Bacon, Francis

[person]

English statesman and philosopher born in London (1561-1626). In 1620, Bacon published the Novum Organum, in which he argued for a method of scientific inquiry based on inductive reasoning in which the only way to discover the truth was to gather evidence from the real world. He is often referred to as the catalyst for the Scientific Revolution. In 1618, Bacon was appointed Lord Chancellor, and in 1621, he was made viscount St. Albans.