Four Idols example essay topic

Humanity is undeniably flawed and we are flawed in everything we do. Nobody is perfect. But with each understanding of these flaws, we can strive to correct our errors and become better people. Sir Francis Bacon wrote about his theory that we have four main flaws that cause our misconceptions about reality. These are the four idols; Idols of the Tribe, Idols of the Cave, Idols of the Marketplace, and Idols of the Theater. He brings strong points to prove his theory about each flaw and they also relate forward to the modern world.

In his essay "The Four Idols", Sir Francis Bacon makes a claim that human discrepancies in understanding comes from four unconscious idols and by understanding these idols, we can more easily avoid them. His first idol, the idol of the tribes, describes human nature and its flaws. Human nature in general tends to coat everything in a different color, for instance, once an opinion makes sense based on a few facts and fictions, all contradicting facts are thrown out to make the opinion more logical. The second idol refers to the individual flaws because man has the tendency to see the world in his own light.

This is the idols of the cave. In the idols of the marketplace, men misunderstand each other due to different interpretations of words. There are two kinds of words that are often misunderstood; These are names of things that don't exist, and names of things that do exist but are easily confusable names. And the last idol is the idol that people accept ideas of the elite intellectual group of society, even if they are wrong. This idols of the tribe is based on the fact that this intellectual group takes few samples when they do their experiments and they craft it so that results lead people to believe what they shape them to believe.

The human understanding, as Bacon states, is restless and never-ending. He says that "when it has once adopted an opinion (either as the received opinion or as being agreeable to itself) draws all things else to support and agree with it". (Bacon 422) This strongly supports his idol of the tribe by supporting the restlessness of the human intrigue. We also put too much trust in our senses, which often betray us. We often do not believe anything until we see it; And until we see it we do not bother even trying to look for it, even if it is there. This also applies to the modern age, because even today, this is how we all think and argue.

And it happens so fast that we don't even know we did it, which makes it much harder to avoid this idol. In man's individual idol, he sees things with narrow vision, much like look out on the world from deep within a cave. Bacon supports this by saying that Heraclitus observed "that men look for sciences in their own lesser worlds, and not in the greater common world". (Bacon 421) He mentions an example of Aristotle and how he made his attachment to natural philosophy "a mere bondservant to his logic, thereby rendering it contentions and well nigh useless". (Bacon 425) Further proving his point, Bacon details the plight of Leucippus and Democritus and how one was "so busied with particles that it hardly tends to the structure; while the others are so lost in admiration of the structure that they do not penetrate to the simplicity of nature".

(Bacon 426) Leucippus and Democritus both studied particles with a narrow view, while a broader view could have "rendered at once penetrating and comprehensive". (Bacon 426) It is often narrow views such as this that lead to the racism and prejudice that still exists today. It is due to this idol that we will never be rid of crime, prejudice or racism because it is all a part of the human understanding. It is easily confusable the intended meaning of conversation between two men. There are two main categories in which ideas fail to exchange: When they name things that do not exist, or when they name things that exist with bad and confusable names. Examples of these kinds of words are "fortune, the prime mover, planetary orbits, elements of fire, and like fictions which owe their origin to false and idle theories".

(Bacon 427) These kinds of words are not seen with eyes but their concept are put into words that are defined differently by each individual. It is for these reasons that "the ill and unfit choice of words wonderfully obstruct the understanding". (Bacon 421) In the modern world, we still use these "fictional words" such as luck, heavy, dense and religious words to define a Prime Mover. We still interpret them all in different ways.

Those being watched, such as celebrities must always be careful what they say, making sure that their words are not confused with another meaning that could ruin their reputation. In a world with so much information discovered, and information to be discovered, the general population does not keep up with every bit of data available. It is for this reason that the general public often accepts ideas of elite intellectual groups of society because they are credible. It is for this reason that Bacon insists that for the most part intellectual groups often wield information to bend the truth to their vision and so seduces the public into their false theories. Often the elite take advantage of this which leads Bacon to believe that "all the received systems are but so many stage-plays, representing worlds of their own creation after an unreal and scenic fashion". (Bacon 421) His strong arguing point is that "there is taken for the material of philosophy either a great deal out of a few things, or a very little out of many things".

(Bacon 430) It's a good point to prove that these scientists often take too much data from a small group of information, and too little data out of a broad range. Statistically, with this information, you can conclude anything and make it seem logical. Even today, this idol still exists with product marketers trying to sell you things with false claims and invalid statistics. Sometimes the claims are so convincing you can't help but try it, and when you do you realize it is falsifying sham. In conclusion, Sir Francis Bacon makes strong arguments for his essay about the Four Idols. Each idol has a strong claim, example, and still applies to this modern day.

The first idol of the tribe, concludes that human nature creates problems to solve and never stops processing until the problem is solved. The human individual at one point or another, has narrow views about certain topics due individual feelings and morals, as stated in the second idol of the cave. From the idol of the marketplace, we see that man often misunderstand each other due to certain words that have no definite meaning. The last idol of the theater is about the general publics susceptibility to the ideas of elite and intellectual people, due to their credibility. These idols spawn from the imperfections of mankind and will always stick with mankind unavoidably, but with the identification of the idols, we can learn to reduce the occurrences of these idols.