and others cold. It is true that a great many of the experiments mentioned by Bacon do not seem to have been original. It is true that a great many of the experiments mentioned by Bacon, especially those in Sylva Sylvarum,[1] are crude in character. Nevertheless, the supremacy, on the present issue, of Aristotle over Bacon must still be maintained.
Another interesting contrast between Aristotle and Bacon is to be found in their respective attitudes towards the senses. According to Aristotle, in itself, sensation gives truth.[2] It is significant that νοῦς, which is always represented as the guarantee of certainty, is frequently likened to a higher sense.[3] Bacon, on the other hand, does not rest satisfied in the immediate information of the senses, and contrasts himself with 'the logicians' in this regard. "For the senses are also fallacious. ... Where the senses lay hold of a thing, their grasp is not particularly firm. ..."[4] Instances of the Lamp or of first Information are such as aid the senses.[5]
In spite of Bacon's recognition of Idola Fori, he, like Aristotle, is frequently led astray by the common use of words. Aristotle made no attempt to attach a definite, scientific meaning to the word 'hot,' for example. He did not get beyond the vague meaning attached to that term in popular discourse. Bacon's inquiry into the nature of heat exhibits the same tendency, albeit that inquiry was designed to reach a scientific result. Thus Bacon assumes that anything called hot is of the same fundamental nature as anything else called hot, e.g., all flame has heat, so also all villous substances, as wool, skins of animals, and down of birds.[6] The same supremacy of words accounts for the belief, common to Aristotle and Bacon, that heat and cold are absolute qualities. It accounts, too, for the belief, also common to Aristotle and Bacon, that natures and appetites are absolute qualities.
