Francis Bacon's Four Idols

1. Idols of the Tribe
This notion focuses on the fact that human understanding is flawed, and therefore, cannot be taken as fact or as the measure of things in the universe. Bacon is reflecting back upon the church's idea that humans are just imperfect creatures living in this world, and any observatio or interpretation they make of the world would be considered erroneous, since humans are faulty people. Taking as an example, many people watch the stars and contemplate upon the order of this universe. However, with humans' insatiable greed, we cannot settle on this mere observation and exaggerate the things that we see, and eventually accepting them as truths.

2. Idols of the Cave
This notion also focuses on the misunderstanding of the human people. This idea can sort of relate to the hypothesis that all humans don't have thoughts, but are just simply immitating what they see and observe. Here, Bacon discusses that so much of what people know of being true is from books and other things they learn from other people, and virtually we are left with limited understanding, which is why sometimes it is very hard for us to accept new ideas. People are just so accustomed to their own interests and their own understanding that they can only understand "their" side of the story and seldom try to understand things from another perspective. This is why there is the heavy debate about the creation of thsi world. The scientists can only understand their side of the scientific world, while the church leaders can only comprehend their side of the religious world, which is the cause of why the two sides can never end up in an agreement.

3. Idols of the Market Place
This idea pertains to the theory that people become lost and confused with ellaborate language. It is like people falsely assuming someone's speech as being very intellectual just from listening to the language of the speech, which is not the quintessential quality that makes a speech intellectual. However, when using big words, people have a tendency to become intimidated by these words they don't know, in which case, they simply assume that the person giving the speech is an intellectual based upon their vocabulary, which they use to judge the person. This is exactly what is happening right now as I am doing this assignment. Because this packet is worded so ellaborately, I have a hard time understanding it, which makes me more susceptible to believe in what Bacon is saying, because I don't even know what he is talking about. This idea can also relate to the church when they used heavy wording to make up these phony philosophies to persuade the public, who were uneducated to understand these fancy words that church leaders used to persuade the public people.

4. Idols of the Theatre
This phrase refers to the notion of false learning and demonstration. It is basically violating the fallacy of "faulty use of authority", where just because an idea is supported by a group of intellecutals, it no longer becomes questioned by the public people. Becasue a certain group of highly educated people believe a certain phypothesi to be true does not mean that the idea is in fact true. It ultimately lies in people's negligence, where they assume something to be true becuase it has been that way for a long time and been proved by a select few of intellectual scholars. However, it very well may be that what the scholars proved true may be in fact true, but the idea that people are accepting things just because some group of smart people proved it is what Bacon is talking about here.