BACON, ROGER
byname DOCTOR MIRABILIS (Latin: "Wonderful Teacher") (b. c.
1220, Ilchester, Somerset, or Bisley, Gloucester?, Eng.--d. 1292, Oxford?),
English Franciscan philosopher and educational reformer who was a major
medieval proponent of experimental science. Bacon studied mathematics,
astronomy, optics, alchemy, and languages. He was the first European to
describe in detail the process of making gunpowder, and he proposed flying
machines and motorized ships and carriages. Bacon (as he himself
complacently remarked) displayed a prodigious energy and zeal in the pursuit
of experimental science; indeed, his studies were talked about everywhere
and eventually won him a place in popular literature as a kind of wonder
worker. Bacon therefore represents a historically precocious expression
of the empirical spirit of experimental science, even though his actual
practice of it seems to have been exaggerated. (see also Index:
science, philosophy of)
Early life
Bacon was born into a wealthy family; he was well-versed in the
classics and enjoyed the advantages of an early training in geometry, arithmetic,
music, and astronomy. Inasmuch as he later lectured at Paris, it is probable
that his master of arts degree was conferred there, presumably not before
1241--a date in keeping with his claim that he saw the Franciscan professor
Alexander of Hales (who died in 1245) with his own eyes and that he heard
the master scholar William of Auvergne (d. 1249) dispute twice in the presence
of the whole university.
University and scientific career.
In the earlier part of his career, Bacon lectured in the faculty
of arts on Aristotelian and pseudo-Aristotelian treatises, displaying no
indication of his later preoccupation with science. His Paris lectures,
important in enabling scholars to form some idea of the work done by one
who was a pioneer in introducing the works of Aristotle into western Europe,
reveal an Aristotelianism strongly marked by Neoplatonist elements stemming
from many different sources. The influence of Avicenna on Bacon has
been exaggerated.
About 1247 a considerable change took place in Bacon's intellectual
development. From that date forward he expended much time and energy and
huge sums of money in experimental research, in acquiring "secret" books,
in the construction of instruments and of tables, in the training of assistants,
and in seeking the friendship of savants--activities that marked a definite
departure from the usual routine of the faculty of arts. The change was
probably caused by his return to Oxford and the influence there of the
great scholar Robert Grosseteste, a leader in introducing Greek learning
to the West, and his student Adam de Marisco, as well as that of Thomas
Wallensis, the bishop of St. David's. From 1247 to 1257 Bacon devoted
himself wholeheartedly to the cultivation of those new branches of learning
to which he was introduced at Oxford--languages, optics, and alchemy--and
to further studies in astronomy and mathematics. It is true that Bacon
was more skeptical of hearsay claims than were his contemporaries,
that he suspected rational deductions (holding to the superior dependability
of confirming experiences), and that he extolled experimentation so ardently
that he has often been viewed as a harbinger of modern science more than
300 years before it came to bloom. Yet research on Bacon suggests
that his characterization as an experimenter may be overwrought. His originality
lay not so much in any positive contribution to the sum of knowledge as
in his insistence on fruitful lines of research and methods of experimental
study. As for actual experiments performed, he deferred to a certain Master
Peter de Maricourt (Maharn-Curia), a Picard, who alone, he wrote, understood
the method of experiment and whom he called dominus experimentorum
("master of experiments"). Bacon, to be sure, did have a sort of
laboratory for alchemical experiments and carried out some systematic observations
with lenses and mirrors. His studies on the nature of light and on the
rainbow are especially noteworthy, and he seems to have planned and interpreted
these experiments carefully. But his most notable "experiments" seem never
to have been actually performed; they were merely described. He suggested,
for example, that a balloon of thin copper sheet be made and filled with
"liquid fire"; he felt that it would float in the air as many light objects
do in water. He seriously studied the problem of flying in a machine with
flapping wings. He was the first person in the West to give exact directions
for making gunpowder (1242); and, though he knew that, if confined, it
would have great power and might be useful in war, he failed to speculate
further. (Its use in guns arose early in the following century.) Bacon
described spectacles (which also soon came into use); elucidated the
principles of reflection, refraction, and spherical aberration; and proposed
mechanically propelled ships and carriages. He used a camera obscura (which
projects an image through a pinhole) to observe eclipses of the Sun.
Career as a friar.
In 1257 another marked change took place in Bacon's life. Because
of ill health and his entry into the Order of Friars Minor, Bacon felt
(as he wrote) forgotten by everyone and all but buried. His university
and literary careers seemed finished. His feverish activity, his amazing
credulity, his superstition, and his vocal contempt for those not sharing
his interests displeased his superiors in the order and brought him under
severe discipline. He decided to appeal to Pope Clement IV, whom he may
have known when the latter was (before his election to the papacy) in the
service of the Capetian kings of France. In a letter (1266) the pope referred
to letters received from Bacon, who had come forward with certain
proposals covering the natural world, mathematics, languages, perspective,
and astrology. Bacon had argued that a more accurate experimental
knowledge of nature would be of great value in confirming the Christian
faith, and he felt that his proposals would be of great importance for
the welfare of the church and of the universities. The pope desired to
become more fully informed of these projects and commanded Bacon to
send him the work. But Bacon had had in mind a vast encyclopaedia
of all the known sciences, requiring many collaborators, the organization
and administration of which would be coordinated by a papal institute.
The work, then, was merely projected when the pope thought that it already
existed. In obedience to the pope's command, however, Bacon set
to work and in a remarkably short time had dispatched the Opus majus
("Great Work"), the Opus minus ("Lesser Work"), and the Opus
tertium ("Third Work"). He had to do this secretly and notwithstanding
any command of his superiors to the contrary; and even when the irregularity
of his conduct attracted their attention and the terrible weapons of spiritual
coercion were brought to bear upon him, he was deterred from explaining
his position by the papal command of secrecy. Under the circumstances,
his achievement was truly astounding. He reminded the pope that, like the
leaders of the schools with their commentaries and scholarly summaries,
he could have covered quires of vellum with "puerilities" and vain speculations.
Instead, he aspired to penetrate realms undreamed of in the schools at
Paris and to lay bare the secrets of nature by positive study. The Opus
majus was an effort to persuade the pope of the urgent necessity and
manifold utility of the reforms that he proposed. But the death of Clement
in 1268 extinguished Bacon's dreams of gaining for the sciences
their rightful place in the curriculum of university studies.
Bacon projected yet another encyclopaedia, of which only fragments
were ever published, namely, the Communia naturalium ("General Principles
of Natural Philosophy") and the Communia mathematica ("General Principles
of Mathematical Science"), written about 1268. In 1272 there appeared the
Compendium philosophiae ("Compendium of Philosophy"). In philosophy--and
even Bacon's so-called scientific works contain lengthy philosophical
digressions--he was the disciple of Aristotle; even though he did incorporate
Neoplatonist elements into his philosophy, his thought remains essentially
Aristotelian in its main lines.
Sometime between 1277 and 1279, Bacon was condemned to prison
by his fellow Franciscans because of certain "suspected novelties" in his
teaching. The condemnation was probably issued because of his bitter attacks
on the theologians and scholars of his day, his excessive credulity in
alchemy and astrology, and his penchant for millenarianism under the influence
of the prophecies of Abbot Joachim of Fiore, a mystical philosopher of
history. How long he was imprisoned is unknown. His last work (1292), incomplete
as so many others, shows him as aggressive as ever.
(T.Cr./Ed.)
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
Andrew G. Little (ed.), Roger Bacon Essays (1914,
reprinted 1972), is a still-valuable commemorative collection of contributions
by eminent scholars. Two complementary works with extensive bibliographies
are Theodore Crowley, Roger Bacon: The Problem of the
Soul in His Philosophical Commentaries (1950), presenting his philosophical
positions; and Stewart C. Easton, Roger Bacon and His
Search for a Universal Science: A Reconsideration of the Life and Work
of Roger Bacon in the Light of His Own Stated Purposes (1952,
reprinted 1971). A.C. Crombie, Robert Grosseteste and the Origins of
Experimental Science, 1100-1700, pp. 139-162 (1953, reprinted 1971),
includes a balanced account of Bacon's contributions to science.
Later research, adding contemporary insight to the aforementioned important
studies, is offered in David C. Lindberg, Roger Bacon's
Philosophy of Nature: A Critical Edition, with English Translation, Introduction,
and Notes, of De Multiplicatione Specierum, and De Speculis Comburentibus
(1983).
Related Internet Links:
The Mirror of Alchemy
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