The Novum Organum is a philosophical work by Francis Bacon
published in 1620. The title translates as "new instrument". This is a reference
to Aristotle's work Organon, which was his treatise on logic and
syllogism. In Novum Organum, Bacon details a new system of logic he
believes to be superior to the old ways of syllogism. For Bacon, finding the
essence of a thing was a simple process of reduction, and the use of inductive
reasoning. In finding the cause of a phenomenal nature such as heat, one
must list all of the situations where heat is found. Then another list should be
drawn up, listing situations that are similar to those of the first list except
for the lack of heat. A third table lists situations where heat can vary. The
form nature, or cause, of heat must be that which is common to all
instances in the first table, is lacking from all instances of the second table
and varies by degree in instances of the third table.
� Excerpted from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
