Bacon, Novum Organum

"Now my method, though hard to practice, is easy toe xplain; and it is this. I propose to establish progressive stages of certainty." (Preface / 33)

• retain the evidence of sense;
• reject the mental operations that follow it

logic comes to the rescue too late -- the mind in daily life is already "occupied with unsound doctrines and best on all sides by vain imaginations" (Preface / 34)

"There remains but one course for the recovery of a sound and healthy condition -- namely, that the entire work of the understanding be commenced afresh, and the mind itself be from the very outset not left to take its own course, but guided at every step; and the business be done as if by machinery." (Preface / 34)

example of moving an obelisk by hand

"let there in short be one method for the cultivation, another for the invention, of knowledge" (Preface / 36)

• Anticipation of the Mind -- "the conclusions of human reason as ordinarily applied in matters of nature" (I.XXVI)

• Interpretation of Nature -- "that reason which is elicited from facts by a just and methodical process" (I.XXVI)

ends preface by encouraging the reader to use his own methods to test him (Preface / 37)

"It would be an unsound fancy and self-contradictory to expect that things which have never yet been done can be done except by means which have never yet been tried." (I.VI)

"The syllogism consists of propositions, propositions consist of words, words are symbols of notions. Therefore if the notions themselves (which is the root of the matter) are confused and overhastily abstracted from the facts, there can be no firmness in the superstructure. Our only hope therefore lies in a true induction." (I.XIV)

"Anticipations are a ground sufficiently firm for consent, for even if men went mad all after the same fashion, they might agree one with another well enough." (I.XXVII)

"One method of delivery alone remains to use which is simply this: we must laed men to the particulars themselves, and their series and order; while men on their side must force themselves for a while to lay their notions by and begin to familiarize themselves with facts." (I.XXXVI)

Idols of the Tribe (XLV-LII)

• "have their foundation in human nature itself" -- "the sense of man is the measure of things" (I.XLI)
• "the human understanding is like a false mirror, which, receiving rays irregularly, distorts and discolors the nature of things by mingling its own nature with it" (I.XLI)
• humans impose order and regularity where there may not be any (I.XLV)

"Matter rather than forms should be the object of our attention, its configurations and changes of configuration, and simple action, and law of action or motion; for forms are figments of the human mind, unless you will call those laws of action forms." (I.LI)

Idols of the Cave (LIII-LVIiI)

• "idols of the individual man" -- differences between individuals (I.XLII)
• "some minds are stronger and apter to mark the differences of things, others to mark their resemblances" (I.LV)
• alternate studying particles that make up structures, and the structures themselves (I.LVII)

"Truth is to be sought for not in the felicity of any age, which is an unstable thing, but in the light of nature and experience, which is eternal." (I.LVI)

"And generally let every student of nature take this as a rule: that whatever his mind seizes and dwells upon with peculiar satisfaction is to be held in suspicion, and that so much that more care is to be taken in dealing with such questions to keep the understanding even and clear." (I.LVIII)

Idols of the Market Place (LIX-LX)

• "formed by the intercourse and association of men with each other" (I.XLIII)
• "For it is by discourse that men associate, and words are imposed according to the apprehension of the vulgar. And therefore the ill and unfit choice of words wonderfully obstructs the understanding." (I.XLIII)
• "But words plainly force and overrule the understanding, and throw all into confusion, and lead men away into numberless empty controversies and idle fancies." (I.XLIII)
• "the most troublesome of all -- idols which have crept into the understanding through the alliances of words and names" (I.LIX)
• idols imposed by words are either names of things that don't exist, or names of things which exist but are confused and ill-defined (I.LX)

"For men believe that their reason governs words; but it is also true that words react on the understanding; and this it is that has rendered philosophy and the sciences sophistical and inactive. Now words, being commonly framed and applied according to the capacity of the vulgar, follow those lines of division which are most obvious to the vulgar understanding. And whenever an understanding of greater acuteness or a more diligent observation would alter those lines to suit the true divisions of nature, words stand in the way and resist the change. Whence it comes to pass that the high and formal discussions of learned men end oftentimes in disputes about words and names; with which (according to the use and wisdom of the mathematicians) it would be more prudent to begin, and so by means of definitions reduce them to order." (I.LIX)

Idols of the Theater (LXI-

• "all the received systems are but so many stage plays, representing worlds of their own creation after an unreal and scenic fashion" (I.XLIV)