Quali-quantitative Measurement in Francis Bacon’s Medicine: Toward a New Branch of Mixed Mathematics

Abstract

Bacon´s philosophy represents an early modern example that lies halfway between a purely qualitative and a tout court quantitative scientific outlook. A case in point is found in his approach of medicine. In this chapter we will argue, firstly, that Bacon’s engages in a peculiar form of mathematization of nature that develops a quali-quantitative methodology of measurement. Secondly, we will show that medicine is one of the disciplines where that dual way of measurement is practiced. In the first section of the chapter, we will expose the ontology involved in the Baconian proposal of measurement of nature. The second section will address the place that mixed mathematics occupies in Bacon’s scheme of scientific branches and will suggest that a proper advancement of medicine can generate a new branch of mixed mathematics. The next section will reconstruct Bacon’s approach to measurement and expose its quali-quantitative import. In the last section, we will show some examples of medicine in which this quali-quantitative measurement is applied.