A New Novum Organum for the 21st Century?

About the Bibliography Section

This is a collection of publicly available references to documents or other materials that have been relevant to the discussions, and which might be relevant to the book or as a resource for other related activiies.

NB The presence of materials lists here is not intended to be an endorsement by this project of their content. In the same way, the absence of materials from these lists should not be interpreted as a deliberate rejection or repudiation of their content.

Resources for Beginners

This is intended to provide a brief bibliography of information to help newcomers to the the project to get started. The aim here is to provide a concise list of cheap or free resources, written in English translation.

One thing to note is that the title Novum Organum is the orginal Latin title. Bacon wrote this work in Latin: in those days this would have made it accessible to other scholars in Europe. Novum means new. His choice of the word Organum relates to the work by Aristotle: Organon, the equivalent word in Greek, and means tool, instrument or organ. In this way, Bacon indicated that his work followed on from that of Aristotle. In the same way, the vision for this New Novum Organum project is to produce a work that follows on from that of Bacon.

Introductory Books & Reading
  • Bacon's Novum Organum in English Translation
    • The New Organon, Francis Bacon, from the Early Modern Philosophy webpage, free download as PDF or eBook.
    • Novum Organum, Francis Bacon, ed. and trans. Peter Urbach and John Gibson, Open Court, Illinois, 1994. Contains a 20 page "Editor's Introduction" by Peter Urbach.
    • The Wikipedia Novum Organum webpage
    • The Wikisource Novum Organum webpage
  • Bacon's Works in English Translation
    • The Major Works: Including "New Atlantis" and the "Essays", Francis Bacon, Oxford University Press, 1996. Contains a 40 page "Introduction" and about 300 pages of "Notes", by Brian Vickers.
    • Bacon's Wikisource listing
About Bacon's life and times

Francis Bacon was born during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, who was the last of the Tudor house. Bacon rose to high office under the reign of James I, the first of the Stuarts, and who was also James VI of Scotland.

These were turbulent times, and it was under James' successor, Charles I that the Monachy was overthrown, Oliver Cromwell established a republic, and Charles I was, himself, executed.

The Wikipedia accounts are (probably necessarily) quite simplistic, but it seems clear that Bacon's influence with both Elizabeth I and James I was signifcant in maintaining some stability, during his own lifetime, and Bacon's impeachment in 1621 was the unfortunate first step in Charles I's demise.

The Organiser

Alison McMillan, Prof in Aerospace Technology, Wrexham Glyndwr University and Chair IOP Wales.

a.mcmillan@glyndwr.ac.uk or ajmcmillan17@gmail.com.

Bibliography

Books
  • Bacon's Works
    • Some of Bacon's publications are archived by the Gutenberg project
    • The Online Books Page: The Works of Francis Bacon, edited by James Spedding, Robert Leslie Ellis and Douglas Denon Heath: website with links to facsimilies of the 15 volume collection published by Houghton Mifflin around 1900.
    • Novum Organum, Francis Bacon, ed. and trans. Peter Urbach and John Gibson, Open Court, Illinois, 1994. Contains a 20 page "Editor's Introduction" by Peter Urbach.
    • The Major Works: Including "New Atlantis" and the "Essays", Francis Bacon, Oxford University Press, 1996. Contains a 40 page "Introduction" and about 300 pages of "Notes", by Brian Vickers.
    • Bacon's Wikisource listing
  • Works by Bacon's near contemporaries
  • Books about Philosophy and Science related to Religion
    • Inventing the Individual: The Origins of Western Liberalism, Larry Siedentop, Penguin, 2015.
    • Medieval Foundations of the Western Intellectual Tradition, Marcia L. Colish, Yale University Press, 1999.
    • Inferior: The true power of women and the science that shows it, Angela Saini, Fourth Estate, 2018.
    • The Selfish Gene, Richard Dawkins, Oxford University Press, 4th Ed, 2016.
  • Books about Education
  • Books about Interdisciplinary Studies
Written Articles (General Media)
  • Big History Project This is David Christian's project to present knowledge in what we might call a "trans-disciplinary" way, and suited to a wide range of age groups. It is comprised of teaching materials, and is available free with support from Bill Gates.
Audio/visual Articles
Other Artworks