Roger Bacon : essays contributed by various writers on the occasion of the commemoration of the seventh centenary of his birth / collected and edited by A.G. Little.
- Date:
- 1914
Licence: In copyright
Credit: Roger Bacon : essays contributed by various writers on the occasion of the commemoration of the seventh centenary of his birth / collected and edited by A.G. Little. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![mathematical physics, reached by argument from certain principles, must be verified before the mind can rest satisfied. To this great science all the others are subsidiary ; they are to it ancillae or handmaids, an expression that curiously reminds one of Francis Bacon. The reasoning in favour of experience is well worth quoting at length. “ There are two modes in which we acquire knowledge, argument and experiment. Argument shuts up the question, and makes us shut it up too ; but it gives no proof, nor does it remove doubt, and cause the mind to rest in the conscious possession of truth, unless the truth is discovered by way of experience, e.g. if any man who had never seen fire were to prove by satisfactory argument that fire burns and destroys things, the hearer's mind would not rest satisfied, nor would he avoid fire ; until by putting his hand or some combustible thing into it, he proved by actual experiment what the argument laid down ; but after the experiment had been made, his mind receives certainty and rests in the possession of truth, which could not be given by argu- ment but only by experience. And this is the case even in mathematics, where there is the strongest demonstration. For let any one have the clearest demonstration about an equilateral triangle without experience of it, his mind will never lay hold of the problem until he has actually before him the intersecting circles and the lines drawn from the point of section to the extremities of a straight line. He will then accept the conclusion with all satisfaction.” (Op. Maj., p. 445 [ed. Bridges, ii. 167].) ‘ This important passage, it seems to me, marks a distinct advance in the philosophy of science. The science of that time proceeded wholly per argumentum ; verification was unknown. Not only, however, does Bacon recognize the necessity for experiment, for observation at first-hand, but he has a clear appreciation of the true nature of scientific verification. He has already expounded his ideal of physical science, the application of mathematics to determine the laws of force and to deduce conclusions from these laws ; but he is perfectly aware that these general conclusions must be tested by comparison with things, must be verified. The function of experimental science is, in a word, Verifica- tion. “ This Science ”, says Bacon, “ has three great prerogatives in respect to all the other sciences. The first is—that it investigates their conclusions by experience. For the principles of the other sciences may be known by experience, but the conclusions are drawn from these](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28993949_0030.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
