Francis Bacon was an English philosopher, who lived between January 1516 and April 1626. He had other titles such as being a statesman-served as an Attorney General and Lord Chancellor; he was a scientist, author, orator and a jurist. His philosophical works continue to be influential especially due to the application of science. His writing career spanned between law and philosophy in science. Initially, he often wrote to the courts before writing on science in 1620. His famous work, the Great Instauration also called the interpretation of nature was aimed at introducing a new way of investigating nature. It was succeeded by the ‘Novum Organum Scientiarum’ as the second part.
The four idols are described in the Novum Organum Scientiarum. Bacon used the idols to classify intellectual fallacies. He described an idol as an image which the mind holds but does not contain substance itself. He regarded them as fixations which blocked wholesome, productive, and efficient thinking by creating biased obstacles. He categorized the idols into two; namely adventitious and innate. The adventitious idol is a result of the external sources such as demonstration rules or doctrines by philosophers.The innate on the other hand results from intellect nature. The four idols, namely; the Idol of Tribe, Theater, Cave, and the Marketplace are described below.
The Idol of Tribe also referred to as Idola Tribus explains that the foundation of human minds lies in the human nature itself. They are in the form of deceptive believes present in human minds and are therefore the whole human race possesses this idol. These idols include natural tendencies and weaknesses such as exaggeration, disproportion or distortion. Bacon used several examples to explain this idol. First, our senses are easily deceivable and dull, we then have a tendency to discern more order from objects than it such as the stars. The tendency to believe what we wish is true also a form this idolatry, and finally, the tendency to be judgmental and rush to a conclusion was also used to explain this idol. This idol cannot be eliminated because it is innate. The only option is to identify it and compensate for it.
The Idol of the Cave dubbed ‘egocentricity’ differs from the idol of the tribe since it varies in different individuals. Their source is also within the mind of the person. Their primary source is culture and its various aspects such as family backgrounds, education, religion, childhood experiences or social classes. Bacon noted that everyone possesses his cave responsible for refracting and discoloring the light of nature. The cave, therefore, refers to an individual’s prejudice, habit or taste.
This idol explains why people in their particular fields of interests will interpret their world in line with the areas. For instance, a courtier will tend always to emphasize the importance of kings and queens. Bacon summarized these examples as; allegiance to a particular discipline, high regard for selects authorities or the cookie-cutter mentality (Hall 2). Corrections for this idol can be done if we recognize our tendencies and pay attention to them. There is, therefore, the need to know if your mind draws attention to new things or traditional existing things.
Bacon introduced the third idol to be the Idols of the Market-Place (Idola fori). It arises as a result of confusion in the language used. These errors occur to everybody who uses a language to communicate. Language refers to speech, particular discourses, jargons which differ with different academic disciplines or communities or vocabularies. Bacon says these idols hinder clear thinking from “intercourse and association of men with each other.”
These errors are attributed to the fact that to communicate, human beings first organize their thoughts into words. Failure to clearly understand the words, the message they were meant to express is obscured. Bacon understands these errors to be in two forms. First, they result from using names of non-existing things such as Aristotelian cosmotology or vague names for things that exist such as abstract quality terms.
Finally, Bacon used the Idol of Theatre (Idola theatri) to refer to the errors resulting from false teachings. These idols are derived from fields such as philosophy, theology, and science. Bacon believed in the following elements; false breadth where the beliefs are widespread, false longevity referring to the customary views on ancient philosophies, false depth relating to the culture where negligence has been received and finally that the received authorities ad systems represent their created world.
Bacon identifies three types of philosophy to be primary sources of these idols. The sophistical philosophy, also known as scholasticism was used as a conspicuous example. It involves creating a conclusion based on a few observation or no observations at all. The arguments arrived are therefore based on speculation rather than accurate observations. The second branch is the empirical philosophy where Bacon sites William Gilbert’s lodestone experiment used to draw conclusions on magnetism. This type involves use of a narrow base of a research to explain all related phenomena. Bacon also identified superstitious philosophy to be a source of these errors by mixing philosophy with theology. He used the Genesis story of creation as an example.
Rene Descartes also had an account on the source of human errors. He was a French philosopher and scientist just like Bacon. He lived between March 1596 and February 1650. He is best remembered for the contributions to the field of Mathematics-Cartesian coordinate system. He also had great contribution to philosophy through his Meditations, the Dualism, Moral Philosophy and religious beliefs. It is in these works that he explained the source and nature of human error.
Descartes’ understanding of innate idea is described in the Third Meditation where he classified ideas into three kinds; the innate ideas, adventitious and factitious ideas. Each idea had a different origin. He understands innate ideas as those which he cannot account for. He attributes to the thoughts and ideas of what a thing is to nature. He, therefore, traces the ideas mentioned and objects represented to nature. He understands that ideas live within ourselves. It however our duty to reveal the ideas, “when we say that an idea is innate in us, we do not mean that it is always there before us. This would mean that no idea was innate. We simply mean that we have within ourselves the faculty of summoning up the idea”(JNreee 1)
Descartes also sees anything associated with intelligibility such as shape to be an innate perception. Associating ideas with shapes show that we are intelligible. To perceive things as shaped, there must have been an idea of a shaped thing which the mind recalled and extended. He further uses the idea of God to explain an innate idea. He argued that ideas such as the idea of God existed in us wordlessly otherwise we could not have understood the definition of words. He also showed the existence of innate ideas by explaining that God instilled the idea of a supreme being in us alongside other ideas that exist naturally within us.
Innate ideas must be true. Human beings perceive ideas to be true when convinced spontaneously that they are correct. The perceptions originate from pre-existing knowledge, innate ideas. The fact that the intellect is infinite also supports the absence of truths in innate ideas. Errors occur as a result of the will which is infinite and judges the ideas. In the Third Meditation, Descartes associates innate ideas to a supreme being; God.
This association can be used to rule out falsity in innate ideas. To start with, only being flows from God since he is not a deceiver. Creatures then consist of being and nothingness. Knowledge is then made of two components, truth which is the being and falsity which is the nonbeing. Since God is the source of innate ideas and only being flows from him, it then follows that falsity cannot be associated with God. Innate ideas from God are therefore right.
Descartes would accept Bacons description of the Idols and his plans for eradicating them. This is because, like Bacon, Descartes believed in the principle of dividing a problem into the smallest constituent to solve it (Descartes 2). Bacon plan of eradicating the idols also involved subdividing each into constituents. Bacon had a clear plan for eliminating each of the four idols. In general, his plan of eliminating these idols included pursuing the true causes of the idols first, although he never completed the project.
The idol of the tribe was caused by tendencies which mingle with other compounds and become inseparable. The mind will then use the opinions formed for its ideas. This idol can be reduced by “letting all compounds to be dissolved”. This is by identifying the idol and compensating for it. The Idol of the Cave can also be reduced by identifying the tendencies one is inclined to and correcting them. The Marketplace idol can be eliminated by using words of things that exist and reducing the use of abstract quantifiers.
Descartes believed that demolishing everything ultimately to build it afresh from the foundations is necessary. He documented these thoughts in the First Mediation. Before writing this piece, he had been procrastinating until when he would feel that that he was grown enough. The primary reason for writing the first meditation was to address the elements of doubt in his work. He chose to evaluate the basic principles since they are the foundation.
Evaluating each of the statements he offered would also take a significant amount of time. This evaluation also helped him appreciate his previous opinions, although they possessed a sense of doubt. He laments that his senses have occasionally deceived him. He tried to reach to new conclusions; however, the familiar opinions come back to him, explaining the innate nature of ideas. It was, therefore, necessary to demolish everything and try rebuilding it again because it revealed to him the innate nature of ideas.
Reference
Hall, Manly P. "The Four Idols of Francis Bacon." 4 Idols. Web. 14 Apr. 2016.
JNreee. "Descartes: Human Nature." Descartes: Human Nature. 2015. Web. 14 Apr. 2016.
Descartes, Rene. "Meditations on First Philosophy by Rene Descartes." Marxists Internet Archive. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Apr. 2016.
