Descartes and Bacon

Descartes:

• Approached world in a purely mathematical and rational sense
• Placed emphasis on objectivity and logic and paved way for future scientists and philosophers
• Discoveries led to geometry
• Most influential treatise Discours de la Methode showed how Descartes was organized in analyzing how he went about explaining wonders of the physical world
• Uncertain that existence of anything can be proven
• Worked in physical world, didn't search for religious truth
• Distinguished between the body and the brain

Bacon:

• Pioneer of modern science techniques
• Constant observations lead to hypotheses which leads to more tests and observations which leads to scientific knowledge
• Placed emphasis on knowledge, thought that knowledge should be used to control nature
• Wanted to create a society ruled by science

Both René Descartes and Sir Francis Bacon were leaders in advancements of philosophy and science when they lived. Descartes approached the world in a purely mathematical and logical sense and placed an emphasis on objectivity and reason when experimenting. His discoveries led to analytic geometry and his most famous treatise, Discours de la Methode demonstrated his organized manner in how he attempted to explain the wonders of the physical world. Descartes doubted whether or not anything could be proven or proven to exist and worked solely in the search for physical and not spiritual truth. 

Bacon was also a pioneer for modern science techniques. His method of cumulative observations and constantly reworked hypotheses is still used today in experiments. Bacon seemed to have little doubt in the ability of science to uncover all the truths in the physical world and was a firm believer that science would help the well being of society. Bacon was a firm believer in knowledge and wanted society to be ruled by scientists. 

Descartes upended religious doctrine in Europe because of his work in the nature of knowledge and whether anything can be proven to exist. In a time when the Christian Church ruled and their doctrine was one based on faith in an invisible and all powerful God, Descartes's questioning of the nature of knowledge surely rocked the establishment. Descartes said that the only thing he was sure about was his own self-doubt and thought. He coined the phrase "I think, therefore I am." This philosophy empowered the Europeans because it shifted the power from the institution, the church, to the individual and encouraged them to think for themselves and come up with their own ideas instead of being blindly trusting. 

Bacon was even more radical than Descartes because of his unbending belief in the power of science. His ideal society was one rule by a group of scientists, and that scientific discoveries would eventually uncover all the mysteries of life and improve society. This radical idea posed an enormous threat to religious doctrine because it called for a shift of power from the church to scientists and it also threatened the church's hold over Europeans because scientific discoveries would eventually lay bare Christian beliefs. This gave power to intellectual Europeans because Bacon wanted to give them more power and let them make their own discoveries, instead of letting the church feed them its own beliefs. 

1. Descartes, Rene (1596-1650).

DISCovering Biography. Online ed. Detroit: Gale, 2003.

• Narrative biography
  

1. Bacon, Sir Francis (1561-1626). DISCovering Biography. Online ed. Detroit: Gale, 2003. Narrative biography