FRANCIS BACON

EARLY LIFE

• Born on January 22, 1561 in London into a wealthy family
• Attended Trinity College at Cambridge at 12 years old
• Went to Gray's Inn to study law
• Was elected to parliament
• Worked for Queen Elizabeth I

OCCUPATIONS

• Started as a politician, which helped launch his writing career
• Wrote many books or "essays" on a variety of topics
• Wrote about love and death, but also architecture and education
• Was also a humanist and he spread his humanist beliefs through writing

THE ARTIFACT

• Bacon's "artifact" is the scientific method
• Bacon wrote about this in his book, "Novum Organum"
• Before this, scientists made assumptions, then tried to prove them
• But Bacon believed this method was innaccurate
• His method involved the observation of nature through facts

THE ARTIFACT

• Bacon's scientific method involved making careful observations
• Then, he developed theories based on these observations and tested them
• He believed this was the only accurate way to obtain knowledge

WHY THIS ARTIFACT SUPPORTS HUMANISM