The four idols
Bacon listed four idols that deceive the mind — of the tribe, the cave, the marketplace, the theatre — warning how language, prejudice and tradition distort our observation of nature: the first systematic catalogue of cognitive bias.
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Francis Bacon
Father of modern empiricism and scientific method
Those Who Ground an Idea Into a Whole System · Disciples & School-Builders
EmpiricismInductionScientific method
Who they are
Francis Bacon (1561–1626), the English statesman and philosopher, held that "knowledge is power" and in the Novum Organum urged systematic inductive experiment in place of Aristotelian deduction, while attacking the four "idols" that cloud the mind. He is regarded as the philosophical founder of modern experimental science.
Primary sourcesBacon, Novum Organum, New Atlantis
Key stories
Relationships
Disciple
Echoes today
Below are how modern works borrow or reinterpret this name or story — not the original material. The two differ, so keep them apart.
"Knowledge is power"The maxim is still a common slogan of science and education.