Bacon's Four Idols

Francis Bacon was against the Educational System and condemned them on two things. He argued that the church can teach you how to go to heaven but they cannot teach you how the heavens go. He focused on the idea that the church had mixed religion and natural philosophy. He wanted to make others realize that by understanding nature and how it works we could meet the daily needs of people and reduce the suffering of others which would allow us to get closer to God. Bacon had four idols that he believed beset men's mind. They are known as Idols of the tribe, Idols of the Cave, Idols of the Marketplace, and Idols of the theatre.

.....Idols of the Tribe: It is a false assertion that the sense of man is the measure of things. It is the bias of human beings to jump to conclusions based on what is new or strange rather than investing time to understand the truth. We distort the nature of things by mingling our own nature with it.

.....Idols of the Cave: Men look for the sciences in their own lesser worlds, and not in the greater or common world. They spent their time Creating individual biases through the educational system. These are the idols of the individual man. Everyman has their own perspective of nature which makes our view of nature different from the others and most times makes nature seem discolored. It can as well have to do with the daily activities we perform.

.....Idols of the Marketplace: It is by discourse that men asscociate and words are imposed with such vulgarity. Men don't even defend themselves because of some statements presented whether they be wrong or right but by the simple fact that looking bad in front of everyone else is not a top priority. It is the language created to share knowledge Revealing the truth. Philosophy is more concerned with winning arguments than looking into specific ways of knowing. Words just lead men into contraversy and confusion but the actions that take place are quite understanding, have great effect, and make sense.

.....Idols of the theatre: The Christian West has given reverence to four or five Greek scholars and has ignored any other understanding of the world. It is so wrong for such action to take place because the occurences in the world and what there is to learn cannot be based on the ideas or opinions of a small sec of people but should be based on that of information and fact. If we stick to the ideas or philosophies of a specific people then the chances of ever really discovering something are very vague......progression is led by achievment and the process of learning new things, not by sticking to what others say is the final word or what is right.



THE END...................... ;-]