Abstract
Roger Bacon was born in Ilchester in either 1214 or 1220. After his matriculation at Oxford, he was one of the pioneers to teach Aristotle at the University of Paris. His return to Oxford in the late 1240s marked a turning point in his career. He joined the Franciscans in 1257, and in 1267/1268, he sent three works, comprising a plan for the reorganization of Christian studies, to the Pope. In his Parisian phase of career, he developed the idea of the utmost significance of the speaker’s intention and original theories of imposition and equivocation. He affirmed that universals are extramental, believed in innate confused knowledge, and held to the theory of universal hylomorphism. In his mature phase of thought, he proposed an order of sciences in which the practical sciences received precedence, advocated the use of experimental method, developed the theory of the multiplication of species, and combined it with Alhacen’s ideas on light and vision. By this move, he initiated the tradition of the science of Perspectiva in the West. Bacon viewed nature as a coherent system governed by laws and formulated some of them. He stressed the importance of mathematics in providing scientific explanations and drew geometrical diagrams exemplifying various optical phenomena. Bacon described the details of the workings of the sensitive soul and ascribed complex cognitive capacities to animals. He presented an original classification of signs and reversed the linguistic triangle prescribed by Aristotle and Boethius. His view of matter as positive and worthy of investigation found expression in his strong notion of representation, advocating the need to portray both formal and material aspects in cognitive contents and language.
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Kedar, Y. (2018). Roger Bacon. In: Lagerlund, H. (eds) Encyclopedia of Medieval Philosophy. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-1151-5_449-2
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