Did Francis Bacon’s attitude towards the role of mathematics in natural philosophy change between 1605 and 1623?

Abstract

It is a well-known claim that Francis Bacon gave an auxiliary role to mathematics in his natural philosophical inquiries. It has also been argued that Bacon gave this auxiliary role to mathematics just after he extended the role of mathematics to all parts of natural philosophy in his De Augmentis Scientiarum (1623), while he confined its role to metaphysics in his Advancement of Learning (1605). In this paper, however, I argue that there is no difference in Bacon’s attitude towards the role of mathematics in natural philosophical inquiries between 1605 and 1623. © 2019 Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos. All rights reserved.