Hossein Jorjani
First publication: 2026 – 06 – 30
Francis Bacon’s Instauratio magna (1620) is often regarded as the manifesto of the early modern scientific revolution. Less frequently noticed is that its six-part structure was deliberately modeled on Aristotle’s Organon.
Bacon’s Instauratio magna (“Great Renewal”) was conceived in deliberate correspondence with Aristotle’s Organon (“Instrument”), the six treatises that had long served as the foundation of Aristotelian logic and method. By designing his Instauratio in six parts, Bacon not only echoed the formal structure of the Organon but also intended to replace it—to supply a novum organum, a “new instrument,” by which the intellect might interpret nature through experience rather than syllogism.
In the Categoriae (Categories), Aristotle analyzed the fundamental kinds of predication; Bacon’s First Part, Partitiones Scientiarum (The Divisions of the Sciences), correspondingly reclassified the whole body of knowledge to expose the inadequacy of inherited divisions.
Aristotle’s De interpretatione (On Interpretation) treated the logic of speech and proposition; Bacon’s Second Part, Novum Organum sive Indicia de Interpretatione Naturae (The New Organon, or Indications Concerning the Interpretation of Nature), replaced verbal analysis with a new method of inquiry grounded in induction.
The Analytica priora (Prior Analytics) established the principles of syllogistic reasoning; Bacon’s Third Part, Phaenomena Universi sive Historia Naturalis et Experimentalis ad condendam Philosophiam (The Phenomena of the Universe, or Natural and Experimental History for the Foundation of Philosophy), substituted the systematic collection of empirical data for deduction from abstract premises.
Where Aristotle’s Analytica posteriora (Posterior Analytics) prescribed the logic of scientific demonstration, Bacon’s Fourth Part, Scala Intellectus (The Ladder of the Intellect), described the true ascent from observation to axioms—the proper order of discovery and proof.
The Topica (Topics), devoted to dialectical reasoning and probable inference, found its counterpart in Bacon’s Fifth Part, Prodromi sive Anticipationes Philosophiae Secundae (Forerunners, or Anticipations of the Second Philosophy), where provisional insights (anticipationes) served as heuristic aids rather than dogmatic conclusions.
Finally, Aristotle’s De sophisticis elenchis (On Sophistical Refutations) catalogued logical fallacies, while Bacon’s Sixth Part, Philosophia Secunda sive Scientia Activa (The Second Philosophy, or Active Science), aimed at purging the intellect of its idola (illusions) and directing knowledge toward practical dominion over nature.
Thus, Bacon’s sixfold Instauratio magna both mirrors and transcends Aristotle’s Organon. The parallel is intentional and programmatic: what Aristotle had offered as an instrument of reason, Bacon reformed as an instrument of discovery. This design is explicitly presented a few pages later in the Distributio Operis:
Prima; Partitiones Scientiarum. Secunda; Novum Organum, sive Indicia de Interpretatione Naturae. Tertia; Phaenomena Universi, sive Historia Naturalis et Experimentalis ad condendam Philosophiam. Quarta; Scala Intellectus. Quinta; Prodromi, sive Anticipationes Philosophiae Secundae. Sexta; Philosophia Secunda, sive Scientia Activa.
First: The Divisions of the Sciences. Second: The Novum Organum, or Indications Concerning the Interpretation of Nature. Third: The Phenomena of the Universe, or Natural and Experimental History for the Foundation of Philosophy. Fourth: The Ladder of the Intellect. Fifth: Forerunners, or Anticipations of the Second Philosophy. Sixth: The Second Philosophy, or Active Science. The Distributio thus confirms Bacon’s conscious imitation of the Aristotelian model, while declaring the purpose of the Instauratio—not to preserve the ancient logic, but to renew and perfect it through the disciplined interpretation of nature.
Hossein Jorjani 