Francis Bacon said: “We can do as much as we know.” The continuation of this phrase – just two words and a link-verb – is known to every literate person in the world: “Knowledge is power.” Francis Bacon knew what he was talking about: he made a lot of efforts to defend science. Bacon was proving that God had not forbidden the knowledge of nature. On the contrary, he gave men intellect striving to know the Universe. Science should accomplish its mission – it, according to Bacon, consisted in multiplying the strength and power of people, providing them with a rich and dignified life. Sounds up-to-date, doesn’t it?
Having determined the role and place of science, Bacon started tackling its state. It was unenviable in his 16th century. And Bacon understood the reason: discoveries were made by chance. Their number would have significantly grown if researchers would have been equipped with an appropriate method. And he equipped them: he described his approach to science-related problems in The New Organon. According to Bacon, true knowledge proceeds from experience. He was a consistent empiricist too: he made his last experiment when he caught cold and died with a dressed chicken. Having stuffed it with snow, he found out that meat would not spoil in the cold.
