Francis Bacon and the Origins of Scientific Objectivity

MANZO, SILVIA

Chicago

Conferencia; III Biennial Conference of the International Society for the Intellectual History; 2000

International Society for the Intellectual History

Francis Bacon was undoubtedly a turning point in the history of science. Studies by Lorraine Daston and others claim that Bacon was the central figure who transformed the preternatural events, formerly considered as God’s portents or demonic signs, into the first scientific facts. For Bacon anomalous events belong to the natural world and offer prerogative insights into the hidden course of nature. They are able to reveal common forms and to rectify the work of the understanding when making over-hasty axioms. The members of the Royal Society and other European scientific institutions actually pay special attention to that kind of “Baconian facts”. Thus they contributed to the establishment of a new form of objectivity, conceived as a sort of impartial examination of theory-free facts. In this paper I will deal with Bacon’s criterion to establishing matter of facts.