Проблема индукции как проблема религиозного и нравственного возрождения в учении Фр. Бэкона о методе

Abstract

Francis Bacon’s name is associated with the justification of the idea that science should be inductive and with the attempt to develop scientific induction. How­ever, induction in any form suffers from serious difficulties. The paper refutes at­tempts to defend Bacon and his project by claiming that it is only about elimina­tive induction. It is shown that Bacon is an inductivist in the full sense of the word: he hopes to construct a method that makes any conjectures completely unnecessary. Nature itself, as if taking the researcher by the hand, will lead him to more and more general and profound statements. The Baconian version of sci­entific induction can be criticised from different perspectives. One may wonder why Bacon himself did not see the defects in his inductivist methodology. The following answer is suggested: for him these problems are not solved by logic, but by religious and moral regeneration. This is proved by referring to Ba­con’s short text New Atlantis, famous for the project of a fundamentally new or­ganisation of science presented here. However, it should be noted that from the first lines of New Atlantis the theme of Christianity clearly resounds. Turning to one of the central episodes of New Atlantis – the story of how the inhabitants of an island lost in the Pacific Ocean found the Gospels in 50 AD – shows, firstly, that Christianity was brought to the island by a miracle; secondly, it came in its original purity, not clouded by human interpretations. Bacon’s narrative should lead readers to believe that the islanders received Christianity at first hand, free from papism, theology and scholasticism. It is argued that Bacon’s idea is to take this fact into account in order to explain the success of the science of the island, which, of course, follows his scientific induction. The question of the Old Testament roots of the House of Solomon described by Bacon and the significance of the figure of the Jew named Joabin as mediator between the nar­rator and the House of Solomon is also considered.