What is scientific induction in Francis Bacon’s philosophy?

In Francis Bacon’s philosophy, scientific induction is a methodical process designed to replace the "precipitate generalization" of earlier systems with a rigorous, evidence-based approach to discovering natural laws. Unlike simple enumeration, which Bacon viewed as defective, his inductive method relies on the systematic elimination of false hypotheses.12

The process, detailed in his Novum Organum, involves three primary steps:

• Description: The patient, unbiased observation and collection of facts.1
• Tabulation: Organizing these facts into "tables of discovery"—specifically tables of presence, absence, and degree—to compare instances where a phenomenon occurs, fails to occur, or varies in intensity.32
• Elimination: Using these tables to reject properties that are not consistently connected to the phenomenon, thereby isolating the true cause or "form" of the subject under investigation.12

Bacon emphasized the "greater force of the negative instance," noting that a single contradictory observation is more powerful for disproving a generalization than many positive instances are for confirming one. While his method was criticized for ignoring the role of creative hypotheses and mathematics, it established the foundational principle that valid knowledge must be built upon the careful, experiential examination of particulars.231