Bacon's Idols

In the Novum Organum (1620), Francis Bacon cataloged the forms of systematic self-deception under the heading of idols: the Idols of the Tribe (errors inherent in human cognition), the Idols of the Cave (errors arising from individual temperament and experience), the Idols of the Marketplace (errors arising from the imprecision of language), and the Idols of the Theatre (errors arising from received philosophical systems). Bacon intended the catalog as a practical instrument, not a curiosity: a mind aware of its tendencies toward distortion was better equipped to resist them than one operating in ignorance of its own biases. Ann Blair's historical methodology treats Bacon's project as an early attempt at what every subsequent information crisis has required — a systematic catalog of the specific ways content produced in a given medium can mislead.