Local philosopher and social activist David Spintzen writes in his excellent book Critique of Western Philosophy and Social Theory, "It is instructive to recall that the Scientific Revolution practically begins with an attack by both Descartes and Bacon on the Aristotelian notion of final causality."A final cause, or telos (in Greek) is the end result of a natural phenomenon. To use a classic example, a teleological explanation for an acorn is an oak tree.
Permit me to offer a frame for this month's selection, The New Organon, by English Philosopher Francis Bacon. The Greek word organon translates as "instrument." In the works of Aristotle, six books (Categories, On Interpretation, Prior Analytics, Posterior Analytics, Topics, and On Sophistical Refutations) are considered treatises on logic and are referred to as the Organon.
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| Francis Bacon (1561-1626) |
In Bacon's philosophy, the New Organon is intended as a revision of Aristotelianism for the 17th century, which has come to be known popularly as the "Age of Science," that is, when modern science and ideas about science were born.
