Francis Bacon: Prophetic philosopher or scientific buffoon?

Our series continues with one of the most divisive philosophers of the Renaissance. Was he someone to be admired, or simply a fool?

An engraving of Bacon from 1837: his ambition to reorganise human thought went largely unfulfilled, but what was behind it? (Getty)

Few philosophers divide the opinion of commentators as neatly as Francis Bacon (1561–1626). Some have found early manifestations of the very precepts of the Enlightenment in his many writings, while others detect only anti-intellectual propaganda and a defence of the worst kind of religiosity. 

Bacon is praised by some as the prophet of modern science, and identified by others as a buffoon whose only attempt at scientific experimentation resulted in his ridiculous death. He is currently reviled by feminists for, among other things, his alleged view that “Mother Nature” is there to be tamed and dominated; and hailed by students of Karl Popper, who find in his writings deep insights into the nature of what would become scientific method.

His life is plausibly viewed from two competing perspectives. From one vantage point, he was a philosopher with a brilliant legal mind, who rose to the height of power before his enemies toppled him with trumped-up charges of corruption. From another, he was an unscrupulous self-publicist and social climber, gaining advantage for himself by any means until he was finally, and justly, ruined by his own greed.