Francis Bacon contributed to which methodological concept?

• A. Deductive reasoning and theory-driven hypotheses
• B. Observational data not used in medicine
• C. Experimental trials in sailors
• D. Inductive logic leading to law of mortality and law of epidemics

Answer: (D)

Francis Bacon’s approach centers on learning by careful observation and building knowledge through induction. He argued that scientists should collect extensive data from the natural world, organize it, and derive broad generalizations from those observations rather than starting with a theory and fitting the data to it. In epidemiology, this means examining patterns in mortality and the spread of epidemics across populations, then formulating general laws about how mortality varies and how epidemics unfold—laws that can be tested and refined with more data. This inductive path to general principles is exactly what is described by inductive logic leading to laws about mortality and epidemics.