Born in 1561. He observed that because “the mind, hastily and without choice, imbibes and treasures up the first notices of things, from whence all the rest proceed, errors must forever prevail, and remain uncorrected." Knowledge therefore resembles “a magnificent structure that has no foundation.” He proposed induction as the new basis of knowledge. Induction is the gathering of large numbers of facts and the detection of patterns. Francis Bacon urged men “to make peace between themselves, and turning with united forces against the Nature of things, to storm and occupy her castles and strongholds, and extend the bounds of human empire." He was the first philosopher of science, and established its ethical parameters. This view persisted throughout the Enlightenment. In 1830, Henri Saint-Simon, a French political theorist, said, “the exploitation of man by man has come to its end…. The exploitation of the globe, of external nature, becomes henceforth the sole end of man’s physical activity.” Of course, there’s a reason why these predictions of men making peace with another never come to pass. Once men make war on nature, they will soon fight with each other over the pieces. There is a straight line from Bacon’s logic to [[Larry Summers’ destructive views]] more than 5 centuries later.