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Aristotle (384–322 BCE)

Aristotle wrote widely on almost every subject from ethics to politics to natural history, and dominated Western thought up to and beyond the Middle Ages. Medieval Aristotelian philosophers, who taught in universities or "schools," were often known as Scholastics. Many later scientists and philosophers worked in a fundamentally Aristotelian way. Bacon seeks to end the dominance of Aristotle by attacking his methodology and central premises; he argues that his dominance results from prejudice and from the authority of others, not from the merits of his philosophy. Bacon was not the first anti-Aristotelian philosopher, but he is among the most strident. See Syllogism in Terms.

William Gilbert (c. 1540–1603)

Gilbert was Elizabeth I's physician, and published studies of electricity and magnetism. He published De Magnete in 1600, in which he argued that the world was a huge magnet with north and south poles. Bacon criticizes Gilbert's work as an example of the empirical style of philosophy, which focuses on a limited series of experiments and encourages the mind to develop unsubstantiated general theories. See Idols of the Theater in Terms.

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