timelets

“Bacon developed a new philosophy of science. He argued we should collect information about the world through observation and experiment, and use that information to create axioms (principles). We would test axioms through more observation and experimentation, generating more general axioms.

You can picture Bacon’s method as a kind of ladder. On the bottom rung, scientists collect information about particular things. For example, a biologist observing North American animals notices that many moose shed hair in May. Moving up the ladder, she formulates an axiom: ‘Alaskan moose shed their winter coats in spring’. She could test this axiom through further observation. If the axiom seems sound, she could combine it with other axioms about moose. Another might be, ‘Shiras moose shed their winter coats in spring.’ Moving further up the ladder, the biologist could make a more general observation, ‘All moose shed their winter coats in spring.’

By collecting data and creating axioms about it, science would progress. ”

--- Emily Thomas. “The Meaning of Travel.”