Francis Bacon and Rene Descartes both believed that nature was a machine. Descartes believed that the laws of nature could be discovered by science, while Bacon thought they could be learned through careful observation of nature. Both men believed that nature was a machine and it could be studied like one. They both tried to apply this belief to their studies and make new discoveries about nature.
Bacon believed that the universe was like a great clock, which worked according to fixed mechanical laws. In his book Advancement of Learning, he wrote: “For as all things have been created for some end, so every part and member of the world hath also been ordained for some use.”
Descartes shared this view. He argued that everything in nature could be explained in terms of matter in motion. He said: “The laws which govern the whole universe are inscribed on his works.”
This idea had important consequences for their thinking about science. Bacon believed that by studying nature we could gain knowledge about God’s wisdom and power: “Nature is but the type book of God’s works; it is not enough to study books; we must open her secret volumes with diligence.”
Moreover, Descartes agreed that studying nature would lead us closer to God, but he went further than Bacon in claiming that only mathematics could reveal God’s wisdom and power: “The whole earth has become like a book written by the hand of God.”
