Philosophy, science and education in Francis Bacon’s thought

Abstract

This article has as main objective to make a concise approach about Francis Bacon’s (1561-1626) thought, dimensioning it inside the educational area. A summary explanation of his historical context (Renaissence), of his life, of some of his works and of some of the main topics of his philosophy will be done, demonstrating its applicability to pedagogy. By developing a conceptual and contextual approach, this study has adopted as its theoretical-methodological reference the historical-dialectical materialism, according to Lucien Goldmann (1913-1970), pointing as main result the alert done by Bacon in relation to knowledge usefulness in order to improve human beings’ lifetime. This knowledge, identified to power, allows mankind to dominate the natural world and, equally, mankind itself, therefore defeating its own weakness and limitations, because its own ignorance is the root of the evil of its suffering, as well as the material and spiritual difficulties in the presence of which it founds itself, reason for which education, by adopting that conception as one of its foundations, should be thought and practiced in a way to raise awareness to the responsibility that knowledge brings with itself.

Keywords: science, education, philosophy, Francis Bacon.