Francis Bacon
英国唯物主义始祖——弗朗西斯·培根

Francis Bacon (1561-1626) was an English philosopher, statesman, jurist, orator, and essayist, a chief figure of the English Renaissance. He was one of the leading figures in natural philosophy and in the field of scientific methodology in the period of transition from the Renaissance to the early modern era. As a lawyer, member of Parliament, and Queen's Counsel, Bacon wrote on questions of law, state and religion, as well as on contemporary politics; but he also published texts in which he speculated on possible conceptions of society, and he pondered questions of ethics (Essays ) even in his works on natural philosophy (The Advancement of Learning ).
弗朗西斯·培根(1561—1626)是英国文艺复兴时期集哲学家、政治家、法学家、演说家和散文家众多成就于一身的伟大人物。在西方文艺复兴到早期现代社会过渡期，培根在自然哲学和科学方法论领域起着领军作用。培根身兼律师、国会议员和皇家顾问数职，不仅撰文探讨法律、国家、宗教以及现代政治的相关论题，同时还发表文章阐述社会领域的见解。他在《培根随笔》，甚至是自然哲学著作《学术的进展》中都在思考道德伦理问题。

After his studies at Trinity College, Cambridge and Gray's Inn, London, Bacon did not take up a post at a university, but instead tried to start a political career. Bacon's international fame and influence spread during his last years, and he focused his energies exclusively on his philosophical work. Some of the more notable works by Bacon include Novum Organum Scientiarum (‘New Method', 1620) and New Atlantis (1627).
完成在剑桥三一学院和葛雷法学院的学业后，培根并没有选择在大学担任教职，而是开启政治生涯。晚年的培根专心致志投入哲学研究，获得了空前的国际声誉和影响力。其重要作品包括《新工具》(1620)和《新大西岛》(1627)。

Bacon has been called the father of empiricism. His works established and popularized inductive methodologies for scientific inquiry, often called the Baconian method, or simply the scientific method. Bacon is also considered great because of his introduction of science in England to be the philosophical influence behind the dawning of the Industrial age.
培根被称为“经验论之父”。他的论著建立且推广了科学研究的归纳方法，又称培根法，即我们所说的科学方法。培根的卓越之处还在于他在工业时代拉开帷幕之前借哲学之力向英国引入了科学的概念。