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Francis Bacon

English philosopher and statesman (1561-1626) · United Kingdom · Academics · Died at 65

Francis Bacon is read about 2,958 times a day, in 118 languages.

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He pushed England toward a new way of knowing: doubt everything, test it, write down what happens. Four centuries on, that sceptical method - observe, question, repeat - still shapes how science moves.

AcademicsAcademicPhilosophyLiteraturePoliticsLawScienceHistory

A life in dates

1626Died9 April 1626“I bequeath my soul to God (…). My body to be buried obscurely. For my name and memory, I leave it to men's charitable speeches, and to foreign nations, and the next age.”In their wordsHis will (1626)

1623“Credulity in arts and opinions (…) is likewise of two kinds viz., when men give too much belief to arts themselves, or to certain authors in any art.”In their wordsDe Augmentis Scientiarum (1623) as quoted by Edward Thorpe, History of Chemistry, Vol. 1, p. 43.

1622“Lucid intervals and happy pauses.”In their wordsHistory of King Henry VII, III (1622)

1605“Aristotle (…) a mere bond-servant to his logic, thereby rendering it contentious and well nigh useless.”In their wordsRerum Novarum (1605)

1597“Nay, number (itself) in armies, importeth not much, where the people is of weak courage; for (as Virgil saith) it never troubles the wolf how many the sheep be.”In their wordsEssays or Counsels Civil and Moral (1597), XXIX: "Of the True Greatness of Kingdoms and Estates."

1595“The monuments of wit survive the monuments of power.”In their wordsEssex's Device (1595)

1561Born22 January 1561

Also in Deutsch

Photos 4

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In their own words 10

,
Francis Bacon
,
10 statements, newest first

  1. I bequeath my soul to God (…). My body to be buried obscurely. For my name and memory, I leave it to men's charitable speeches, and to foreign nations, and the next age.

    1626, His will (1626), Own words

  2. Riches are a good handmaid, but the worst mistress.

    1623, De Augmentis Scientiarum, Book II, "Antitheta" (1623), Own words

  3. Credulity in arts and opinions (…) is likewise of two kinds viz., when men give too much belief to arts themselves, or to certain authors in any art.

    1623, De Augmentis Scientiarum (1623) as quoted by Edward Thorpe, History of Chemistry, Vol. 1, p. 43., Own words

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Educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, Bacon climbed the Tudor-Stuart hierarchy, serving as Attorney General and finally Lord Chancellor under James I. But his lasting work was philosophical: he argued that real knowledge comes only from inductive reasoning and careful observation, not inherited dogma. The specific steps of his Baconian method faded, but the broader insistence on sceptical, methodical inquiry made him a founder of the scientific method and earned him the label "father of empiricism." He also designed a cataloguing system for libraries, dividing books into history, poetry, and philosophy - and left the aphorism that some books are to be tasted, others swallowed, a few chewed and digested. Knighted in 1603, created Baron Verulam in 1618 and Viscount St Alban in 1621, he died without heirs in 1626 at sixty-five and is buried at St Michael's Church, St Albans.

Country
United Kingdom
Category
Academics
Type
Academic
Status
deceased
Dates
Lived 1561 to 1626 · aged 65

Academics from the United Kingdom 6

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