FRANCIS BACON THE MEAN YET BRILLIANT PHILOSOPHER

Bacon has an amazing personality. After hating him for his misdeeds one finally has to acknowledge the contribution he made to modern philosophy. One can hate his personality but not his intellect.

There were many varieties of philosophers before Sir Francis Bacon, but Sir Francis Bacon is the first scientific philosopher. He is the philosopher that reflected the thinking of the modern world.

The modern era started in Europe before Bacon; Gutenburgh, Colombus, Vasco da Gama, Magellan, Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, Leonardo da Vinci, Vesalius, William Harvey and Shakespeare appeared and made the world a better place to live in. Bacon represents this modern era and gave it a philosophical justification.

In the olden times before the tremendous developments that took place in science most things are accepted without verification but the modern scientific outlook changed that and asserted that nothing be accepted without proof and verification. Bacon is a philosopher that represented this outlook.

It is the age of Queen Elizabeth which is considered to be the golden age in England. Bacon was born into an aristocratic family in the year 1561. His father Nicholas Bacon was the keeper of the great seal of the Queen and a politician. His mother Lady Ann Cook was very proficient in Greek and Latin and was also a philosopher.

The inheritance of genes from both sides has made Bacon both a politician and a philosopher as well. Unfortunately, they have not been complimentary and appeared separately on their own.

Till the age of 12 years, his mother herself taught him studies. He then joined the Trinity College at Cambridge. He was just 16 years old then but with a razor sharp intellect. Till that time Aristotle was considered an authority on many sciences in Europe. Bacon questioned that and entered into spats with professors on the validity of the Aristotilean systems. He said that Aristotle never checked any of his hypotheses with experiment and rejected all of them.

This is one side of Bacon. On the other side his father died when Bacon was just 18 and left him with an annual income of just 300 pounds and a small house. This is sheer poverty for Bacon. He is a spendthrift and lived a luxurious life. He has made making money by whatever means as the goal of his life. Perhaps if one may say, this may be one of the inheritances of the modern age.

Bacons near relative Sir William Cecil was the Prime Minister of Queen Elizabeth. Bacon lobbied with his uncle for a job in the court but his uncle did not oblige him. He then studied law in Greys Inn and became a famous lawyer, contested for the Parliament and won.

All his thoughts are concentrated on making money and political fame. For 12 years he did his best to get into the Queens court with no result. He then sought the help of the Earl of Essex who is great enemy of his uncle William Cecil. Bacon always spent ahead of his income and almost went to prison a number of times and the Earl of Essex saved him. The Earl even bequeathed an estate to him. Despite the Earls efforts he could not get Bacon into Elizabeth’s court. He wrote many books praising the Queen and gave many speeches with no result again.

After sometime a feud arose between the Earl and the Queen. The opponents of Essex charged him with treason and jailed him. Bacon like the cheat he was turned against Essex, testified against him and charged him with a plot to kill the queen and argued against him. Essex was sentenced to death and his head was cut off. Entire England despised Bacon for his mean mindedness, cheating nature and for stabbing his friend in the back.

That is why the famous English poet Alexander Pope remarked that there is no greater scientist, no greater intellectual and no greater shameless cheat than Bacon in the entire world.

Queen Elizabeth died in 1603 AD and James I from Scotland became the king. Bacon is now ready, he praised and praised James in his numerous letters and supported everything the King did in the Parliament. Finally the King yielded and appointed him as Solicitor General, then the Attorney General and finally Lord Chancellor who is the second highest ranked officer in the British Government. He became very rich and politically very powerful.

As usual it is his mean and cheating nature that brought his downfall. In less than 3 years there were hordes of corruption charges against him. He was tried, dismissed from his office and was imprisoned in the tower of London. After some time King James freed him after eliciting a confirmation from Bacon that he would not again come anywhere near the parliament or courts or into any administrative job.

Earlier he was writing his famous books when he was in politics. After being thrown out he lived in exile for 5 years when he devoted himself fully to philosophy. 

It is said that Rishi Agastya drank up all the oceans. Similarly Bacon imbibed all the world's sciences and proclaimed that I have taken all knowledge to be my province. Bacons Essays are a telling commentary of his knowledge and literate skills.

One wonders as to how Bacon after taking in so much knowledge and with all that brilliance became a miserable human being. Knowledge should lead one to light and not into darkness. But in Bacons case it did just the opposite. Yet, the modern world can never forget Bacon and his contribution to the advancement of humanity.

I will try to write about Bacons philosophy in another note sometime.