Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626): Father of the Scientific

Method • No a priori assumptions:

“If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts, but if he will be content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties.”

• Primacy of empirical observations • Develop a theory • Express it in mathematics

• Experimentation (test the theory) Inductive reasoning: Look at lots of evidence and from these, infer a general principle.