A History of the Origins of World Philosophy, British Empiricism II: Francis. Bacon 4

British Empiricism II: Francis. Bacon 4

Bacon disagreed with the old generalization, which he considered Aristotle. He started by criticizing Yashi and created his own method. Bacon's induction method can be called elimination induction or list induction. The former represents his principles of analysis, while the latter represents his way of expression.

　　The so-called list induction method, that is, the analysis process, that is, the induction process, is included in several tables. Mr. Quinton of England introduced three tables, the first of which is called the "table of existence", in which "the essential sensible characteristics to be studied are listed, and at the same time a comprehensive and in-depth description of the various phenomena that usually accompany this essential characteristic." The second table is called the "Table of Absences," and in this table there are examples of phenomena that accompany the essence under study, but do not appear in this essence itself. The third table is called the Degree Table, which lists the magnitude of the nature of the thing being studied, as well as the magnitude of some other variable characteristics. In layman's terms, the first table lists all the characteristics related to the object of induction; the role of the second table is to select those non-essential (defective) characteristics, with the purpose of comparing the first table and removing them from the inductive conclusions; the third table is a re-examination of the inductive content of the first two tables, thus summarizing the true essence of the remaining contents in the first table.

　　This method of induction is obviously much more complex and scientific than the induction done purely using the three-stage method. The so-called much science means that it adapts to the basic requirements of experimental science; it is no longer from concept to concept, but in an experimental way, from the various characteristics of specific things to summarize the regular understanding of this thing.

　　When Bacon introduced his method, he did use a large amount of force. He took "hot" as an example and personally did a list experiment.

　　First, "various examples of thermal consistency" are included in the "table of existence". There are 28 such examples, including:

　　The rays of the sun, especially in summer and when noon;

　　Meteors with fire;

　　Flammable lightning;

　　Flames erupting from the mountain pass;

　　Burning solids;

　　Natural hot springs;

　　Boiling or heated liquids;

　　All hairy bodies, like wool, the skins of beasts, and the wool of birds;

　　Sparks from the violent collision of flint and steel against each other;

　　Quicklime is watered;

　　Horse dung and similar animal excrement, when fresh

　　Even sharp, extreme cold produces a burning sensation.

　　In the verse there is a saying 'the north wind is cold as a burning';

　　Other examples. "

　　The search is sufficient, but although these contents are hot or hot, they do not mean that they are hot, so the second table excludes those non-essential factors.

　　Various examples of the lack of heat in the approximation include as many as 32 items, including:

　　The first example of the preceding table on the front side - (i) the light of the moon, stars and comets does not feel hot in the touch; under the full moon, it will feel a kind of cold;

　　Compared with the second example of the previous table - (ii) In the so-called middle boundary of air, the sun's rays do not emit heat.

　　Compared with the fourth case in the previous table, (ix) there is some kind of flash, which emits light but does not burn. When they came, there was no thunder to follow. "

　　And all that. In layman's terms, some contents, such as light, although included in the first table as one of the "various examples of thermal consistency", however, light is not hot, because "the watch has proved that the moon also has light, but when the moon is full, people do not feel hot, but feel cold."

　　There is also a third table, the "Various Degrees of Heat or Comparison Table". The list remains substantial, with a total of 32 items. Mr. Bacon spoke in a series of comments and wrote a long paragraph. For example, he said: "The closer the sun is to the horizon vertical line, that is, the closer it is to the middle of the sky, the greater the heat it gives"; "The sun and other planets, when they are at perigee, because they are closer to the earth, are more hot than they give when they are at the apogee"; "In short, the heat of the celestial bodies increases in three ways: one is the perpendicularity of the horizon, the second is the proximity to the earth, the so-called perigee, and the third is the convergence or union with the stars".

　　After the comparison, Bacon was not satisfied, and he made a list rejection of the inductive content. For example, "reject one": "Because of the sun's rays, it rejects the properties of the four elements". Another example is "Rejection Nine": "Because the air is mostly cold but remains thin, it rejects thinness". After such a complex induction—10 times more complex than what I have quoted here—Mr. Bacon finally concluded: "Heat is the movement of smaller molecules that are expanded, suppressed, and act on objects in their struggle." Rao is so, and two points of modification are added later.

　　Honestly, it doesn't even matter whether Bacon's hot conclusions are correct or not, the point is that he offers a method that fits both the big idea of experimental science and the essential characteristics of the philosophy of experience, the Baconian philosophy of experience. At the same time, it has never been systematically discovered or foreseen by previous generations.

(3) About scientific sub-disciplines

　　In the East, we are especially Chinese here is a concept that is quite historically strange. Confucius learned the six arts, and the six arts are also counted as sub-disciplines. However, its connotation is fundamentally different from the concept of Westerners. In the West, there is a tradition of subdivisions, such as Aristotle's life when he wrote "Political Science", "Biology", "Zoology", "Physics" and "Metaphysics". This was inconceivable in China's pre-Qin era, and it was also inconceivable in song and ming dynasties. Ancient China inherent in the sub-disciplines of heaven, arithmetic, agriculture, and medicine, but there are few clear discipline systems and discipline concepts. The reason for this is because at least since the Han Dynasty, official learning has been based on Confucianism, Confucianism is based on the scriptures, everything is only the scriptures, and there is no need or possibility for division of disciplines.

In the Middle Ages, everything was dominated by theology, philosophy was nothing more than a vassal of theology, science was nothing more than a slave to theology, and compared with China's scripture-based, it was more like the crows in the world. From the modern point of view, theology can become a historical culture, but it can also become a tool to suffocate the development of science, unfortunately in the Middle Ages, theology became a tool to suffocate the development of science. Bacon reversed the old saying and assumed the responsibility of advocating the banner of scientific subdivision with the attitude of a mature person in the new era.

Bacon's method of subdivision consists of two main points:

　　One is to deny the dominance of theology, insisting that theology can only belong to God and the church. Accordingly, he divided learning into two parts: sacred and non-sacred. The study of God, theology, is placed in the divine circle—this on the surface seems to be a reverence for theology, but in fact it is a restriction on the status of theology, so that it can only reign within the religious realm, and not talk too much about the mundane affairs of the world.

　　As for things other than religion, science should be the master. He included science in the scope of non-sacred learning, and the mundane science was in charge of the mundane, just in line with it. And he seems to be afraid of any misunderstanding of non-sacred claims, writing humorously: "It seems to us that it is inappropriate for us to prove the truth of faith by virtue of our understanding of nature, or on the basis of human knowledge. Instead of pulling God down from the mysterious realm to submit to our reason, we should elevate our reason in pursuit of consistency with God's truth. "

The second point is that he has conducted multi-level and multi-perspective research on the sub-disciplines of science. These studies, though somewhat trivial and unscientific today, were undoubtedly bold and useful attempts at the time.

　　For example, he classified human non-sacred knowledge according to three different thinking abilities, that is, non-historical, poetic and philosophical categories. Why is it so divided? For "history depends on memory, poetry on imagination, and philosophy on the ability to reason". For example, he classified history according to nature, society, religion, and literature; divided philosophy into the philosophy of God, natural philosophy, and humanistic philosophy, and natural philosophy into physics, metaphysics, and so on.

　　Bacon's sub-disciplines, whose philosophical value outweighed their practical value, directly inspired and influenced the founders of the French Encyclopédie school in the next century.

　　Naturally, Bacon's classification of disciplines is obviously unscientific. Although he excluded theological status from the scientific scope, he was not an atheist after all. His separation of theology from science is only a transitional way in the course of historical development. This transition reflects that he still has a tail that is not beautiful on the issue of sub-disciplines. In particular, he was very uninterpreted with the role of mathematics, believing that mathematics was only an auxiliary science and could not be a discipline alone, thus proving once again that he was only an advocate of science and not a person in science.

　　Throughout Bacon's life and his philosophical system, the most profound impression he left on future generations is that he was the theoretical founder of modern experimental science. His philosophical masterpiece, The New Tool, places the greatest emphasis on experiments and experience. The New Tool is a work of quotations. The first paragraph of the first chapter of the first volume of his first volume, the opening paragraph, reads: "As a subject and interpreter of nature, man can do and understand only as much as he has observed in fact or in his thoughts about the processes of nature." That's just that much. Beyond that, he knows neither knows nor can he make a difference. It is indeed very experienced and beautiful, and it is even more experienced and beautiful to put it in the West at the beginning of the 17th century.

　　After Bacon's death, his evaluation was higher or lower, sometimes high and low. Among the important thinkers behind him, the French encyclopedics, the Russian Herzen, and the German philosopher Leibniz greatly admired him, while 20th-century philosophers such as Russell, Moore, Wittgenstein, and Carnap mostly despised and negatively treated him. History has no cycle, but history often has a focus, the light can be heavy, the heavy can also be light, how future people evaluate Bacon, at this time it is too early to evaluate. By and large, Bacon was often not highly regarded by those who were scientists and proficient in mathematics, and those who were mainly social sciences and were not known for their deductions had great respect for him. This is really due to Bacon's own strengths, characteristics and shortcomings, but there are also some reasons for historical intimacy.

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