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Single Idea 12117

[filed under theme 14. Science / A. Basis of Science / 3. Experiment ]

Full Idea

All true and fruitful natural philosophy hath a double scale or ladder, ascendent and descendent, ascending from experiments to the invention of causes, and descending from causes to the invention of new experiments.

Gist of Idea

Science moves up and down between inventions of causes, and experiments

Source

Francis Bacon (The Advancement of Learning [1605], II.VII.1)

Book Ref

Bacon,Francis: 'Advancement of Learning/New Atlantis' [OUP 1966], p.106

A Reaction

After several hundred years, I doubt whether anyone can come up with a better account of scientific method than Bacon's.

The 15 ideas with the same theme [deliberate isolation of one cause or effect]:

12117 Science moves up and down between inventions of causes, and experiments [Bacon]
6603 Nature is revealed when we put it under pressure rather than observe it [Bacon]
3618 Only experiments can settle disagreements between rival explanations [Descartes]
16944 Science is common sense, with a sophisticated method [Quine]
15869 Reports of experiments eliminate the experimenter, and present results as the behaviour of nature [Harré]
7452 An experiment is a test, or an adventure, or a diagnosis, or a dissection [Hacking, by PG]
2454 We can deliberately cause ourselves to have true thoughts - hence the value of experiments [Fodor]
2455 Interrogation and experiment submit us to having beliefs caused [Fodor]
2461 An experiment is a deliberate version of what informal thinking does all the time [Fodor]
2460 Participation in an experiment requires agreement about what the outcome will mean [Fodor]
22172 Not all sciences are experimental; astronomy relies on careful observation [Okasha]
22177 Randomised Control Trials have a treatment and a control group, chosen at random [Okasha]
14351 Maybe an experiment unmasks an essential disposition, and reveals its regularities [Corry]
22139 Experiments don't just observe; they look to see what interventions change the natural order [Boulter]
22357 The 'experimenter's regress' says success needs reliability, which is only tested by success [Reiss/Sprenger]