Francis Bacon

Francis Bacon was born in London in 1561, the son of a lord keeper, and rose through the law to become attorney general and then lord chancellor. His public career ended in 1621 when he was convicted of taking bribes and barred from office.

He is remembered instead for his programme for knowledge. In Novum Organum and The Advancement of Learning he argued that the mind is prone to idols and idle systems, and that knowledge should be built patiently from observation and experiment, then put to use for human benefit.

He never produced the comprehensive natural history he promised, and he died in 1626 after an experiment with preserving a chicken in snow. His insistence on method and utility nonetheless shaped the scientific societies that followed.

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