F. Bacon, "Attack on Authority and Advocacy of Experimental Science"

Thesis: Francis Bacon’s call for intellectuals to think outside of the traditional normative constrains of Aristotle’s methods of discovery were justified on moral and intellectual grounds

A. Moral

1. Remaining within a single scientific mindset allows others to dominate our thoughts- we become slaves to traditional science

2. Reality is as you make it- human perceptions and discourse means science is open to interpretation, not a fixed object.


B. Intellectual

1. Aristotle’s methods only replicate data as it appeared to him, it does not adequately explain certain phenomena

2. Aristotle’s methods cannot explain certain errors which disprove his thesis, they only gloss over them

3. Remaining within Aristotle’s learning prevent us from evaluating past discoveries and current ones- such as the years of Roman learning.