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|DOD Approximate=No
|Brief=a British natural philosopher and founder of experimentalism and empirical science.
|Summary=Sir Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount of St. Alban (January 22, 1561 – April 9, 1626) was a prominent figure in English society, making significant contributions to the world as a philosopher, scientist, statesman, juror, orator, author, attorney general, and lord chancellor of England. Perhaps his most significant, lasting impact was in natural philosophy and the role he played during the scientific revolution (the period between the publications of Copernicus’s Revolutions and Newton’s Principia). In the later part of his life, he worked to establish empiricism and constructed his scientific methodology, first introduced in his revolutionary text Novum Organum, describing his reformulation of scientific thinking that employs inductive reasoning to make predictions about the world.
|Historical Context=Bacon began his studies at Cambridge University’s Trinity College in 1573 at the age of twelve.[[CiteRef::Jones (1868)|pp. 60-65]] While there, he became dissatisfied with the tradition of Aristotelian philosophy and deemed it unfruitful.[[CiteRef::Marguerite Lea and Quinton (2017)]][[CiteRef::Klein (2016)]][[CiteRef::Lovejoy (1888)|p. 8]] Bacon lived during the beginning of the scientific revolution, shortly after the publication of Copernicus’s Revolutions and thus would have likely been influenced by the new heliocentric cosmology that was beginning to take root, which brought the validity of the Aristotelian mosaic into question.[[CiteRef::Briggs (Ed.) (1996)]] During this time, the study of empirical natural philosophy, which set the foundations upon which modern scientific practices and methodologies were based, took its form. During this era, there was a major revolution wherein many elements of the earlier mosaic were replaced. Bacon’s early education occurred at the very beginning of this revolution, putting him in the ideal context to revolutionize how science was carried out.
