I thought Francis Bacon’s way of presenting the idols to show how to find truth was in interesting way of going about it. After talking about Bacon’s view points in class I thought that he made very good points about truth. I think that if we interpret what he’s saying as looking at things as a whole and finding the truth, then I agree. I think that it is important to be aware of biases in our thinking. Bacon’s way of presenting the idols helps to find the truth. Although it is not about what is true and what is false, we still need to look at what we’re doing and how we’re doing these things to know our biases and find truth.
It would be ideal to eliminate biases, but at the same time I think it makes our world different in a good way. Without biases, differences and different opinions, the other idols would not have a place and there would be no controversy. Most of us know by now that uncomfortable situations and tension help us to learn and understand new concepts. As far as science goes, I think Bacon’s ideas are okay to make sure we are discovering science in an unbiased and well thought-out way. It helps us to see our biases and false truths in our reasoning, but at the same time, everything cannot be based solely on science. There are moral, ethical and religious view points as well as science that need to come into play when trying to find the truth.
4 comments:
It is indeed important to examine any situation with as clear a mind as possible, but sometimes one is unable to see through one’s biases. The way that each person thinks can be described as bias. How you are raised contributes to how you think so perhaps there is not truly a way to eliminate biases, but as you said, Bacon's ideas are very helpful in decreasing preconceptions and discovering science in a well thought out way.
I agree with you that differences in opinion are a good thing in the world, and I think that our differences are necessary for us all to grow and learn as humans, but I do not think being biased is a good thing. Biases do reflect our opinions, but this does not mean that if we don’t have biases we can’t have opinions. The way bias is defined in the dictionary is, “prejudice in favor or against one thing, person, or group compared with another, usually in a way considered to be unfair.” Being biased means that one is basing their opinion on personal beliefs or insufficient information. Another word for this, which is used in the official definition, is prejudice. Most of us know and have learned that we need to eliminate the prejudices in our lives and search for the facts in every situation so we can be well rounded educated individuals. In this same way we must eliminate our biases to be informed critical thinkers, able to argue intelligently and sustain stable values and morals.
The more biased we are, the more difficult it is to distinguish between the truth and distorted evidence. Take for example the Iraq war. A biased person might assume that there was a connection between Osama Bin Laden and Sadam Hussein. An informed person knows that this is untrue, and has never been true or even really an option. While the existence of this bias does create different opinions, they are not healthy differences, because the biased opinion is based on falsehoods. Healthy opinions on the Iraq war would consist of one informed person making an argument for Iraq being left alone because they did nothing wrong according to international law, and another informed person making an argument that we needed to invade Iraq to take a oppressive dictator out of power and install a healthy democracy. Biases create opinions, but the opinions they create only clutter society with false theories and irrelevant debates leaving no room for the real problems to be resolved.
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