scientific method: then and now

“What was Francis Bacon’s conception of the scientific method and how does it differ from the methods of contemporary science?”

Francis Bacon created a scientific method to help explain natural phenomena. Bacon puts forth the idea that to determine a phenomenon the first step is to list all the things about the phenomenon that occur which surround the phenomenon as well as to create a list of things that do not occur. The next step is to rank the lists in accordance of how often the phenomenon occurs in each list. This should allow for one to infer which factors go with the occurrence of the phenomenon and which do not, in relation to the different lists. From this Bacon concludes that one should be able to reasonably assume by elimination and inductive reasoning what is the cause essential to the phenomenon. As stated in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, the list of occurrences that surround the phenomenon in question were important to deducing that which caused the phenomenon to occur,
“Most important were his tables of degrees and of exclusion. They were needed for the discovery of causes, especially for supreme causes, which were called forms. The method of induction works in two stages: Learned experience from the known to the unknown has to be acquired, and the tables (of presence, absence, degrees) have to be set up before their interpretation can take place according to the principle of exclusion. After the three tables of the first presentation have been judged and analyzed, Bacon declares the First Vintage or the first version of the interpretation of nature to be concluded. The second phase of the method concentrates on the process of exclusion. The aim of this procedure is the reduction of the empirical character of experience, so that the analysis converges with an anatomy of things. Here, too, tables of presence and of absence are set up. The research work proper consists of finding the relationship of the two natures of qualities. Here exclusion functions as the process of determination. Bacon's method starts from material determination in order to establish the formal determination of real causes, but does not stop there, because it aims at the progressive generalization of causes. Here, again, the central element of the inductive method is the procedure of exclusion (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/francis-bacon/#5).”
Today the scientific method refers to different ways of investigating the phenomena in question. This either leads to attaining new knowledge or correcting what was once considered to be knowledge. The method used today is based off of observable, practical and measurable evidence that consists of the collection of data from observation from experiments that are attempting to prove or disprove a hypothesis.
The difference between these two methods is that Bacon does not conduct experiments to discover new knowledge. His method is based off of what knowledge is already known and then categorized into groups that have different relations to the phenomena in question. Bacon’s conclusion is the result of inductive reasoning and not that of empirical data from trails of experiments aimed at answering a particular question.