Re: (Tears) Fads and Fallacies by Martin Gardner

James Nicoll wrote:

Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science by Martin Gardner
>
A survey of an era overrun by cranks, charlatans, and legions of
wilfully gullible fools. A bit off topic, but significant SF figures
appear in the text.
>
https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/all-the-madmen

Is biggest crank in all history not William Shackle-spur of
Stratford-upon-Avon (barely able to write his own name) but
rather, a ham called Bacon?

    Even Sir Francis Bacon (1567-1631) with all his modernity of
    thought, failed in this instance to recognize the value of
    [Copernican theory] and, despite his interest in Galileo's
    discoveries, harked back to the time-honored objections. At
    first mild in his opposition, he later became emphatically
    opposed to it. In the Advancement of Learning (1604), he
    speaks of it as a possible explanation of the celestial
    phenomena according to astronomy but as contrary to natural
    philosophy.

    <https://www.gutenberg.org/files/35744/35744-h/35744-h.htm>


    The Royal Society was founded in 1660 by a group of natural
    philosophers who had met originally in the mid-1640s to
    discuss the ideas of Francis Bacon.

    <https://www.rct.uk/collection/1057783/the-history-of-the-royal-society-of-london-for-the-improving-of-natural-knowledge>

Danke,

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