During his young adulthood, Bacon attempted to share his ideas with his uncle, Lord Burghley, and later with Queen Elizabeth in his Letter of Advice. The two did not prove to be a receptive audience to Bacon's evolving philosophy of science. It was not until 1620, when Bacon published Book One of Novum Organum Scientiarum (novum organum is Latin for "new method"), that Bacon established himself as a reputable philosopher of science. Rump, Gerhard Charles. Francis Bacons Menschenbild. In: Gerhard Charles Rump: Kunstpsychologie, Kunst und Psycoanalyse, Kunstwissenschaft. (1981), pp.146–168 ISBN 3-487-07126-6

I'm very sad that if the club closes at the end of the month,' said Lane. 'I sincerely hope it does not die and can survive.' Bacon rejected this notion of knowledge and interpreted it from a pragmatic and utilitarian perspective. From Bacon’s utilitarian perspective, knowledge, in the sense of truth, no longer had intrinsic value, but derived its value from the practical purposes it served. Thus, Bacon abandoned the notion of knowledge as a way to liberate the human spirit ( artes liberals). Bacon asserted the primacy of utility in the sphere of knowledge, which is one of the important features of the idea of modernity. Letter by Bacon to G. Sutherland, 30 December 1946, Monte Carlo, National Galleries and Museums of Wales.

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Best Known For: Francis Bacon was an English Renaissance statesman and philosopher, best known for his promotion of the scientific method. Francis Bacon served as attorney general and Lord Chancellor of England, resigning amid charges of corruption. His more valuable work was philosophical. Bacon took up Aristotelian ideas, arguing for an empirical, inductive approach, known as the scientific method, which is the foundation of modern scientific inquiry. Early Life Bacon’s philosophy exhibits the elements of anti-authoritarianism, empiricism, and utilitarianism. These three orientations formed his concept of knowledge, value perspective, and both the limit and possibility of his contribution. Bacon did not reflect the conventional pessimism of medieval Christian thinkers who regarded human beings and society as incapable of much improvement due to the corruption of the Human Fall. Instead he was optimistic about the possibilities of truth combined with human freedom and sovereignty. Enlarging human knowledge was a precondition for relieving the hardships of human existence and forming a flourishing new society. He saw science, a collective project for improving social structures, as the means to achieve this. The modern idea of technological “progress” (in the sense of a steady, cumulative, historical advance in applied scientific knowledge) began with Bacon and is an idea that has shaped the past four hundred years.

Solomon, Kat (22 September 2021). "Searching for Artifice in "The Death of Francis Bacon" ". Chicago Review of Books . Retrieved 6 November 2023. Despite his existentialist and bleak outlook, Bacon was charismatic, articulate and well-read. A bon vivant, he spent his middle age eating, drinking and gambling in London's Soho with like-minded friends including Lucian Freud (although they fell out in the mid-1970s, for reasons neither ever explained), John Deakin, Muriel Belcher, Henrietta Moraes, Daniel Farson, Tom Baker and Jeffrey Bernard. After Dyer's suicide he largely distanced himself from this circle, and while still socially active and his passion for gambling and drinking continued, he settled into a platonic and somewhat fatherly relationship with his eventual heir, John Edwards. The work Bacon began immediately following the Grand Palais exhibition revealed that the artist was obsessed with the image of Dyer's body he had witnessed in the Paris hotel room, with his earlier portraits of his model informing a series of triptychs that seemed to show Dyer in various stages of semi-lifelessness. Bacon felt that he was partly responsible for Dyer's death: "I feel profoundly guilty about his death. If I hadn't gone out, if I'd simply stayed in and made sure he was all right, he might have been alive now." Bacon employed images of mythical furies consuming Dyer's body which were emblematic of his feelings of guilt surrounding the death. Here also his studies of science brought him to the conclusion that the methods (and thus the results) were erroneous. His reverence for Aristotle conflicted with his dislike of Aristotelian philosophy, which seemed barren, disputatious, and wrong in its objectives. Noor, Tausif. " Behind the Hedonist Persona of Francis Bacon". The Nation, 9 June 2021. Retrieved 30 January 2022.From Francis Bacon to Tracey Emin: Soho's historic Colony Room Club – in pictures". The Guardian, 13 September 2020. Retrieved 26 June 2022. The Estate of Francis Bacon | Bacon's World". 31 January 2008. Archived from the original on 31 January 2008 . Retrieved 9 November 2020.