Philosophical work: Novum Organum

Overview
Francis Bacon’s Novum Organum, published in 1620, proposes a new instrument for knowledge to replace Aristotle’s Organon. Bacon argues that centuries of scholastic disputation and reliance on syllogism have yielded barren results. Genuine progress depends on a disciplined reform of the mind and a method for interpreting nature that advances from well-gathered particulars to secure axioms, and from those axioms to new discoveries. The project stands within a broader Great Instauration: a renovation of the sciences grounded in experience, experiment, and cooperative inquiry.

The New Method
Bacon’s method is a structured induction that rejects simple enumeration. Rather than leaping from a few observations to universal claims, the investigator assembles a rich natural and experimental history, then proceeds by stages. He compiles Tables of Presence, of Absence in proximity, and of Degrees or Comparisons for a given nature, such as heat. Through a negative and eliminative process, he excludes candidates that fail to match the pattern of occurrences, converging on the true form or law that underlies the phenomenon. From carefully sifted particulars, the mind rises to lesser axioms, then to middle axioms, and finally to the most general, each level confirmed and corrected by further experiments.

Idols and the Cleansing of the Mind
Progress requires purging the intellect of its habitual distortions, which Bacon calls idols. The Idols of the Tribe spring from human nature itself, inclining us to see more order and regularity than exists. The Idols of the Cave arise from each person’s education, temperament, and private obsessions. The Idols of the Marketplace are the illusions bred by language, where words impose false divisions and prompt empty disputes. The Idols of the Theatre derive from received philosophical systems, venerable yet stage-plays that enthrall the mind. Because these idols are ingrained, Bacon prescribes methodical doubt, clear definitions, and disciplined experiment to counter them, not mere admonition.

Forms, Natures, and the Example of Heat
By “forms” Bacon does not mean scholastic essences, but the constant law or structure that produces a nature and governs its generation. The interpreter seeks these operative rules by comparing instances. For heat, Bacon arrays phenomena where heat is present, where it is absent though similar circumstances exist, and where it varies in intensity. He notes, for example, that heat accompanies certain kinds of motion, that it can be produced by friction, compression, and fermentation, and that it depends on particles’ agitation rather than on celestial or elemental fires. The tentative result is that heat is a species of motion, specifically expansive and restrained motion in the minute parts of bodies. This kind of provisional finding is to be tested by further “experiments of light” that reveal causes and by “experiments of fruit” that yield practical applications.

Rules, Collaboration, and Caution
Bacon frames rules to guide interpretation: avoid premature generalization, trust negative instances, multiply variations, and constantly check axioms against new evidence. No single investigator, however brilliant, can complete the enterprise. He calls for organized collections of observations and collaborative laboratories, with standardized records and shared aims. He warns against two equal dangers: credulous empiricism that gathers facts without method, and rationalism that spins systems from a handful of notions. True wisdom moves patiently between experience and reason, letting nature answer skillfully posed questions.

Aim and Legacy
The immediate aim is not speculative elegance but fruitful knowledge that expands human power over nature for the relief of human estate. By redefining induction, exposing the idols, and specifying procedures of exclusion and experiment, Novum Organum sets the template for a disciplined empiricism. Its spirit animates later scientific practice: controlled experimentation, incremental theory-building, community vetting, and a readiness to revise. Bacon’s vision insists that sound method is the new organ of discovery, and that the conquest of ignorance is a collective, method-bound labor rather than a flash of genius.