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.
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.
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.