Editing Baconian method (section)

==Description in the ''Novum Organum''==
{{main|Novum Organum}}
===Bacon's view of induction===
Bacon's method is an example of the application of [[inductive reasoning]]. However, Bacon's method of induction is much more complex than the essential inductive process of making generalisations from observations.  Bacon's method begins with description of the requirements for making the careful, systematic observations necessary to produce quality facts. He then proceeds to use induction, the ability to generalise from a set of facts to one or more axioms. However, he stresses the necessity of not generalising beyond what the facts truly demonstrate. The next step may be to gather additional data, or the researcher may use existing data and the new axioms to establish additional axioms.  Specific types of facts can be particularly useful, such as negative instances, exceptional instances and data from experiments. The whole process is repeated in a stepwise fashion to build an increasingly complex base of knowledge, but one which is always supported by observed facts, or more generally speaking, empirical data.

He argues in the ''Novum Organum'' that our only hope for building true knowledge is through this careful method. Old knowledge-building methods were often not based in facts, but on broad, ill-proven deductions and metaphysical conjecture. Even when theories were based in fact, they were often broad generalisations and/or abstractions from few instances of casually gathered observations.  Using Bacon's process, man could start fresh, setting aside old superstitions, over-generalisations, and traditional (often unproven) "facts".  Researchers could slowly but accurately build an essential base of knowledge from the ground up. Describing then-existing knowledge, Bacon claims:

<blockquote>There is the same degree of licentiousness and error in forming axioms as [there is] in abstracting notions, and [also] in the first principles, which depend in common induction [versus Bacon's induction]; still more is this the case in axioms and inferior propositions derived from [[syllogism]]s.<ref name="NovOrg">{{cite book | url=http://www.gutenberg.org/files/45988/45988-h/45988-h.htm | title=Novum Organum | publisher=P. F. Collier & Sons | author=Bacon, Francis | year=1902 | location=New York | pages=XVII}}</ref></blockquote>

While he advocated a very empirical, observational, reasoned method that did away with metaphysical conjecture, Bacon was a religious man, believed in God, and believed his work had a religious role.  He contended, like other researchers at the time, that by doing this careful work man could begin to understand God's wonderful creation, to reclaim the knowledge that had been lost in Adam and Eve's "fall", and to make the most of his God-given talents.

=== Role of the English Reformation ===
There is a wider array of seminal works about the interaction of [[Puritans|Puritanism]] and early science. Among others, [[Dorothy Stimson]],{{Citation needed|date=August 2018}} [[Richard Foster Jones]],{{Citation needed|date=August 2018}} and [[Merton Thesis|Robert Merton]] saw Puritanism as a major driver of the reforms initiated by Bacon and the development of science overall.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eBLst8a8uYYC|title=The Bible, Protestantism, and the Rise of Natural Science|last=Harrison|first=Peter|date=2001-07-26|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9780521000963|language=en}}</ref> Steven Matthews is cautious about the interaction with a single confession, as the English Reformation allowed a higher doctrinal diversity compared to the continent.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kSp6XnHw7AQC|title=Theology and Science in the Thought of Francis Bacon|last=Matthews|first=Professor Steven|date=2013-06-28|publisher=Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.|isbn=9781409480143|language=en}}</ref> However, Matthews is quite outspoken that "Bacon's entire understanding of what we call 'science,' and what he called 'natural philosophy,' was fashioned around the basic tenets of his belief system."<ref>Steven Matthews 2018, page 2, chapter [https://books.google.com/books?id=5-xHDwAAQBAJ&dq=%22Breaking+with+a+Puritan+past%22&pg=PT12 ''Breaking with a Puritan past''].</ref>

===Approach to causality===
The method consists of procedures for isolating and further investigating the ''form nature'', or cause, of a [[phenomenon]], including the method of agreement, method of difference, and method of concomitant variation.<ref name="Hesse">Hesse, M. B. (1964), "Francis Bacon's Philosophy of Science", in A Critical History of Western Philosophy, ed. D. J. O'Connor, New York, pp. 141—52.</ref>

Bacon suggests that you draw up a list of all things in which the phenomenon you are trying to explain occurs, as well as a list of things in which it does not occur. Then you rank your lists according to the degree in which the phenomenon occurs in each one. Then you should be able to deduce what factors match the occurrence of the phenomenon in one list and don't occur in the other list, and also what factors change in accordance with the way the data had been ranked.

Thus, if an army is successful when commanded by Essex, and not successful when not commanded by Essex: and when it is more or less successful according to the degree of involvement of Essex as its commander, then it is scientifically reasonable to say that being commanded by Essex is causally related to the army's success.

From this Bacon suggests that the underlying cause of the phenomenon, what he calls the "form", can be approximated by interpreting the results of one's observations. This approximation Bacon calls the "First Vintage". It is not a final conclusion about the formal cause of the phenomenon but merely a hypothesis. It is only the first stage in the attempt to find the form and it must be scrutinised and compared to other hypotheses. In this manner, the truth of natural philosophy is approached "by gradual degrees", as stated in his ''Novum Organum''.

===Refinements===
The "Baconian method" does not end at the First Vintage. Bacon described numerous classes of ''Instances with Special Powers,'' cases in which the phenomenon one is attempting to explain is particularly relevant. These instances, of which Bacon describes 27 in the ''Novum Organum'', aid and accelerate the process of induction.

Aside from the First Vintage and the Instances with Special Powers, Bacon enumerates additional "aids to the intellect" which presumably are the next steps in his method. These additional aids, however, were never explained beyond their initial limited appearance in ''Novum Organum''.