2 4 The Concept of Method 



objects of human inquiry. Then a knowledge of the phenomena 

 of the world of nature should be gained, and in this process of 

 gradually becoming more and more familiar with the double 

 world of man and of nature the problem of adjusting the latter 

 to meet the conscious needs of the former will suggest itself to 

 the scientist and to the true lover of knowledge. To give a de- 

 tailed account of the materials that Bacon considered to be the 

 means for the gaining of knowledge would be outside the purpose 

 of the present consideration: long lists of the subjects of his in- 

 vestigations and of the problems which he had set himself to 

 solve may easily be found scattered throughout his writings, 



III. The Method of Knozvledge 



It is when we come to consider the method of knowledge that 

 we realise more strongly than ever the empirical character of the 

 philosophy of Bacon. The purpose and aim was distinctly utili- 

 tarian ; the means are the actual real phenomena of the world of 

 nature round about him, and not the words and symbols of school- 

 men ; the method throughout the course of his investigation has 

 to deal with actual objects or phenomena that have a real sig- 

 nificance in the life of men of the present day. 



In the interpretations of Bacon's writings too much emphasis 

 has been placed upon his championship of the method of Induc- 

 tion and his criticism of the logical process of Deduction. In 

 the histories of philosophy and in popular interpretations it is 

 customary to make a writer stand for some theory which per- 

 haps is new in his work or which places a new emphasis upon 

 a widely prevalent though unconsciously accepted process. Such 

 seems to have been the fate of Bacon with the less judicious of 

 his critics, and this fate seems to coincide with Bacon's own 

 estimate of his work. However, since Induction as a method of 

 practical experience has always been part of the means used by 

 man for the control of nature, and was so recognised, partially 

 at least, by the ancients, and as later investigators seem to agree 

 that Bacon's extravagant claims for the efficacy of his new ars 

 inveniendi have not been justified by practical results, it would 

 seem advisable, from the vantage point of the perspective af- 

 forded by time, to place Induction more in the relative position 

 which it really occupies in Bacon's system. That it is not after 



