My paper I just submitted (in the nick of time, before midnight) about Francis Bacons Idols: Idols of the Cave A prudent question is, as it were, one half of wisdom. — Sir Francis Bacon Francis Bacon’s “Idols of the Cave” represents just one of the four idols that he discusses. However, the four “idols” in general represent four categories of falsehoods or misunderstandings that are possible for the mind to encounter, and therefore impeding it from gaining an accurate and complete understanding of truth or knowledge. These really should be called the “four misunderstandings”, or some equivalent term, for clarification. The first “idol” he discusses is “The Idols of the Tribe.” These would be better stated as “common weaknesses in understanding of all humans or of human nature.” They are made up of a) the senses (which are easily fooled and inaccurate, therefore the strict use of instruments and investigative methods should take their place), b) the tendency to exaggerate or see phenomenon that does not exist, c) our weakness towards wishful thinking, and therefore believe what we would prefer to be true, d) our tendency to rush to conclusions instead of laboriously gathering details and reaching a conclusion through evidence and over time. The second “idol” he discusses is “The Idols of the Cave.” This would more accurately today be described as “personalized sets of distortions, different in each individual, based on culture, prejudices, and beliefs based on different pasts and upbringings.” These are distortions or misunderstandings in thought based on our variety of backgrounds because of our family, culture, religion, social class, education, experiences, etc. Therefore no two people are the same, they can have a combination of biases and misunderstandings very different than the next person, while sharing others. The third “idol” is “The Idol of the Market Place.” This really would be better described as “semantic and language based misunderstandings, where language is not descriptive enough or implies something that it doesnt mean, or infers something inaccurately.” He describes two types, one of names of things that do not exist, and and ones of vague or misleading things, such as abstract qualities and values. The fourth “idol” is “the Idols of the Theater.” This might better today be described as “errors in thought based on subscribing to a particular school of thought, of philosophy or religion.” He specifically talks about a) Sophistical philosophy - systems based on only a few instances and then extrapolated to a larger world in which they may not apply, since there are too few examples. b) Empirical philosophy - related to a single key truth or discovery that is erroneously extrapolated to apply to other things that it doesnt, c) Superstitious philosophy - errors of theology and mysticism especially. I really think Francis Bacons logic for coming up with this list is brilliant. It may in a sense be focusing on the “cup half empty” as opposed to “half full”, but when it comes to epistemology, understanding our weaknesses to coming to a correct conclusion is a very important step. So, instead of trying to arrive at truth, or even what is truth, he takes the approach of saying essentially “here’s what we have to be aware of as our mental weaknesses at being able to reach accurate conclusions and see things clearly.” In a way, it’s like calibrating a scale that is off by several ounces when trying to weigh a letter. You first have to figure out how it is off and inaccurate, and then you can account for that error and inaccuracy in weighing something. If you didnt, you would come to a wrong conclusion because the instrument itself is wrongly calibrated and therefore incapable of coming to a correct conclusion unless that distortion is accounted for and compensated for in the measurement. What is the most common “inaccuracy” that we share that keeps us from reaching a correct conclusion about the reality of our existence? Do you think it’s the bias of religion? Would we be better off to never be taught a religion from when we were young and instead slowly expose ourselves to various schools of thought so that we werent “tainted” from this young age?
Posted on: Tue, 14 Oct 2014 04:55:11 +0000
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