Nada nuevo bajo el Sol: El método inductivo y la historia del conocimiento en La Gran Restauración de Francis Bacon

MANZO, SILVIA

Revista Latinoamericana de Filosofía

Centro de Investigaciones Filosóficas

Lugar: Buenos Aires; Año: 2001 vol. 27 p. 227 - 254

0325-0725

Bacon’s inductive method is a well-studied field. In this paper it is shown that by studying this field from a wider, but until now disregarded, point of view, new interesting features of Bacon’s induction arise. As a point of departure, it is assumed that Bacon thinks science to be developed in an historical process, necessarily conditioned by the spiritual (or religious) history of man. Consequently, the core of the paper is concerned with Bacon’s account of the successive periods of the history of scientific knowledge. It also pays special attention to their connections with the periods of the relationship between man and God. After comparing the different periods, it is concluded that the inductive method, though purposed as an historical novelty by Bacon himself, has indeed antecedents in the first mythical age of mankind. In conclusion, it is claimed that Bacon’s inductive method can be understood to have an ambivalent meaning as being a new and old, natural and artificial, way of knowledge. Mención especial Concurso Ezequiel de Olaso