19 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Evolving Methods of Science
A closer look at the course followed by developing theory reveals for a start that it is by no means as continuous as one might expect, but full of breaks and at least apparently not along the shortest logical path. Certain methods often afforded the most handsome results only the other day, and many might well have thought that the development of science to infinity would consist in no more than their constant application. Instead, on the contrary, they suddenly reveal themselves as exhauste...Science does not progress smoothly through the constant application of a single method, but the methods change and there is conflict between generations.
25 JUL 2011 by ideonexus
Francis Bacon Takes Issue With Postmodernism
The doctrine of those who have denied that certainty could be attained at all has some agreement with my way of proceeding at the first setting out; but they end in being infinitely separated and opposed. For the holders of that doctrine assert simply that nothing can be known. I also assert that not much can be known in nature by the way which is now in use. But then they go on to destroy the authority of the senses and understanding; whereas I proceed to devise and supply helps for the same.Bacon attacks postmodernism and the idea that we cannot know anything through the senses, even though postmodernism didn't exist yet.