7 items | 11 visits
A list of resources for my History of Rhetoric II class this Fall.
Updated on 2008-08-23
Created on 2008-08-23
Category: Schools & Education
URL:
The Idols of the Tribe have their origin in the production of false
concepts due to human nature, because the structure of human
understanding is like a crooked mirror, which causes distorted
reflections (of things in the external world).
The Idols of the Cave consist of conceptions or doctrines which are
dear to the individual who cherishes them, without possessing any
evidence of their truth. These idols are due to the preconditioned
system of every individual, comprising education, custom, or accidental
or contingent experiences.
These idols are based on false conceptions which are derived from
public human communication. They enter our minds quietly by a
combination of words and names, so that it comes to pass that not only
does reason govern words, but words react on our understanding.
According to the insight that the world is a stage, the Idols of the
Theatre are prejudices stemming from received or traditional
philosophical systems. These systems resemble plays in so far as they
render fictional worlds, which were never exposed to an experimental
check or to a test by experience. The idols of the theatre thus have
their origin in dogmatic philosophy or in wrong laws of
demonstration.
Bacon ends his presentation of the idols in Novum Organum,
Book I , Aphorism LXVIII, with the remark that men should abjure and
renounce the qualities of idols, “and the understanding [must be]
thoroughly freed and cleansed” (Bacon, IV [1901], 69). He
discusses the idols together with the problem of information gained
through the senses, which must be corrected by the use of experiments
(Bacon, IV [1901], 27).
7 items | 11 visits
A list of resources for my History of Rhetoric II class this Fall.
Updated on 2008-08-23
Created on 2008-08-23
Category: Schools & Education
URL: