新工具

《经典通读》，一套将经典学术巨著进行全新通俗化编译的丛书，旨在引领读者轻松 快速阅读学术经典，从而普及对人类影响深远的社会科学、自然科学的名家名著。
　　 《新工具》试图为近代新兴的自然科学制订一套正确的方法，对 近代科学产生了深远的影响。

培根，英国哲学家、科学家，被马克思认为“英国 唯物主义和整个现代实验科学的真正始祖”。
　　培根是一位一生都在追求真理的思想家，他主张推崇科学、发展科学的进步思想，提出了崇尚知识的进步口号，在 逻辑学、美学、教育学方面也提出了许多新思想。其代表作有 《新工具》、《论说随笔文集》等。 　　西方近代哲学一开始就特别重视人的 理性认识能力以及认识的对象自然界，在这一点上，英国的 经验论哲学和 欧洲大陆的理性论哲学是一致的。为了开辟人类认识自然的道路，这两派哲学还都很重视方法论的研究。《新工具》就是关于 科学方法论的重要著作。《经典通读第二辑-新工具》的书名是针对 古希腊哲学家 亚里士多德的著作 《工具论》而起的。培根批判了亚里士多德逻辑学说和 三段论方法，认为《新工具》是对《工具论》的修正，是促进科学研究的正确的方法。

写在《经典通读》第二辑前面
　　如何获取驾驭 自然的力量—— 《新工具》导读
　　序言
　　第一卷
　　第一章 概说
　　第二章认识的 谬误
　　第三章人类认知的迷困
　　第四章影响人类正确认知的四个 假象
　　第一节概说
　　第二节族类假象
　　第三节洞穴假象
　　第四节市场假象
　　第五节剧场假象
　　第五章哲学和科学中认识的不足
　　第六章错误产生的原因
　　第七章科学认识中的另一种错误
　　第八章人类知识为何无法取得进步
　　第一节探查自身
　　第二节 自然哲学
　　第三节研究的局限
　　第四节不公的待遇
　　第五节人类的弱小和无能
　　第九章经验可靠与否
　　第十章人类的 理解力
　　第十一章以往认识的错误
　　第十二章关于我将从事的事业
　　第十三章我所遵循的方法
　　第二卷
　　第一章 四因说及其他
　　第二章规则与原理
　　第三章一些原则
　　第四章几个初步的计划表
　　第五章事有优先权的二十七种事例
　　……

《新工具(英文版)》是由外语教学与研究出版社出版的。《新工具(英文版)》为英文版，是大师经典文库之一。内容具体，易于读者接受。

The empirical brand of philosophy generates more deformed and freakishdogmas than the sophistic or rational kind, because it is not founded onthe light of common notions （which though weak and superficial, is some-how universal and relevant to many things） but on the narrow and un-illuminating basis of a handful of experiments. Such a philosophy seemsprobable and almost certain to those who are engaged every day in experi-ments of this kind and have corrupted their imagination with them; toothers it seems unbelievable and empty. There is a notable example of thisamong the chemists and their dogmas; otherwise it scarcely exists at thistime, except perhaps in the philosophy of Gilbert. However, we should notfail to give a warning about such philosophies. We already conceive andforesee that, if ever men take heed of our advice and seriously devote them-selves to experience （having said goodbye to the sophistic doctrines）,then this philosophy will at last be genuinely dangerous, because of themind's premature and precipitate haste, and its leaping or flying to generalstatements and the principles of things; even now we should be facing thisproblem.

On the state of the sciences, that it is neither prosperous nor far advanced; and that a quite different way must be opened up for the human intellect than men have known in the past, and new aids devised, so thatthe mind may exercise its right over nature.
Men seem to me to have no good sense of either their resources or theirpower; but to exaggerate the former and underrate the latter. Hence, eitherthey put an insane value on the arts which they already have and look nofurther or, undervaluing themselves, they waste their power on trifles andfail to try it out on things which go to the heart of the matter. And so theyare like fatal pillars of Hercules5 to the sciences; for they are not stirred bythe desire or the hope of going further. Belief in abundance is among thegreatest causes of poverty; because of confidence in the present, real aidsfor the future are neglected. It is therefore not merely useful but quiteessential that at the very outset of our work （without hesitation or pretence）we rid ourselves of this excess of veneration and regard, with a useful warn-ing that men should not exaggerate or celebrate their abundance and itsusefulness. For if you look closely at the wide range of books which arethe boast of the arts and sciences, you will frequently find innumerablerepetitions of the same thing, different in manner of treatment but antici-pated in content, so that things which at first glance seem to be numerousare found on examination to be few. One must also speak plainly about use-fulness, and say that the wisdom which we have drawn in particular fromthe Greeks seems to be a kind of childish stage of science, and to havethe child's characteristic of being all too ready to talk, but too weak andimmature to produce anything. For it is fertile in controversies, and feeblein results.