Ch. 2: Aristotle's medieval view and Francis Bacon

Question 1

Aristotle : two different realms

Answer 1

Superlunary/Celestial region
Sublunary/TErrestrial realm

Question 2

Aristotle’s medieval view of the cosmos

Answer 2

the earth is heavy and immobile, placed at the center of the universe and the cosmos sorrounding the earth was made up of crystalline spheres to which planets and stars are attached

Question 3

Sublunary/ Celestial region

Answer 3

(Area from the moon outwards) In this realm everything is eternal and perfect. THings move in perfect circles

Question 4

Sublunary/Terrestrial realm

Answer 4

(Area between earth and moon) In this realm things are corruptible and perishable. There are elements that come to being, exist or a while and then die and decay. They don’t move in perfect circles, nut instead go in a straight line and then halt

Question 5

Who introduces the idea of the ‘idols’

Answer 5

Francis Bacon

Question 6

Why does Francis Bacon introduce the idea of the ‘idols’

Answer 6

he thinks that the mind doesn’t have perfect images of the world, instead lots of views are actually distorted (distortions that exist in four different categories). In order to establish a science based on accurate knowledge of reality, one must purge their mind from the idols.

Question 7

Idols of the tribe

Answer 7

endemic to humans. Fault in postulating regularity in nature, the failure to see visual illusions as illusions

Question 8

IDols of the cave

Answer 8

implications of nurture (upbringing, education) not corresponding with nature

Question 9

Idols of the marketplace

Answer 9

Distorted beliefs rooted in language, we sometimes get trapped in the idden presuppositions hidden in linguistic expressions

Question 10

Idols of the theatre

Answer 10

accepted dogmas, old schools of thought, traditions

Question 11

Francis Bacon : analogy of insects

Answer 11

spiders: rationalists, who weave a web of their own substance. Ants: empiricists, that merely collect and use. Bacon says that we should aspire to be like bees, which gather necessary materials than tranform and difest it by a power of their own.

Question 12

name the book used as the new toolg for investigting nature

Answer 12

Novum Organum

Question 13

Explain the Francis Bacon’s new method for science

Answer 13

his aim with the novum organum is to bring forward a total reconstruction of science basing it on proper foundations, It would no longer rely on faith tradition and the theological canon of church authority, but would instead be guided by observation and eperimenting