Rhetorical Analysis On Idols

Sir Francis Bacon identifies an idol as a biased that distorts and deceives man’s interpretation of the world. These idols are what cloud individuals judgements and perceptions of the world because the idols are pre-made and are unable to be corrected with out great personal discipline (Article Two). Bacon believes it is important to consider the bias of the idols because without understanding the bias then one cannot break away the bias to fully be enlightened or have a true knowledge of how the world works (Article Two). Sir Francis Bacon classifies the idols of the world into four groups. The groups include: Idols of the Tribe, Idols of the Cave, Idols of the Marketplace, and Idols of the Theater. Each idol examines a different aspect of
life from different viewpoints or angles. The first idol, the Idol of the Tribe, takes apart the race of men and the foundation of human nature. The Idol of the Tribe, is an idol that boils down to over perception of things that are not needed to be thought about anymore than they are.
An example would be a person viewing a situation such as a relationship problem between two friends from an outside view and the person only seeing half of the picture but imagining or “reading” more into the situation than is actually there. Bacon also writes that the human mind never stops conceiving and has no end ton its racing, we are always looking into the beyond to see what lies ahead, or to see where we have been (Article Two). As humans we have the issue of not being able to slow down and engage in the present because we are to concerned about what is to come. A child’s life through a parents eyes is an example that is easily demonstrated to exploit this idol. A parent sees a child and sees the future, the child growing maturing turning into an adult and with that growth and maturation comes added responsibility, troubles, and stresses for the parent. Parents are worried about saving money to fun an education for the child and are stressed by working hard and end up missing a part of their child’s life due to their concern about the future of the child instead of slowing down and having their moment with the child in the
present. The Idol of the Cave is a biased model that takes an individuals independent experiences and throws them against the Idol of the Tribe by demonstrating that one can have a totally different reality by how they perceive the world through their own senses using their over perception as seen with the tribe and the constant race of the mind. Sir Bacon exclaims that the cave is an idol that is almost pre-determined by the taking of a favorite subject or subject that the mind is captivated by and dwells upon. The cave is an idol that is controlled through outside sources such as education, accidents, meetings, and the mental and bodily capabilities of an individual (Article Two). An example of the cave’s bias is through location of being raised predetermines am person to have an upbringing or teaching in a particular religion without choice, leading to a bias of education. The Idol of the Marketplace is a type of bias that has to do with communication. Bacon states that this idol is most difficult to overcome because words are the cause of the problem because everyone has pre-determined meanings and definitions of the words that are used in everyday language (Article Two). Semantics plays a large roll in this idol because all of the words that are used to explain the problems and offer solutions are either poorly defined and not specific of are describing things that do not exist. An example of this would be the interpretations of the Bible. The Bible, depending on the translation, can have many different meanings based on the time that it was written and the language in which it is transcribed. When the Bible is translated from one language to another certain languages might have different words that do not mean the same thing or are not closely related enough and so therefore can be misinterpreted. Idols of the Theater are idols that are on a broader spectrum than the average small group of people for interactions.
The theater idols represent the centralized and accepted ideas of the major philosophy principles being: rational, empirical, and theological (Article One). The rational system is criticized because it begins with a system of logic and conforms all empirical observations to that logic (Article One). With this being the case it entraps the logic to the observations. The idols of the Theater mimic a puppet show or play presentation because of the “smoke and mirrors” that are displayed by governments and larger parties that are in power over a group of people. These idols are dangerous because as humans our average gullible personality causes us to go with what the “protective party” or government says or tells because of the trust that is stored in the party. Examples of this are common in many societies, one example of this idol in American society is the war on terrorism. The war on terrorism and how the U.S. government went to Iraq, Afghanistan, and recently in Kuwait to “defend” and establish democracy in these areas. When a person steps back and examines the event that took place and the parts that were first liberated and heavily defended in these areas they can quickly discover that the oil reserves and manufacturing equipment in these areas are what was sought after first by the American
government. Sir Bacon takes all of these idols and breaks them down so that as people who might not necessarily sit around breaking down how bias affects their theorizing or ideology of things it actually has a lot of sway on how they perceive the world and the events that take place. Bacon makes a point that if one can completely separate philosophy from other practicing such as theology and sciences then an individual can make justifiable judgments and perceptions of their world. However with this point the problem of the marketplace will always be there because with out the specific redefining of all language on a universal scale there will always be a barrier between people. The persons own interpretation of language will always be a problem.