培根提出了对所有知识过程的重大改革,以促进神学和人学的进步,他称之为《The Great Instauration》(即《大变革与大复兴》,其中包含了变革与复兴两层涵义)。培根认为,这种改革将导致科学的巨大进步和后世的技术新发明,从而减轻人类的苦难,并满足人类饥渴与物质需求。他的《新方法论(英语:Novum Organum)》(Novum Organum)于1620年出版。他认为人是“自然世界的管家和解释者”,“知识和力量是同义词”,“效果是通过方法和工作产生的”,以及“人的作为只能是控制自己的身体与行动;而自然世界则内在地完成其余部分的工作”;人“只有服从自然才能指挥自然”。总之,这是培根的哲学摘要,即通过对自然的了解和正确方法的使用,人类可以支配自然世界的自然工作以产生确定的结果。因此,人通过寻求对自然的认识,可以达到对自然的控制——从而重新建立因堕落而失去的“人之国度”与人的原始纯洁。他相信,通过这种方式,人类将摆脱无助、贫困和苦难的境地,同时进入和平、繁荣和安全的境地。[10]
^Galileo Galilei, Two New Sciences, trans. Stillman Drake, (Madison: Univ. of Wisconsin Pr., 1974), pp 217, 225, 296–7.
^Fernando Espinoza. An analysis of the historical development of ideas about motion and its implications for teaching. Physics Education. 2005, 40 (2): 141. doi:10.1088/0031-9120/40/2/002.
^Marshall Clagett, The Science of Mechanics in the Middle Ages, (Madison, Univ. of Wisconsin Pr., 1961), pp. 218–19, 252–5, 346, 409–16, 547, 576–8, 673–82; Anneliese Maier, "Galileo and the Scholastic Theory of Impetus," pp. 103–123 in On the Threshold of Exact Science: Selected Writings of Anneliese Maier on Late Medieval Natural Philosophy, (Philadelphia: Univ. of Pennsylvania Pr., 1982).
^Herbert Butterfield, The Origins of Modern Science, 1300-1800.
^ 8.08.18.2Stavrianos, Leften Stavros.; 吴象婴. Quan qiu tong shi : cong shi qian shi dao 21 shi ji : di 7 ban xiu ding ban = A global history : from prehistory to the 21st century. 歐洲的科學革命和工業革命 Di 2 ban. Beijing: 北京大學出版社. 2006: 480. ISBN 9787301109489. OCLC 244443638.
^J M Steele, University of Toronto, (review online from Canadian Association of Physicists) 互联网档案馆的存檔,存档日期2010-04-01. of N Guicciardini's "Reading the Principia: The Debate on Newton’s Mathematical Methods for Natural Philosophy from 1687 to 1736" (Cambridge UP, 1999), a book which also states (summary before title page) that the "Principia" "is considered one of the masterpieces in the history of science".