弗兰西斯培根（Francis Bacon，1561―1626），英国17世纪著名的政治家、思想家和经验主义哲学家，提出了“知识就是力量”的著名论断，创立了科学归纳法。 弗兰西斯·培根，第一代圣阿尔本子爵（Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban，1561年1月22日－1626年4月9日），著名英国哲学家、政治家、科学家、法学家、演说家和散文作家，是古典经验论的始祖。
生平
1561年1月22日，弗兰西斯·培根出生于伦敦一个高级官员家庭。他的父亲尼古拉·培根爵士（Sir Nicholas Bacon）担任过伊丽莎白女王的大法官。培根是父亲第二位妻子的最小的儿子。他的母亲是文艺复兴时代的一个博学多才的贵族妇女，其母的妹夫是伊丽莎白女王的重臣伯利勋爵。有了这种家庭背景和社会关系，再加上才华出众，培根很早就有了出入宫廷的机会。早在孩提时代，他就被伊丽莎白女王称为“我的小掌玺大臣”。
Farrell, John. 6: The Science of Suspicion. Paranoia and Modernity: Cervantes to Rousseau. Cornell University Press. 2006. ISBN 978-0801474064.
Farrington, Benjamin. The Philosophy of Francis Bacon. University of Chicago Press. 1964.Contains English translations of
Temporis Partus Masculus
Cogitata et Visa
Redargutio Philosophiarum
Heese, Mary. Francis Bacon's Philosophy of Science. (编) Vickers, Brian. Essential Articles for the Study of Francis Bacon. Hamden, CT: Archon Books. 1968: 114–39.
Lewis, Rhodri. "Francis Bacon and Ingenuity." Renaissance Quarterly 67.1 (2014): 113–163. in JSTOR
Roselle, Daniel; Young, Anne P. 5: The 'Scientific Revolution' and the 'Intellectual Revolution'. Our Western Heritage.[需要完整来源]
Rossi, Paolo. Francis Bacon: from Magic to Science. Taylor & Francis. 1978.
Serjeantson, Richard. "Francis Bacon and the 'Interpretation of Nature' in the Late Renaissance," Isis (Dec 2014) 105#4 pp: 681–705.
Bacon has been called the father of empiricism. His works argued for the possibility of scientific knowledge based only upon inductive reasoning and careful observation of events in nature. Most importantly, he argued science could be achieved by use of a sceptical and methodical approach whereby scientists aim to avoid misleading themselves. Although his most specific proposals about such a method, the Baconian method, did not have a long-lasting influence, the general idea of the importance and possibility of a sceptical methodology makes Bacon the father of the scientific method. This method was a new rhetorical and theoretical framework for science, the practical details of which are still central in debates about science and methodology.
Francis Bacon was a patron of libraries and developed a functional system for the cataloguing of books by dividing them into three categories—history, poetry, and philosophy—which could further be divided into more specific subjects and subheadings. Bacon was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he rigorously followed the medieval curriculum, largely in Latin.
Bacon was the first recipient of the Queen's counsel designation, which was conferred in 1597 when Elizabeth I of England reserved Bacon as her legal advisor. After the accession of James VI and I in 1603, Bacon was knighted. He was later created Baron Verulam in 1618 and Viscount St. Alban in 1621.[b]
Because he had no heirs, both titles became extinct upon his death in 1626, at 65 years. Bacon died of pneumonia, with one account by John Aubrey stating that he had contracted the condition while studying the effects of freezing on the preservation of meat. He is buried at St Michael's Church, St Albans, Hertfordshire.
概述
弗兰西斯·培根（Francis Bacon ，1561—1626）是英国哲学家、思想家、作家和科学家。他竭力倡导“读史使人明智，读诗使人灵秀，数学使人精密，哲理使人深刻，伦理学使人有修养，逻辑修辞之学使人善辩。”（Histories make men wise, poets witty, the mathematics subtle, natural philosophy deep, moral grave, logic and rhetoric able to contend)
他推崇科学、发展科学的进步思想和崇尚知识的进步口号，一直推动着社会的进步。这位一生追求真理的思想家，被马克思称为“英国唯物主义和整个现代实验科学的真正始祖”。他在逻辑学、美学、教育学方面也提出许多思想。著有《新工具》、《论说随笔文集》等。后者收入58篇随笔，从各个角度论述广泛的人生问题，精妙、有哲理，拥有很多读者。
著有《学术的进步》（1605）和《新工具》（1620）等。培根尖锐地批判了中世纪经院哲学，认为经院哲学和神学严重地阻培根作品《新工具》碍了科学的进步，主张要全面改造人类的知识，使整个学术文化从经院哲学中解放出来，实现伟大的复兴。他认为，科学必须追求自然界事物的原因和规律。要达到这个目的，就必须以感官经验为依据。他提出了唯物主义经验论的原则，认为知识和观念起源于感性世界，感觉经验是一切知识的源泉。要获得自然的科学知识，就必须把认识建筑在感觉经验的基础上。他还提出了经验归纳法，主张以实验和观察材料为基础，经过分析、比较、选择、排除，最后得出正确的结论。
《论说文集》最能体现培根的写作风格：文笔优美、语言凝练、寓意深刻。这本书中的文章从各种角度论述了他对人与社会、人与自己、人与自然的关系的许多独到而精辟的见解，使许许多多人从这本书中获得熏陶指导。如：
“一个自身无德的人见别人有德必怀嫉妒”。
“没有友谊，则世上不过是一片荒野”。
“最能保人心神健康的预防药，就是朋友的忠言规谏”。“思想中的疑心就好培根作品《论说文集》象鸟中的蝙蝠一样，永远是在黄昏中飞的。疑心使君王倾向专制，丈夫倾向嫉妒，智者倾向寡断和忧郁。”
“狡猾就是一种阴险邪恶的聪明。一个狡猾人与一个聪明人之间，却有一种很大的差异，这差异不但是在诚实上，而且是在才能上的。”
“顺境的美德是节制；逆境的美德是坚忍。这后一种是较为伟大的一种德性。”
培根一生在学问上成就很大，然而作为政客他饱尝了仕途之艰辛。做女王掌玺大臣的父亲去世后，他一直未得到女王的重用。直到詹姆斯一世当政，他才逐渐得到升迁，先后担任过法院院长、检察长、掌玺大臣等，还被封男爵、子爵等贵族尊号。然而，后来他又被免除了一切官职。成为平民之后，培根将全部的精力投入到学问研究中，他最终成为中世纪英国著名的唯物主义哲学创始者。1626年4月培根离开了人世。
弗兰西斯 培根（1561——1626）是一位英国文艺复兴的代表人物，他是杰出的哲学家，科学家及散文家。他通过持之以恒地用科学方法思考及依靠观察而非权威学说获取知识的态度成为现代科学的奠基人。他的《培根散文集》是英国文学中这一流派的典范，并被誉为英语散文发展的重要里程碑。他所运用的一些新鲜词汇还进入了英国文学传统。
"Of Studies"主要内容：
《论读书》<<Of Studies>>是培根散文集58篇散文集中最著名的一篇。文章分析了学习的主要的目的，不同人采取不同学习方法及学习是如何对人的性情品格产生潜移默化的影响。《Of studies》的语言有气度并颇有说服力，结构简练而紧凑，向读者揭示了培根对学习的自然客观态度。
Of Studies is the most popular of Bacon's 58 essays.It analyzes what studies cheifly serve for,the different ways adopted by different people to pursue studies,and how studies exert influence over human character.Forceful and persuasive,compact and precise,Of Studies reveals to us Bacon's mature attitude towards learning.
“Of Studies”英文原版：
Of Studies is writen by Francis Bacon
Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability. Their chief use for delight, is in privateness and retiring; for ornament, is in discourse; and for ability, is in the judgment and disposition of business.
For expert and execute, and perhaps judge of particulars, one by one; but the general counsels, and the plots and marshalling of affairs, come best form those that are learned.
To spend too much time in studies is sloth; to use them too much for ornament, is affectation; to make judgement wholly by their rules, is the humour of a scholar.
They perfect nature, and are perfected by experience: for natural abilities are like natural plants, that need proyning (pruning) by study; and studies themselves do give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in/ by experience.
Crafty men contemn studies, simple men admire them, and wise men use them; for they teach not their own use; but that is a wisdom without them, and above them, won by observation.
Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider.
Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested; that is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to be read, but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention.
Some books also may be read by deputy, and extracts made of them by others; but that would be only in the less important arguments, and the meaner sort of books; else distilled books are, like common distilled waters, flashy things.
Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man. And therefore, if a man write little, he had need have a great memory; if he confer little, he had need have a present wit; and if he read little, he had need have much cunning, to seem to know that he doth not.
Histories make men wise; poets witty; the mathematics subtile; natural philosophy deep; moral grave; logic and rhetoric able to contend. Abeunt studia in morse. (Studeis go to make up a man’s character. '?-be-"unt-'stü-dE-"?-"in-'mO-"rAs)
Nay there is no stand or impediment in the wit, but may be wrought out by fit studies: like as diseases of the body may have appropriate exercises. Bowling is good for the stone and reins; shooting for the lungs and breast; gentle walking for the stomach ; riding for the head; and the like.
So if a man's wit be wandering, let him study the mathematics; for in demonstrations, if his wit be called away never so little, he must begin again. If his wit be not apt to distinguish or find differences, let him study the schoolmen; for they are cymini sectores. (Hair-splitters sim-mini sek-torr-es) If he be not apt to beat over matters, and to call up one thing to prove and illustrate another, let him study the lawyers' cases. So every defect of the mind may have a special receipt.--培根 论读书(英语语言学文学网站：http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_59a22f2b0100awo3.html 参考资料《英美文学选读》）
"of studies"中文译文：
读书足以怡情，足以傅彩，足以长才。其怡情也，最见于独处幽居之时；其傅彩也，最见于高谈阔论之中；其长才也，最见于处 世判事之际。
练达之士虽能分别处理细事或一一判别枝节，然纵观统筹，全局策划，则舍好学深思者莫属。读书费时过多易惰，文采藻饰太盛则矫，全凭条文断事乃学究故态。
读书补天然之不足，经验又补读书之不足，盖天生才干犹如自然花草，读书然后知如何修剪移接，而书中所示，如不以经验范之，则又大而无当。
有一技之长者鄙读书，无知者羡读书，唯明智之士用读书，然书并不以用处告人，用书之智不在书中，而在书外，全凭观察得之。
读书时不可存心诘难读者，不可尽信书上所言，亦不可只为寻章摘句，而应推敲细思。
书有可浅尝者，有可吞食者，少数则须咀嚼消化。换言之，有只需读其部分者，有只须大体涉猎者，少数则须全读，读时须全神贯注，孜孜不倦。书亦可请人代读，取其所作摘要，但只限题材较次或价值不高者，否则书经提炼犹如水经蒸馏，淡而无味。
读书使人充实，讨论使人机智，笔记使人准确。因此不常做笔记者须记忆力特强，不常讨论者须天生聪颖，不常读书者须欺世有术，始能无知而显有知。
读史使人明智，读诗使人聪慧，数学使人周密，科学使人深刻，伦理学使人庄重，逻辑修辞之学使人善辩；凡有所学，皆成性格。
人之才智但有滞碍，无不可读适当之书使之顺畅，一如身体百病，皆可借相宜之运动除之。滚球利睾肾，射箭利胸肺，慢步利肠胃，骑术利头脑，诸如此类。如智力不集中，可令读数学，盖演题需全神贯注，稍有分散即须重演；如不能辩异，可令读经院哲学，盖是辈皆吹毛求疵之人；如不善求同，不善以一物阐证另一物，可令读律师之案卷。如此头脑中凡有缺陷，皆有特效可医。--王佐良 译
