Never Mind Ancient Authorities, Do the Experiment!
In the 16th century, science was rooted in studying and debating the works of ancient authorities like Aristotle and Galen—until Francis Bacon arrived to challenge this paradigm.
by Joe Schwarcz
Francis Bacon at PG: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/296
Bacon believed that deferring to ancient authority was an obstacle to knowledge. He maintained that the road to knowledge should be paved with the systematic observation of nature and experimentation. This was an unusual point of view at a time when "philosopher scientists" maintained that science was useful only as an aid in elucidating man's relationship with God. They frowned on alchemists who were driven solely by financial motives in their quest to turn lead into gold. But Bacon retorted with an analogy. Alchemy, he said, may be compared to the man who told his sons of gold buried somewhere in the vineyard. They dug and dug and of course found no gold but by turning the soil they got rid of the mold about the roots of their vines and procured a plentiful vintage. Similarly, the alchemists' search for gold may bring many useful inventions and instructive experiments to light. Bacon was obsessed by this idea of using science to bear fruit and he believed it was his role to help huma
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@gutenberg_org France is Bacon.