To understand how Bacon shook the scientific community, you should first understand the science of Bacon’s time. Scientists during the late 16th century used a “top down approach” to science. According to Steven Gimbel, associate professor of philosophy and author of “Exploring the Scientific Method,” these “top-down” scientists started with a theory and ran experiments to “prove” that theory; to ensure that their findings met their theories, scientists would sometimes “conveniently” ignore or change the results of their studies. Any serious student of science knows that this method differs greatly from the science of today Bacon's proposed use of inductive reasoning encouraged scientists to come to conclusions by way of data collection.
