Baconian Logic

Francis Bacon grew tired of his teachers telling him that the only conclusions that can be reached are those built upon time-honored and accepted traditions. In other words, one cannot discover any new truths. Aristotle discovered most of them centuries before. The best one could do was develop upon the propositions we already know to be true.

Bacon decided to build a new way to new discoveries with the experiment. Thus he invented the scientific process and gave us the basis of most modern science and medicine. Indeed, with it we cured epidemics (Jonas Salk) and staved off world hunger (Norman Borlaug), but with it we also built nuclear bombs (Oppenheimer, et al). For us, it is an excellent line of reasoning to follow when we write.


Simply follow the method as an outline for each sentence in a paragraph. Happy writing.

PS, most writing---including the ever-popular Jane Schaffer chunk---follows a version of Baconian logic.