Four Idols

Francis Bacon describes four idols which include idols of the tribe, idols of the cave, idols of the market-place, idols of the theater. Idols of the tribe describes what lies deep within human nature. Idols of the cave are specific to individual men. Idols of the market-place involves the association of men with one another. Finally, idols of the theater involves the philosophies received in stage plays. The four Idols stood out to me when discussing them in class because I had also learned about them in my Introduction to communications course last semester. We looked at the idols in a way that deals with communicating with others in different situations. In this course the idols are looked at, in my opinion, in a way that deals with how human beings deal with nature and technology. I find it very interesting that the idols were brought up in two of my courses because communication and technology are similar in some ways. For example that technology is changing the way we communicate. I believe the four idols will continue to make changes in our lives as technology progresses.

Technological progress isn't moral progress

Francis Bacon talks of how technological progress is moral progress. I would say that in some cases it could help moral progress, however it often times opens people up to more immoral temptation than they would normally encounter as well as it is easier to see other people using technology for immoral things, making it seem more acceptable. It is each persons responsibility to avoid easy accesable immoral temptations, and use the technology we have to progress morally.

The Cave

When Bacon lists his mental impediments to truth, he includes both the Idols of the Tribe and Cave (or Den in some translations). These are the errors and misconceptions contained in the human state, either shared with everyone (the tribe) or unique to oneself (the cave). His words echoed Plato (Bacon regarded the time of the Ancient Greeks as one of the few times where societal progress had been made), who almost 2000 years earlier had described the majority of humanity as prisoners in a cave who regarded shadows as reality. Plato included this Allegory of the Cave in The Republic to describe the state of the unenlightened human race. The 2000 years from Plato to Bacon were apparently not enough to correct these errors, which are in fact still relevant today.

Mumford and Sons, a British folk band, can be considered modern-day "philosophers." A popular song from their debut album is titled "The Cave":



Marcus Mumford asks someone (maybe a woman he has fallen out of favor with) to "Now let me at the truth / Which will refresh my broken mind." He seems to have realized that he has been living in a constrained (or determined) environment and that he is faced with mental impediments, both personal and societal, to the truth. When he continues, "Because I need freedom now / And I need to know how / To live my life as it's meant to be," his desire for a more enlightened life becomes clear. Surely, the metaphor of an enclosing cave is still applicable today. However, with the recent development of a philosophy of technology, the errors of the cave may have taken on a different meaning. Instead of being determined by ignorance, as was the case in Bacon's past, we are now faced with the determinisms of technology itself. The pendulum has swung in the opposite direction. Bacon postulated that scientific discovery would get rid of the Idols, but they seem to have resurfaced. Is there a middle ground? Will we ever be "refreshed"?