Editing Philosophy of science (section)

===Modern===
[[File:Francis Bacon statue, Gray's Inn.jpg|thumb|Francis Bacon's statue at [[Gray's Inn]], South Square, London|350x350px]]
[[File:Hierarchy of the Sciences - diagram.svg|thumb|left|Theory of Science by Auguste Comte]]
[[Francis Bacon]] (no direct relation to [[Roger Bacon]], who lived 300 years earlier) was a seminal figure in philosophy of science at the time of the [[Scientific revolution|Scientific Revolution]]. In his work ''[[Novum Organum]]'' (1620){{mdash}}an allusion to Aristotle's ''[[Organon]]''{{mdash}}Bacon outlined a new [[system of logic]] to improve upon the old philosophical process of [[syllogism]]. Bacon's method relied on experimental ''histories'' to eliminate alternative theories.<ref>[[Francis Bacon (philosopher)|Bacon, Francis]] ''[[Novum Organum]] (The New Organon)'', 1620. Bacon's work described many of the accepted principles, underscoring the importance of empirical results, data gathering and experiment.  ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' (1911), "[[s:1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Bacon, Francis|Bacon, Francis]]" states: [In Novum Organum, we ] "proceed to apply what is perhaps the most valuable part of the Baconian method, the process of exclusion or rejection. This elimination of the non-essential,&nbsp;..., is the most important of Bacon's contributions to the logic of induction, and that in which, as he repeatedly says, his method differs from all previous philosophies."</ref> In 1637, [[René Descartes]] established a new framework for grounding scientific knowledge in his treatise, ''[[Discourse on Method]]'', advocating the central role of [[rationalism|reason]] as opposed to sensory experience. By contrast, in 1713, the 2nd edition of [[Isaac Newton]]'s ''[[Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica]]'' argued that "...&nbsp;hypotheses&nbsp;... have no place in experimental philosophy. In this philosophy[,] propositions are deduced from the phenomena and rendered general by induction."<ref name="www.paricenter.com mullin02">{{cite web |url= http://www.paricenter.com/library/papers/mullin02.php |title= The Impact of Newton's Principia on the Philosophy of Science |last1= McMullin |first1= Ernan |website= paricenter.com |publisher= Pari Center for New Learning |access-date= 29 October 2015 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20151024002127/http://www.paricenter.com/library/papers/mullin02.php |archive-date= 24 October 2015 |url-status= dead }}</ref> This passage influenced a "later generation of philosophically-inclined readers to pronounce a ban on causal hypotheses in natural philosophy".<ref name="www.paricenter.com mullin02"/> In particular, later in the 18th century, [[David Hume]] would famously articulate [[skepticism]] about the ability of science to determine [[causality]] and gave a definitive formulation of the [[problem of induction]], though both theses would be contested by the end of the 18th century by Immanuel Kant in his [[Critique of Pure Reason]] and [[Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science]]. In 19th century [[Auguste Comte]] made a major contribution to the theory of science. The 19th century writings of [[John Stuart Mill]] are also considered important in the formation of current conceptions of the scientific method, as well as anticipating later accounts of scientific explanation.<ref name="mill"> {{cite web
|url=http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/mill/#SciMet
|title=John Stuart Mill (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
|publisher=plato.stanford.edu
|access-date=2009-07-31
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100106122801/http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/mill/#SciMet
|archive-date=2010-01-06
|url-status=live
}}</ref>