18 Colorado College Studies. 



of induction to, a certain extent for the purpose of discussing 

 definitions and ideas." 



The fundamental distinction as well as the resemblance be- 

 tween his method and that of Socrates, are brought out by Lord 

 Bacon in this paragraph. The object of Socrates was the dis- 

 cussion of definitions and ideas; that of Bacon the analysis of 

 Nature. Ideas were to the former the only real existences and 

 to him consequently the only true knowledge was to be obtained 

 by turning the mental gaze inward and clearing up the concep- 

 tions in which they were involved. The particulars by which 

 he tested men's opinions were particular conceptions, the gen- 

 eralizations which he reached were general ideas. Baconian 

 Induction, on the other hand, was an interrogation, not of Opin- 

 ion but of Nature, and proceeded from particular facts of obser- 

 vation to general truths concerning the Universe. 



Common to both methods is their insistence upon a rigid 

 criticism of our conclusions: that of Plato being an appeal to 

 inconsistent conceptions, that of Bacon an appeal to incon- 

 sistent facts. 



"Man, the servant and interpreter of Nature:" — this, the 

 first clause of the Novum Orgauum, reflects the two funda- 

 mental principles of Bacon's philosophy : the first that the final 

 end of knowledge is practice and that obedience to Nature is 

 the condition of success; the second that knowledge consists of 

 an Interpretation of Nature. In this phase emerges the main 

 characteristic of the Baconian method. Men were to cease 

 spinning sham knowledge from their own brains and to " dwell 

 purely and constantly among the facts of Nature;" (Preface to 

 Great Instauration) the tendency to rash generalization was to 

 be curbed; the Interrogation was to be substituted for the An- 

 ticipation of Nature, the chief vice in Bacon's view, of former 

 philosophizing. 



The induction which from the cases which we happen to have 

 observed flies at once to an assertion respecting all similar cases 

 "inductio per enumerationem simplicem," is in Bacon's mind 

 "res puerilis," (N. O. I, CV), and for it it was his aim to sub- 

 stitute a method by which this natural tendency to generalize 



