Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 21, 2025

The Innovation Arena: A Method for Comparing Innovative Problem-Solving Across Groups
Published on: May 13, 2022
Johann Christoph Sturm's eclectic scientific method and his indebtedness to Francis Bacon
1School of Philosophy, University College Dublin, Ireland.
Abstract:
In this paper, I argue that Johann Christoph Sturm's eclectic scientific method reveals an unexpected indebtedness to Francis Bacon's thought. Sturm's reception of Bacon is particularly surprising given that the German academic context in the second half of the seventeenth century was still largely Aristotelian. Sturm is indebted to Bacon in the following respects: (1) the critique of the current state of knowledge, (2) eclecticism, (3) a fluid transition from natural history to natural philosophy, (4) the conception of science as hypothetical and dynamic and (5) experimental philosophy and the use of instruments. Given that Sturm mentions Francis Bacon in important places in his work, these respects should not easily be dismissed as commonplace. Bacon is one of Sturm's salient sources and they are both deeply concerned with a thoroughgoing reform of existing scientific practices.
Related Concept Videos
The Scientific Method
Structuralism
Titchener's approach to structuralism was unique. He...
Psychology as a Science
The scientific method in psychology involves six critical steps: making observations, formulating hypotheses, conducting tests, analyzing...
Cognitivism
Previously dominated by behaviorism, which prioritized observable behaviors and largely ignored mental processes, psychology transformed in the 1950s. Cognitive psychologists argue that understanding how we think and process...
Inductive Reasoning
Inductive reasoning is common in descriptive science. A life scientist makes observations and records them. This data can be qualitative or...
Revisionist Views of Adolescent and Adult Cognition

