Inductive Argument Term paper

“The Novum Organum” by Francis Bacon was, to a significant extent, a revolutionary philosophical work. In this work, Francis Bacon offered a consistently different method compared to the one which was widely applied in philosophy as well as science at the epoch. To put it more precisely, Francis Bacon introduced the inductive method, which actually challenged the deductive method that prevailed at the epoch. In such a way, he challenged the traditional view on philosophical and scientific method and attempted to introduce the method which could allow philosophers and scientists to obtain objective and accurate results of their researches.

In fact, the method developed by Francis Bacon was not totally new. Instead, the origin of his inductive method can be traced back to the antiquity. Francis Bacon was inspired by works of ancient philosophers, especially Aristotle, on logic and syllogism. Ancient philosophers and their ideas encouraged Francis Bacon to develop his own system of logic which was partially grounded on theoretical developments of ancient philosophers and on his own ideas and achievements in the field of logic and philosophy. As a result, he introduced the method of induction which was based on a simple process of reduction and the use of inductive reasoning. He argues that due to the reduction and inductive reasoning it is possible to achieve objective outcomes of any study.

In this respect, it should be said that the argument developed by Francis Bacon contradicts to the method of deduction, according to which the research should be based on the analysis of every details of a subject of the research. In such a way, through analysis of details the entire picture is formed and a researcher can arrive to definite conclusions concerning the subject of his or her research. Obviously the method of deduction contradicts to the inductive method developed by Francis Bacon because the deduction is entirely focused on the subject of the research, which is analyzed and studied in details, while Bacon’s induction implies the wider analysis and further reduction which actually contrasts to the deductive generalization, which should accomplish the research based on the method of deduction.

In fact, the argument developed by Francis Bacon sounds quite convincing since it is logical and implies that the researcher can obtain objective and reliable results. For instance, if the heat is a subject of the research, according to Bacon, the researcher should list all the situations when heat can be found. Then, the researcher should list situations similar to the previous one but when there is the lack of heat.

Finally, the researcher should list situations when heat can vary. In such a way, the researcher arrives to the understanding of such natural phenomenon as heat through the analysis of various situation when heat occurs or not, or varies substantially.

Therefore, Bacon’s method is based on an objective analysis which takes into consideration multiple factors and various situations, which allow the researcher to clearly define the essence of the subject researched and its basic characteristics.



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