Chapter 1, The Great Instauration Summary and Analysis

In the 'Procemium' or Preliminary, Francis Bacon argues that it is crucial for him to write the present work, as the human mind so easily misuses its reason and does so in innumerable ways. In fact, the meeting of the mind and the world, true understanding, is 'more precious than anything or earth' and must be restored to its original condition or even improved with the instruments of logic. Humans tend to accumulate false, confused and hastily abstracted beliefs. Men often applaud the 'false powers of the mind' and 'throw away those true powers' (presumably faith and scientific reasoning, respectively). But if men focused on their true powers of reasoning they could actually master nature.

And so Bacon argued that reason can reconstruct science, art and all human knowledge if it is placed on the...