64 pages • 2 hours read
Francis BaconNovum Organum
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1620A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Book 2Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Book 2, Aphorisms 1-10 Summary
In Book 2, Bacon starts a fresh list of aphorisms, beginning again at number one. Bacon asserts that the ability to effect change on something is true power and that the ability to understand what that thing truly is represents true knowledge. He states that these two things are interconnected and that learning the first will reveal the second. He suggests this order—commencing with the practical—to avoid being sucked into unfounded abstractions, and he explains how establishing the suitable confines of an experiment will focus the quest for knowledge.
The main principle underpinning his system is therefore that evidence, or things, must be broken down into the smallest possible components to find the primary axioms—small axioms from which larger ones can be built. He then explains that there are two categories of axiom to seek and therefore two types of investigation.
The first type of axiom considers things as composites of their simple features, which can themselves be investigated. For example, when looking at gold, one would list the component characteristics of gold (such as its color, weight, and softness). To try to produce gold, one would therefore try to reproduce these characteristics.
The second axiom considers things as concrete bodies and studies the processes or causes that create them or act on them—for example, considering how gold forms in the earth or how a seed becomes a tree. In this type of investigation, one must study every element of change that happens, such as what the object loses or gains in the process.
Bacon calls the first category the investigation of form, breaking this down into theory (metaphysics) and practical application (magic). The second category is the investigation of process and cause, again broken into theory (physics) and practical application (mechanics).
Bacon discusses how to proceed from this foundational framework. The first step is to elicit and create axioms from observation and experiment, the second to derive new experiments from those axioms. Bacon clarifies that there are three components to the first step: the senses, the memory, and the mind. The “senses” refers to observation; for this he recommends the creation of a complete natural history from scratch. The “memory” refers to keeping this information to hand, for which he recommends organizing it all into tables. The “mind” refers to processing this information to create axioms, for which he recommends the use of induction as a careful tool, as the human mind alone is too flawed to do this correctly.
Book 2, Aphorisms 11-17 Summary
Bacon introduces the example he will use to demonstrate his process: heat. He instructs that once one identifies a “nature” (i.e., topic) for study, one must consider all instances in which that nature is found, regardless of how different they seem.
He explains what tables are required to present information about a “nature” and draws up each one, using the example of heat. The first is a list of “Instances Agreeing In The Form Of Heat” (57): examples of where heat is found. These range from things like the sun’s rays and volcanic flames to organic matter like fresh animal dung.
Next, Bacon presents information about the absence of heat in a list entitled “Proximate Instances Wanting The Nature Of Heat” (59). Because of the quantity of situations in which heat is absent, Bacon limits this list to examples in which one might expect to find heat due to similarity to an entry in the first table, but where heat is in fact absent or very weak. For instance, he describes how the sun’s rays are comparatively ineffectual in polar regions. He goes on to list a number of experiments for assessing the presence or strength of heat in various places from which it seems to be absent—e.g., trying to magnify the moon’s light with glass, as this can create fire when performed on sunlight.
Next, Bacon presents a list of situations in which heat comes and goes or varies in strength—the “Table Of The Degrees Or Comparative Instances Of Heat” (65). For example, he describes how many objects found in nature do not seem to possess heat fundamentally but can acquire it, such as water or metal. However, some things are more receptive to heat than others, such as sulfur or matter produced by a body imbued with heat: horse dung, for instance, produced by the warm horse. Different animals also have different degrees of heat and may become more or less hot due to, for instance, motion, eating, or having a fever.
Book 2, Aphorisms 18-20 Summary
Bacon creates a fourth table that interprets the information found in the first three: “An Example Of The Exclusive Table, Or Of The Rejection Of Natures From The Form Of Heat” (72). This is a list of “natures” (other phenomena, such as light) that the first three tables demonstrate are not inherent to heat, as they are not always found where heat is (or heat is not always found where they are). He says that this table offers the foundations for true induction regarding heat but is not complete without its counterpoint—a description of whatever is fundamental to heat and thus always found alongside it.
He gives the caveat that this table is not likely to be perfect but notes that in the initial stages of developing his approach, no such tables can be perfect, as they will need to include phenomena that have not yet themselves been investigated properly. They may therefore be poorly defined and understood. However, he argues that the only way forward is to proceed with the approach, and he asserts that what one learns from error can lead to truth.
His next stage is to draw a rough conclusion about the fundamental nature of heat, which may need further refining or correcting. He titles this “The First Vintage Of The Form Of Heat” (74): an examination of any phenomena or “nature” that he concludes from the other tables is fundamental to heat.
He identifies “motion” as the broad property that is always co-present with heat and goes on to list caveats that narrow down what kind of motion specifically relates to heat. For example, expansive motion is present in the swelling action of flames or boiling water, while warm air expands. He specifies further than heat is connected to upward motion, as heat will radiate up a piece of metal faster than down it. He gives a number of other descriptions of the type of motion associated with heat and compares this to the behavior of cold as well, which he often places in opposition to heat. He gives a final definition of heat and describes how this theoretical understanding matches a practical understanding: One can produce heat by creating the specific type of motion he has identified.
Book 2, Aphorisms 21-54 Summary
Having concluded his initial presentation of information about heat, Bacon plans to present several further tools that will aid induction in producing axioms. He lists these tools and says that he will give examples of their use, discussing heat and cold when the example requires the tables, but using more varied subjects when the tables are not necessary so as to show the range of the tools’ relevance.
The rest of the book concerns the “prerogative instances,” which he categorizes into 27 ranks. Broadly speaking, these are phenomena and ways of classifying them, of which Bacon gives examples. “Conspicuous instances,” for example, are the most clear and unimpeded embodiment of a “nature,” such as a thermometer explicitly showing a connection between heat and upward motion. “Instances of the door or gate” are tools for enhancing the human senses (101), such as the microscope or telescope, a recent invention he attributes to Galileo.
Many of the “prerogative instances” are complex and contain subdivisions. For example, “wrestling instances” are the comparative strength of different powers when competing with each other. Bacon breaks this down into 19 different categories. The first is “the resistance of matter”—the fact that matter cannot exist in the same space as other matter and can only be transformed rather than vanished. The 17th is “the spontaneous motion of revolution” (125), in which inanimate objects seem to move according to their own rules—for example, the movement of the stars, or the suggested revolution of the earth. Bacon gives several factors to consider here, such as the speed of the bodies’ movements and the shape in which they move.
Bacon lists the “prerogative instances” again in summary. He explains that they support theory by honing a person’s use of their senses or their understanding. They support practice by illustrating or honing what must be done.
He instructs that due to their importance in aiding scientific endeavor, some of these instances must be collected and written up immediately, prior to proper methodical investigation of every “nature” involved. Some, however, should be collected once their corresponding tables have been drawn up. These phenomena must therefore be sought out and assessed especially carefully when placed in a table.
Finally, Bacon describes what he will address in his forthcoming works—the rest of the tools listed in Aphorism 21. He asserts that through these tools, humanity will increase its understanding and therefore its “power over nature” and material well-being (137). He describes how after leaving Eden, humanity lost both its innocence and its dominance over the natural world. He claims that both can be partially regained even in this life: innocence through religion and dominance through arts and sciences. He argues that the fall of man did not curse humanity to complete exile but rather requires humans to labor to fulfil their needs.
Book 2 Analysis
In Book 2, Bacon’s primary focus is his third theme: his approach, which will make up the backbone of An Inductive Approach to Knowledge. Where the Preface and Book 1 concern arguments supporting this idea, mostly through the themes of The Flawed Foundations of Existing Epistemology and a Conviction in Human Progress Through the Pursuit of Knowledge, Book 2 actually presents his proposed method, breaking it down into steps and offering a real example—heat.
Before beginning the actual process, Bacon draws up some further frameworks for his method. He divides scientific study into two broad categories, each of which has two branches: one concerned with theory and the other with practice (although according to the Baconian approach, these will necessarily be interlinked). In Aphorism 9, he names each of these four branches. The two main categories of study do not map directly onto modern science, as early modern frameworks were very different, but his division of study into two groups bears some resemblance to the modern division of science into biology, chemistry, and physics. His “investigation of form,” divided into metaphysics and magic, is most like chemistry. His “investigation of the efficient cause of matter, latent process, and latent conformation” (55), divided into physics and mechanics, is most like today’s physics. The beginnings of modern scientific frameworks are therefore apparent in Bacon’s ideas.
Similarly, Bacon again outlines his emphasis on observation as the cornerstone of his method. Aphorism 10 describes the strict methodical process underlying the method: Evidence is used to create axioms, and axioms are used to create experiments, which create more evidence. Collecting information is the first step, organizing it is the second, and only then can induction, or the work of producing axioms, begin. This emphasis on observation as the starting point of any enquiry and the root of any theory resembles modern scientific empiricism. Again, Bacon’s values and his way of framing science itself remain relevant even though his exact method is no longer in use.
He outlines these steps one at a time, numbering each one and explaining its significance. He is similarly methodical and precise when presenting the entire next section of Novum Organum, Aphorisms 11-20, in which he uses the example of heat to demonstrate the practical work of his method: recording and organizing information. This of course reflects Bacon’s own approach to science, which favors strict and clear structure. However, it also resembles the formats that practical instructive texts like manuals or recipe books frequently use: laying information out step by step, using subheadings, and numbering steps or points for greater clarity. This is because this section of Novum Organum is indeed intended as a practical guide for others to follow. Bacon even moves away from the continuous prose of Book 1 for some of his “tables,” which examine the properties of heat; the first, on Page 57, consists of numbered verbless phrases similar to bullet points. By modern definitions these resemble lists rather than tables, but Bacon’s designation of them as “tables” and his formal titling of each one make it clear that he sees these as formalized, distinct structures. He differentiates them as actual tools that form part of his grand aid to science, or “new organon.”
Bacon often gives extra commentary alongside his tables, justifying what has been included or excluded. He explains, for example, why his second table, detailing the absence of heat, specifically considers “absence in proximity” to its presence: Considering all absence would be an “infinite” project, so “the want of the given nature must be inquired into more particularly in objects which have a very close connection with those others in which it is present” (58). Bacon therefore examines situations in which heat might be expected but is not found. This fits in with general approach to exceptions in science: They must be considered, as they are most likely to be illuminating (in Aphorism 25 for instance). The explanations he gives alongside his tables help illuminate his demonstration of his method for any followers.
Another example of this is a list of experiments he proposes after presenting his two tables detailing the presence and absence of heat. These experiments would further check and clarify Bacon’s observations on the absence of heat. For example, Bacon says that if there is heat in moonlight (which one might expect, seeing as there is in sunlight) it is “so subtile and weak […] we must have recourse to those glasses which indicate the warm or cold state of the atmosphere, and let the lunar rays fall through the burning glass on the top of this thermometer” (60). Moonlight should be directed through intensifying glass (like a magnifying glass) and its temperature measured with a thermometer rather than by touch. These experiments are an important demonstration of Bacon’s emphasis on evidence as the underlying root of any axiom. They also exemplify his circular process: creating axioms from evidence and then using those axioms to create experiments to produce more evidence. For example, he has presented the axiom that heat is absent from moonlight based on his sensory observation, and from this he devises an experiment to give more information on this, acknowledging the limits of his senses.
Here, however, Bacon continues with his method without having performed all his suggested experiments—a reflection of his goal of presenting his method accessibly for use by others, without delay. He acknowledges that because he is the first to start processing information in this way, there are flaws in his tables, such as unclear definitions: “[S]ome of the above, as the notion of elementary and celestial nature, and rarity, are vague and ill defined” (73). He also cites inadequately tested assertions as a flaw, attributing it to “how poor we are in history” (70). Bacon again refers to his idea of a “Great Instauration” of which he the advanced guard; others must follow, developing and improving on the work he has done.
He argues the same when discussing his “prerogative instances.” To begin his scientific process, “out of these twenty-seven instances, some must be collected immediately, without waiting for a particular investigation of properties” (137). They must be used with utmost care and attention if they refer to inadequately investigated phenomena, but practical necessity requires that they are nonetheless considered from the start and subjected to further investigation later.
These “instances” represent the categorizing of various phenomena into different types in relation to their relevance to practicing Baconian method. They are hard to define in modern terms, but Bacon primarily examines the different types of relationships that can exist between things. He presents guidance as to what exactly to look for and record in observation. For example, when considering “the spontaneous motion of revolution” in objects such as planets (125), Bacon lists nine different factors to observe, including the total distance of the movement itself, the distance of revolving bodies from each, the speed of movement, and the shape of the movement. Considering these, Bacon argues, will help answer questions such as how universal these rules of behavior are: “[W]hether the motion in question […] is confined to the heavens, or rather descends and is communicated to the air and water” (125).
Having presented all these “instances,” and explained their importance, Bacon lists the topics he plans to present next, referring to Aphorism 21 (of Book 2), which identifies Bacon’s “remaining helps of the understanding with regard to the interpretation of nature, and a true and perfect induction” (77).These are further directions to build the tools of the “new organon.” However, Bacon does not come to these in this work, presumably intending to cover all of them in the other parts of his planned grand work, which he titled The Great Instauration and of which little else emerged. This is important context for Bacon’s extended sentence structure in his final line of Book 2, which creates a tonally abrupt ending to Novum Organum—it is intended to lead on to another book.
However, thematically speaking, his ending is expansive. Bacon finishes Novum Organum by promising that his method and the Great Instauration will create “an improvement of [humanity’s] estate, and an increase of their power over nature” (137). He again invokes religion: On leaving Eden, humanity lost its innocence and its power over nature, but faith and science respectively can partially restore these things. Rather than seeking something against the will of God, Bacon says that working hard to improve the human condition is in keeping with divine will, quoting Genesis 3:19: “[I]n the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat bread” (137). This assertion reincorporates his other main themes, the flawed foundations of current knowledge and conviction in human progress, through the lens of the fall of man. He thus ends by tying his arguments into one of the most fundamental and central narratives of his age, instilling his Great Instauration with divine approval.
