Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 06 – 30 AI systems, now and in the future, may function as components of an external cognitive infrastructure for scientific inquiry. Their potential roles include: (1) storing and retrieving data as an augmented external memory; (2) structuring and organizing recorded experience, functioning as an inference machine that extractsContinue reading “Excursus 038 – On AI as External Cognitive Infrastructure”
Tag Archives: Francis Bacon
Excursus 037 – On Hope and Despair in Scientific Inquiry
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 06 – 30 Bacon’s warning against the “supposition of impossibility” speaks directly to a recurring problem in scientific inquiry: the tendency to dismiss certain questions or lines of investigation as inherently unanswerable before they have been adequately explored. His remedy was not unqualified optimism but what he called “trueContinue reading “Excursus 037 – On Hope and Despair in Scientific Inquiry”
Excursus 036 – On Scriptures and Science
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 06 – 30 In modern science, references to God or Scripture are absent from scientific discourse. This reflects the principle of methodological naturalism, in which science explains phenomena solely in terms of natural causes and observable evidence. While individual scientists may hold personal religious beliefs, such beliefs are notContinue reading “Excursus 036 – On Scriptures and Science”
Excursus 034 – On the Use of Everyday Examples
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 06 – 30 The recurrence of examples involving bread, wine, and beer in writers as different as Bacon and Adam Smith is not accidental. In early-modern Europe, these products represented the most basic and universally recognized outcomes of human skill: grain-processing (bread, beer) and fermentation (wine, beer). For Bacon,Continue reading “Excursus 034 – On the Use of Everyday Examples”
Excursus 033 – On the Reciprocal Development of Philosophy and Science
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 06 – 30 In Aphorism I:80 of the Novum Organum (1620), Bacon argues that the sciences lose depth and vitality when they become detached from natural philosophy, which he regarded as their common source. The following remarks do not attempt to restate Bacon’s hierarchical conception. Rather, they propose aContinue reading “Excursus 033 – On the Reciprocal Development of Philosophy and Science”
Excursus 032 – Theoretical Splendour and Empirical Responsibility
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 06 – 30 Bacon’s use of the remark that the Greeks were “always children” was directed against philosophies that excelled in eloquence, subtlety, and conceptual brilliance, yet failed to yield productive knowledge. His criticism was not aimed at theory as such, nor at intellectual refinement, but at the separationContinue reading “Excursus 032 – Theoretical Splendour and Empirical Responsibility”
Excursus 027 – On Teleology
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 06 – 30 In Aristotle’s philosophy, the final cause (causa finalis) referred to the end, purpose, or goal for which a thing existed. Together with the material, formal, and efficient causes, it formed one of the four fundamental modes of explanation in Aristotelian natural philosophy. Francis Bacon rejected theContinue reading “Excursus 027 – On Teleology”
Excursus 024 – On the Anthropomorphic Mind and God
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 06 – 30 Bacon’s discussion of the human tendency to impose imagined order upon nature, as presented in Aphorism I:45 of the Novum Organum (1620), has been interpreted by some later commentators as extending to the formation of anthropomorphic conceptions of God. This should not be understood as aContinue reading “Excursus 024 – On the Anthropomorphic Mind and God”
Excursus 022 – On the History of Systematic Cognitive Bias
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 06 – 30 Although Roger Bacon’s offendicula provided an earlier catalogue of obstacles to knowledge, Francis Bacon’s doctrine of the idola represented a much broader and more systematic theory of cognitive error. His Idola Tribus, for instance, echoed ancient reflections—from Stoic and Epicurean traditions—that universal human nature distorted perception,Continue reading “Excursus 022 – On the History of Systematic Cognitive Bias”
Excursus 017 – On Intellectual Autonomy and Heteronomy
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 06 – 30 Bacon’s critique of received doctrine reflected a broader philosophical distinction between autonomy and heteronomy. An autonomous intellect forms its judgments—moral, epistemic, or conceptual—through independent engagement with reason and experience. A heteronomous intellect, by contrast, defers to external authorities or inherited frameworks. Bacon considered such heteronomy especiallyContinue reading “Excursus 017 – On Intellectual Autonomy and Heteronomy”
Hossein Jorjani 