I’m afraid Francis Bacon cribbed essentially all of his scientific method from an Iraqi usually called “Ibn al Haytham” (or “Alhacen”, or “Alhazen”, in different contexts).
Al Haytham invented modern science as an adjunct to studying (i.e., creating the field of) optics, about a thousand years ago. Appealingly, instead of simply advocating the method, he demonstrated using it to investigate natural phenomena, and explained, alongside his results, how the method offered the reader both confidence in his results and a means to correct his errors.
Bacon deserves some credit for bringing al Haytham’s insights to the English-speaking public, centuries later. He didn’t pretend to originality, but the English at the time weren’t very interested in what an Iraqi had done 500 years earlier.
I’m afraid Francis Bacon cribbed essentially all of his scientific method from an Iraqi usually called “Ibn al Haytham” (or “Alhacen”, or “Alhazen”, in different contexts).
Al Haytham invented modern science as an adjunct to studying (i.e., creating the field of) optics, about a thousand years ago. Appealingly, instead of simply advocating the method, he demonstrated using it to investigate natural phenomena, and explained, alongside his results, how the method offered the reader both confidence in his results and a means to correct his errors.
Bacon deserves some credit for bringing al Haytham’s insights to the English-speaking public, centuries later. He didn’t pretend to originality, but the English at the time weren’t very interested in what an Iraqi had done 500 years earlier.