hertfordshire.

Biography

Francis Bacon was born on January 22, 1561, at York House near Strand in London. He was the son of Sir Nicholas Bacon, who held the title of Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, and Anne (Cooke) Bacon, the daughter of Anthony Cooke, a well-known Renaissance humanist. Anne’s sister was married to William Cecil, who was the 1st Baron Burghley, making Burghley Bacon’s uncle.

Biographers believe Bacon was educated at home during his early years because of poor health, which he struggled with throughout his life. He received lessons from John Walsall, a graduate of Oxford who supported Puritan beliefs. Bacon attended Trinity College at the University of Cambridge on April 5, 1573, at age 12. He lived there for three years with his older brother, Anthony Bacon, who was born in 1558 and died in 1601. During this time, he studied under John Whitgift, who later became Archbishop of Canterbury. His education focused heavily on Latin and followed the medieval curriculum. It was at Cambridge that Bacon first met Queen Elizabeth, who was impressed by his advanced intelligence and often called him “The young lord keeper.”

Bacon believed that the scientific methods and results of his time were incorrect. While he respected Aristotle, he disagreed with Aristotelian philosophy, which he thought was unproductive and based on flawed ideas.

On June 27, 1576, Bacon and his brother Anthony joined a group of scholars at Gray’s Inn. Soon after, Francis traveled abroad with Sir Amias Paulet, the English ambassador to Paris, while Anthony continued his studies in England. Bacon’s time in France, where he visited cities like Blois, Poitiers, Tours, Italy, and Spain, gave him valuable lessons about government and society. There is no evidence he studied at the University of Poitiers. During his travels, he learned languages, studied statecraft and civil law, and performed diplomatic tasks. He once delivered letters to England for important figures like Walsingham, Burghley, Leicester, and Queen Elizabeth.

The sudden death of Bacon’s father in February 1579 forced him to return to England. His father had saved money to buy an estate for Francis, but he died before doing so, leaving Francis with only a small portion of the funds. Bacon borrowed money and later faced debt. To support himself, he studied law at Gray’s Inn in 1579. His mother, Lady Anne, gave him a grant from the manor of Marks near Romford, which earned him £46 a year.

Bacon said he had three goals: to discover truth, to serve his country, and to serve his church. He aimed to achieve these by seeking a respected position. In 1580, he asked his uncle, Lord Burghley, to help him get a court job that would allow him to pursue learning, but his request was denied. For two years, he worked quietly at Gray’s Inn until he became an outer barrister in 1582.

Bacon’s political career began when he was elected as a member of Parliament for Bossiney, Cornwall, in a by-election in 1581. He later represented Melcombe in Dorset in 1584 and Taunton in 1586. During this time, he wrote about church politics and philosophical reform in a work called Temporis Partus Maximus. He did not gain the position he wanted, however. He supported Puritan ideas, attending sermons by a Puritan chaplain and visiting the Temple Church with his mother. This led to the publication of his first surviving work, which criticized the English church’s treatment of Puritan clergy. In the Parliament of 1586, he openly supported the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, a Catholic.

Around this time, Bacon again asked his uncle for help, which led to his rapid rise in legal work. He became a bencher in 1586 and was elected a Reader in 1587, delivering his first lectures in 1588. In 1589, he received an important future position as Clerk of the Star Chamber, which would pay £1,600 a year, though he did not take office until 1608.

In 1588, Bacon was elected as an MP for Liverpool and later for Middlesex in 1593. He later represented Ipswich three times (1597, 1601, 1604) and once for Cambridge University in 1614.

Bacon became known as a reformer who wanted to improve and simplify the law. He supported the crown but opposed feudal privileges and dictatorial powers. He spoke against religious persecution and challenged the House of Lords for taking control of money bills. He supported the union of England and Scotland, which helped shape the United Kingdom. He later advocated for Ireland’s inclusion in the Union, believing stronger ties between these countries would bring peace and strength.

Bacon became close to Robert Devereux, the 2nd Earl of Essex, who was Queen Elizabeth’s favorite. By 1591, Bacon served as the earl’s private adviser. In 1592, he wrote a response to a Jesuit’s anti-government work, titled Certain Observations Made upon a Libel, comparing England to the democratic city of Athens and opposing Spain. Bacon was elected to Parliament for Middlesex in 1593 when Elizabeth called Parliament to investigate a Catholic plot against her. His opposition to a bill that would raise taxes quickly upset the Queen, leading to his temporary exclusion from royal favor.

When the position of Attorney General became available in 1594, Essex’s influence could not secure it for Bacon, and it went to Sir Edward Coke instead. Bacon also failed to get the position of Solicitor General in 1595, as the Queen appointed Sir Thomas Fleming instead. To comfort Bacon, Essex gave him a property in Twickenham, which Bacon later sold for £1,800.

In 1597, Bacon became the first Queen’s Counsel designate, a title reserved for Elizabeth’s legal advisor. He also received a patent that gave him special status at the Bar. Despite these honors, he struggled to gain the same recognition as others. In an attempt to revive his career, he tried to marry Lady Elizabeth Hatton, a wealthy widow, but their relationship ended when she married Sir Edward Coke, increasing tensions between Bacon and Coke. In 1598, Bacon was arrested for debt. Later, his standing with the Queen improved, and he gradually earned respect as a learned counsel. His relationship with the Queen improved further when he ended his association with Essex, a wise move since Essex was executed for treason in 1601.

Bacon was part of a group that investigated charges against Essex. Some of Essex’s followers admitted he planned a rebellion against the Queen. Bacon worked with Sir Edward Coke, the Attorney General, during Essex’s treason trial. After Essex was executed

Philosophy and works

Francis Bacon's philosophy is shown through the many different writings he left behind, which can be grouped into three main categories:

• Scientific works that explain his ideas for changing how knowledge is studied using science and how science can help improve people's lives.
• Religious and literary works that share his thoughts about right and wrong and his reflections on religion.
• Juridical works that suggest changes to English laws.

Some of Bacon's most important writings include:

• Essays: First edition with 10 essays (1597); second edition with 38 essays (1612); third and final edition with 58 essays (1625).
• The Advancement and Proficience of Learning Divine and Human (1605).
• Instauratio magna (The Great Instauration) (1620) – a work with several parts, including Distributio operis (Plan of the Work), Novum Organum (The New Organon), Parasceve ad historiam naturalem (Preparatory for Natural History), and Catalogus historiarum particularium (Catalogue of Particular Histories).
• De augmentis scientiarum (1623) – a Latin version of The Advancement of Learning.
• New Atlantis (1626).

Influence and legacy

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Francis Bacon's important book, the Novum Organum, had a major impact on scholars in the 17th century, especially Thomas Browne. In his encyclopedia Pseudodoxia Epidemica (1646–72), Browne often used a Baconian approach in his scientific studies. This book explains the basics of the scientific method, which involves observation and induction. Robert Hooke was also greatly influenced by Bacon. He used Baconian language and ideas in his book Micrographia.

According to Bacon, learning and knowledge come from inductive reasoning. He believed that all the knowledge needed to understand a concept could be gained through induction. Induction is reasoning from evidence, as opposed to deduction, which is reasoning from a pre-existing premise or hypothesis. To reach an inductive conclusion, one must observe specific details of nature. Once these details are collected, they are arranged in a formal way so that they can be understood. Experimentation is essential for discovering the truths of nature. When an experiment happens, the data is used to form a result and conclusion. This process does not involve a pre-existing hypothesis. Instead, inductive reasoning starts with data, not a prior premise or hypothesis. Through this process, an understanding of nature can be formed. Once an understanding of nature is reached, an inductive conclusion can be made. Bacon wrote: "There are and can be only two ways of searching into and discovering truth. The one flies from the senses and particulars to the most general axioms, and from these principles, the truth of which it takes for settled and immovable, proceeds to judgment and to the discovery of middle axioms. And this way is now in fashion. The other derives axioms from the senses and particulars, rising by a gradual and unbroken ascent, so that it arrives at the most general axioms last of all. This is the true way, but as yet untried." (Bacon's axiom XIX from the Novum Organum)

Bacon explains how we gain understanding and knowledge through this process of comprehending the complexities of nature. He saw nature as a very complex system that requires careful study to understand. Bacon described how evidence and proof can be found by taking a specific example from nature and expanding it into a general claim about nature. Once we understand the details of nature, we can learn more about it and become more certain about what happens in nature, gaining knowledge and new information. Bacon believed that inductive methods can provide us with ultimate and infallible answers about the laws and nature of the universe. He concluded that all learning and knowledge must be drawn from inductive reasoning.

During the Restoration, Bacon was often mentioned as a guiding spirit of the Royal Society, which was founded under Charles II in 1660. During the 18th-century French Enlightenment, Bacon's non-metaphysical approach to science became more influential than the dualism of his French contemporary Descartes. It was also associated with criticism of the Ancien Régime. In 1733, Voltaire introduced Bacon to a French audience as the "father" of the scientific method, an understanding that became widespread by the 1750s. In the 19th century, Bacon's emphasis on induction was revived and developed by William Whewell, among others. He has been called the "Father of Experimental Philosophy."

He also wrote a long treatise on medicine, History of Life and Death, which includes natural and experimental observations aimed at prolonging life.

One of his biographers, the historian William Hepworth Dixon, said: "Bacon's influence in the modern world is so great that every man who rides in a train, sends a telegram, follows a steam plough, sits in an easy chair, crosses the channel or the Atlantic, eats a good dinner, enjoys a beautiful garden, or undergoes a painless surgical operation, owes him something."

In 1902, Hugo von Hofmannsthal published a fictional letter, known as The Lord Chandos Letter, addressed to Bacon and dated 1603, about a writer who is experiencing a crisis of language.

Bacon played a leading role in establishing the British colonies in North America, especially in Virginia, the Carolinas, and Newfoundland. His government report on "The Virginia Colony" was submitted in 1609. In 1610, Bacon and his associates received a charter from the king to form the Treasurer and the Company of Adventurers and Planters of the City of London and Bristol for the Colony or plantation in Newfoundland, and sent John Guy to found a colony there. Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States, wrote: "Bacon, Locke and Newton. I consider them as the three greatest men that have ever lived, without any exception, and as having laid the foundation of those superstructures which have been raised in the Physical and Moral sciences."

In 1910, Newfoundland issued a postage stamp to commemorate Bacon's role in establishing the colony. The stamp describes Bacon as "the guiding spirit in Colonization Schemes in 1610." Some scholars believe he was largely responsible for drafting, in 1609 and 1612, two charters of government for the Virginia Colony. William Hepworth Dixon considered that Bacon's name could be included in the list of Founders of the United States.

Although few of his proposals for law reform were adopted during his lifetime, Bacon's legal legacy was considered by the magazine New Scientist in 1961 as having influenced the drafting of the Napoleonic Code as well as the law reforms introduced by 19th-century British Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel. The historian William Hepworth Dixon referred to the Napoleonic Code as "the sole embodiment of Bacon's thought," saying that Bacon's legal work "has had more success abroad than it has found at home," and that in France "it has blossomed and come into fruit."

Harvey Wheeler attributed to Bacon, in Francis Bacon's Verulamium – the Common Law Template of The Modern in English Science and Culture, the creation of these distinguishing features of the modern common law system:

• using cases as repositories of evidence about the "unwritten law";
• determining the relevance of precedents by exclusionary principles of evidence and logic;
• treating opposing legal briefs as adversarial hypotheses about the application of the "unwritten law" to a new set of facts.

As late as the 18th century, some juries still declared the law rather than the facts, but already before the end of the 17th century, Sir Matthew Hale explained modern common law adjudication procedure and acknowledged Bacon as the inventor of the process of discovering unwritten laws from the evidences of their applications. The method combined empiricism and inductivism in a new way that was to imprint its signature on many of the distinctive features of modern English society. Paul H. Kocher writes that Bacon is considered by some jurists to be the father of modern Jurisprudence.

Bacon is commemorated with a statue in Gray's Inn, South Square in London, where he received his legal training, and where he was elected Treasurer of the Inn in 1608.

More recent scholarship on Bacon's jurisprudence has focused on his advocating torture as a legal recourse for the crown. Bacon himself was not a stranger to the torture chamber; he was involved in the use of torture in legal proceedings.

Historical debates

The Baconian hypothesis, which suggests that Francis Bacon wrote some or all of the plays usually credited to William Shakespeare, was first introduced in the mid-1800s. Francis Bacon often met with men at Gray's Inn to discuss politics, philosophy, and to test theatrical scenes he admitted to writing. Some writers and scholars have discussed Bacon's possible connection to the Rosicrucians and the Freemasons, but others, like Daphne du Maurier, argue there is no strong evidence to support these claims. Frances Yates does not say Bacon was a Rosicrucian, but she points out that he was involved in secretive intellectual groups of his time. She explains that Bacon’s efforts to improve learning were connected to the German Rosicrucian movement, and his book New Atlantis describes a land ruled by Rosicrucians. Bacon believed his ideas for advancing learning matched Rosicrucian goals.

Yates found that Bacon’s work aligned with Rosicrucian ideals because both aimed to reform human and divine understanding, with the goal of returning to a state before the Fall. Another connection is the similarity between Bacon’s New Atlantis and Johann Valentin Andreae’s Description of the Republic of Christianopolis (1619). Andreae’s book describes an island where science and spiritual fulfillment are central, and where technology is organized to meet people’s needs—ideas that mirror Bacon’s scientific goals.

Intellectual historian Paolo Rossi argues that Bacon was influenced by early alchemical texts and Renaissance ideas about magic and science. He notes that Bacon’s search for hidden meanings in myths, as seen in The Wisdom of the Ancients, built on earlier occult and Neoplatonic ideas. However, Rossi claims Bacon later rejected occult beliefs and helped create modern science.

Jason Josephson-Storm, in his book The Myth of Disenchantment, agrees that Bacon was not a Rosicrucian but suggests Bacon’s rejection of magic was an effort to clean it of Catholic or demonic influences and make it a field like science. He also argues that Bacon used magical ideas when developing his scientific methods, believing nature was alive and filled with spirits.

Bacon’s ideas have also influenced many religious and spiritual writers and groups who used his work in their own beliefs.