ABSTRACT
The reference to 'sensuous perception.' in Bacon's methodology is a direct anticipation of John Locke's views as outlined in his Essay Concerning Humane Understanding (1690). Locke, like Bacon, had a mistrust of the concept of innate knowledge prevalent in the seventeenth century. To Bacon, nature presented herself in the form of large classes of phenomena and manifestations that demonstrated both simple and primitive qualities which were concealed from mankind through their inherent complexity. For Bacon, the world of knowledge was a labyrinth that the human mind must enter, observe and from which information was to be collected. The key to understanding was a new method of induction. Through analysing experience, Bacon held that facts and causes concealed from the senses could be understood and that true conclusions could be established. So far reaching were Bacon's ideas that their impetus heralded the founding of the Royal Society of London.
