A quotation from Roger Bacon
Quotation
Reasoning draws a conclusion, but does not make it certain, unless the mind discovers it by the path of experience.
Roger Bacon
The Franciscan who insisted that experiment, not authority, settles a question, and sketched flying machines four centuries early.
Roger Bacon taught at Oxford and Paris and grew impatient with a learning built on citing old books. Knowledge, he argued, comes from two sources: reasoning, which can only propose, and experience, which alone confirms. He pressed for the study of optics, mathematics, languages, and alchemy, performed experiments with lenses and light, and imagined self-propelled carriages, diving suits, and machines for flight. His enthusiasm outran his age and earned him suspicion and, by tradition, imprisonment within his own order. But his demand that nature be questioned directly makes him a forerunner of the scientific method.
Understanding This Quotation
What does Roger Bacon mean by this quotation?
The Franciscan who insisted that experiment, not authority, settles a question, and sketched flying machines four centuries early. Roger Bacon taught at Oxford and Paris and grew impatient with a learning built on citing old books. Knowledge, he argued, comes from two sources: reasoning, which can only propose, and experience, which alone confirms. …