Who is the first scientist on planet earth?

Answer 1

Francis Bacon (1561-1626) came up with the scientific method (the Baconian method). Before him there were just natural philosophers.

The term "scientist" didn't exist prior to 1833 when William Whewell coined the term (first published in 1834). Thus the social role of scientist as a profession didn't happen until the 19th century (where Whewell himself could be regarded as the first of his kind). Francis Bacon died in 1626, thus he can only be regarded as a scientist reflexively, as can all philosophers prior to 1834. However, to regard Bacon as the first scientist simply because he was a practitioner of his own scientific method is a somewhat restrictive definition. A scientist is, broadly speaking, one who engages in a systematic activity to acquire knowledge. In that sense, even prehistoric man could be regarded as being scientific, particulalrly in terms of agriculture. However, you would probably have to consider Socrates, Plato and Aristotle as the most important of the early philosophers. Aristotle (384-322 BCE) in particular was the first to attribute non-supernatural causes to naturally occurring events such as a earthquakes, and although he wasn't entirely right, his influence over the scientific community as a whole extended well into the Renaissance period before being replaced by Newtonian science.