Baconian method: Encyclopedia II - Baconian method - Baconian Method

Baconian method - Baconian Method

The Baconian method consists of procedures for isolating the cause of a phenomenon, including the method of agreement, method of difference, and method of concomitant variation.

Bacon suggests that you draw up a list of all things in which the phenomenon you are trying to explain occurs, as well as a list of things in which it does not occur. Then you rank your lists according to the degree in which the phenomenon occurs in each one. Then you should be able to deduce what factors match the occurrence of the phenomenon in one list and don't occur in the other list, and also what factors change in accordance with the way the data had been ranked. From this Bacon concludes you should be able to deduce by good inductive reasoning what is the form underlying the phenomenon.

Thus, if an army is successful when commanded by Essex, and not successful when not commanded by Essex: and when it is more or less successful according to the degree of involvement of Essex as its commander, then it is scientifically reasonable to say that being commanded by Essex is causally related to the army's success.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Baconian Method", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki