payment page
René Descartes
René Descartes is frequently considered the first modern philosopher. His first publication, Discourse on Method (1637), was the touchstone of the scientific method. A response to the lack of clarity he saw in the world of science, Discourse lays out a scientific method based on using deductive reasoning to test hypotheses. Descartes explained that the test of an alleged truth is the clarity with which it may be proven. “I think, therefore I am,” (cogito ergo sum) is Descartes’s famous example of the most clearly proven truth: the evidence of thought proves the truth of existence.
Descartes dabbled extensively in the study of cosmology and matter, specifically the formulation and operation of both matter and heavenly bodies. Though Descartes’s astronomical explanation failed to account for many observed phenomena, his great prestige propelled his theory into fashion among the educated elite intellectuals of Europe. Descartes also tried to apply his physical theories and expand upon them in his works on human anatomy, which, though pioneering in some respects, were largely erroneous. He further wrote about the spiritual nature of man and theorized about the existence of the soul.
Evaluating Descartes’s Contributions to Philosophy
The scientific method of the Middle Ages had revolved around Aristotle's inductive method of reasoning, in which a scientist gathered facts about individual cases and used them to reach a conclusion or theory. Descartes’s great contribution was the introduction of deductive reasoning, in which the scientist first formulates an educated hypothesis, and then seeks evidence to support or disprove that hypothesis. The deductive method did not replace the inductive method, but it did add to the tools of scientists of the era and proved useful on many occasions.
Though Descartes the philosopher advocated order and rationality in method, Descartes the scientist did not always adhere to his own philosophy, and often came up with incorrect explanations for both anatomy and cosmology. Despite his shortcomings as a scientist, Descartes still made many valuable contributions to science, mathematics, and most of all, philosophy. His Cartesian philosophy was the first complete and coherent philosophical system of modern times and laid the foundation of modern philosophy, with a long chain of thinkers following him who believed that truth could be reached with the power of the human mind.
Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon, also called Lord Verulam, was somewhat less renowned and less successful than Descartes, but nevertheless highly influential. Bacon advocated the collection of all possible facts and phenomena followed by the processing of these through logic. Bacon warned scientists against four famous false notions, called Idols of the tribe (the human tendency to want to incorrectly map the universe with logic), Idols of the Cave (misconceptions based on each person’s individual experiences, interests, and prejudices), Idols of the Marketplace (the incongruity between words and what they actually represent), and Idols of the Theatre (false beliefs widely regarded as true, such as the geocentric theory). This set of theories received varying levels of acceptance and rejection, and ultimately left only a limited impact on the world of science.
However, Bacon did make great and lasting strides in advocating a more logical scientific community less prone to reliance on authority and mysticism. Bacon’s most well-known work, Novum Organum (1620), attempts to provide organization for the scientific community by the manner in which the various fields of science relate to each other. His theories on logic and the organization of the sciences had a great effect on science in his time and into the future.
Evaluating Bacon’s Contributions
While Bacon was well respected in his time, it was not long before others began to poke holes in his philosophy. Even so, he clearly and vigorously denounced the misconceptions and errors that had held scientific progress back during the Middle Ages, and thus expressed the spirit of the Scientific Revolution. His ideas on the cooperation and interaction of the fields of science factored greatly into the later establishment of the Royal Society in London and similar societies elsewhere, where scientists from different fields collaborated to advance science and technology as a whole. His thoughts on ethics were an inspiration to Enlightenment thinkers, who continued to advocate the practical application of Bacon’s ethical code. Whatever his failings, Bacon succeeded in rousing the enthusiasm and spirit of logical inquiry of the scientists of his day and beyond.
