Clinging to our idols

Bird Dog is Writing at Maggie's Farm about The Great Courses. He and his family have been listening to prof reviews of Bacon's False Idols of Knowledge and Science (from The New Organum (1620). Bacon lists four idols that we should all keep in mind:

- The Idol of the Tribe: the arrogance that comes from agreement with one's colleagues
- The Idol of the Cave: bias coming from one's psychology and background, and the vanity of attachment to an idea
- The Idol of the Marketplace of Words: Wherein words take the place of real knowledge.
- The Idol of Theater: Our received philosophical and scientific views and given by tradition and authority

I especially like those first two, because I see them every day.