Abstract

Abstract:

Bacon’s “idols” of the mind are frequently cited, but discussion of the idols tends to focus on the metaphorical terms “tribe,” “cave,” “marketplace,” and “theater.” Less consideration has been given to his use of the term “idol.” To understand his doctrine of idols requires that we contextualize Bacon’s work within the history of early modern religious reform: just as Luther had argued for a reformed method of scriptural interpretation, so Bacon argues for a reformed method for the “Interpretation of Nature.” Bacon’s innovations in the study of nature—his theory of forms and method of induction—extend the project of reform to the study of nature through the logic of a longstanding metaphor connecting the Book of God’s Word to the Book of his Works. Only by avoiding the “idols” of scholastic philosophy, in the study of nature as in the study of scripture, Bacon argues, can we properly “inquir[e]” into “divine truth.”

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