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Osho On Francis Bacon

francis bacon

Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban (22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626) was an English philosopher, statesman, and essayist, but is best known as a philosophical advocate and defender of the scientific revolution.


Perhaps there are only three books which can be said to be really important.
One is written by Aristotle. The name of the book is Organum. It means the first principle of wisdom.
The second book is written by Bacon, who is the father of all modern science. His book's name is Novum Organum, new principle of wisdom. Aristotle is thought to be the father of Western logic, mathematics and related sciences, and Bacon is certainly the most important figure who has created the whole of science, the whole technology that has made the West strong, rich, affluent, healthy.
And the third important book is Ouspensky's Tertium Organum, the third principle of wisdom.

(Osho - The Invitation #30)

Lord Bacon, a great scientific mind, has written in his famous book, Novum Organum, that Pythagoras was a great fanatic. Now, this is utter nonsense. Bacon's book is really great; except for this one statement, the book is of immense value. It is said that there are three great books in the world. First is Aristotle's Organum - Organum means principle. The second is Bacon's Novum Organum - new principle. And third is Ouspensky's Tertium Organum - the third principle. And they ARE really great books, incomparable.

(Osho - Philosophia Perennis #1)

In the West this is very significant. People go on writing books and books about whether Shakespeare ever existed or not. As if it makes any difference. The plays that Shakespeare wrote are so beautiful - why not look into the plays and love and enjoy them? This seems to be going astray to ask whether Shakespeare existed or not. And the problem arises because it is thought that Shakespeare was an uneducated man so how could he write such beautiful things? Have you ever known very educated men to write beautiful things?
It is thought that it was not Shakespeare but Lord Bacon who was the real author. But I cannot trust this because I have read Lord Bacon's other books - they have nothing to compare with Shakespeare. Lord Bacon is just ordinary. He may have been a very learned man, he may have been a great scholar, but his books are ordinary, rubbish. Just because he is Lord Bacon and a very famous name, who is deceived? Have you ever heard the name of any book by Lord Bacon? Who is bothered?
How could Lord Bacon write these Shakespearian plays? Under his name he has not written a single masterpiece so how could he write one under a pseudo-name? And if he can write such beautiful plays as the Shakespearian plays are, under a pseudo-name, then what was he doing when he was writing under his own name? It doesn't seem right.

(Osho - Tao: The Pathless Path, vol. 2 #14)

Thinking is like that - it goes on missing the whole point. If you really want to have any contact with reality, then thinking is not the bridge, it is the barrier.
In only three hundred years science has touched great heights. And the reason? The reason is simple. The reason is that Bacon introduced experiment into the world of science. In just three hundred years so much has happened - it did not happen in three thousand years or even in thirty thousand years. It is because of one man, Bacon. He changed the whole course of science and the whole course of human consciousness just by creating a new door of experimentation.
He said, "Speculation is not going to help. People have speculated down the ages and nothing has happened. They go on quarrelling about theories and those theories don't mean a thing." He introduced experiment.
You will be surprised to know where Bacon got the idea of experiment from. You will not believe it! He got it from Sufism. He was a great reader of Sufi books, he was immensely interested in Sufi books, and from the Sufi ideas he got the idea that if experiment is the door to the inner world, why could it not be the door to the outer? Science owes much to Sufism because of this. If some day the right sources are searched for, then the real fathers of science will be the Sufis, not the Greek philosophers, Aristotle, Plato and others, no. They were all speculators.
From where did the idea of experiment enter into the mind of Bacon? It entered from Sufism. He may have read this story or something else, but it entered from Sufism because Sufis are very insistent on experiment. And if religion is also going to grow, then experiment has to become its very foundation. Just as science has reached such a great height within such a small time limit - three hundred years - so religion can also have great possibilities if it becomes experimental.
Religion has much to learn from Sufism. Sufism is the most essential religion - that's why I say it is existential, experimental, experiential.

(Osho - Sufis: The People of the Path, vol.1 #15)