"Introduction to New Tools"

Author: Yu Lichang
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-12-01
Features: Bacon became known to the Chinese only after the Opium War, when the Chinese sought truth from the West. "To save the country, only reform is possible; to reform, only by learning from the West," China was forced to embark on its arduous journey of learning from the West. For this purpose, Bacon not only arrived in China as a scholar and philosopher but, more accurately, first and foremost as a pioneer of enlightenment thought among the Chinese bourgeoisie dedicated to saving the nation. His philosophy was not only introduced as a branch of academic study but also as a weapon for critiquing the feudal old learning in China, establishing a new scientific way of thinking. The impact Bacon had on modern China cannot be ignored or underestimated. New Instrument is one of Bacon's most important representative works in philosophy and logic. It expresses the ideas he cherished throughout his life—opening up a new path for scientific understanding for humanity so that the human mind can exercise its inherent authority over the nature of things. New Instrument had a significant influence on modern philosophy and logic. It laid the foundation for the modern inductive theory, and the empiricist principles it elaborated paved the way for modern materialist economics.