ABSTRACT
What was that new knowledge—science—which emerged in the 17th century, and is today monopolized by universities? The question was put as early as the beginning of the century by Francis Bacon (1561–1626), Lord Chancellor of England and the first great philosopher of science. Bacon was not an academic in the current sense of university membership. He studied, but did not graduate, at the University of Cambridge, and then attended Gray’s Inn in London, dedicated to legal study. He pursued a political career and made his contributions in philosophy far from the university. Bacon was the first philosopher to notice that knowledge grows and to openly recognize and highlight the utilitarian role of science, inter alia, as a source of power. He wondered how knowledge grows and what factors may foster or hinder its growth.
