As mentioned, Francis Bacon was a philosopher, scientist, and statesman. He is frequently credited with being one of the contributors to what is today known as the Scientific Method, an empirical mode of knowledge acquisition that relies on hypotheses, experimentation, and evidence to draw conclusions about the natural world.
For Bacon's part in the development of the Scientific Method, he was a known champion of empiricism – an epistemological theory that emphasizes sensory experience as the catalyst for knowledge. Empiricists argued that the formation of ideas stemmed first and foremost from empirical evidence, or evidence gained through the senses. Put into practice, empiricists are often associated with the philosophy of the "blank slate." That is, empiricist thought argues that humans are born with a "blank" mind and only develop ideas and understanding through their experiences with the world.
The Scientific Method has been a part of scientific inquiry since the seventeenth century, the same time that Bacon was writing most of his essays and other works (including New Atlantis, which was published posthumously in 1626). This method, though it has evolved somewhat over the centuries, still maintains its central principles of observation, hypotheses via inductive reasoning, experimentation, and deduction. Early proponents of the Scientific Method – like Bacon – maintained that skepticism was a necessary component of scientific inquiry, as one's biases and external influences could distort one's interpretation of observations. It is no surprise, then, that the utopian body of Salomon's House operates in isolation from the rest of the island in New Atlantis.
