Week2 Post 3

Pick one concept from the assigned reading that you found useful or interesting and discuss it.

Francis Bacon stated that our clear thinking is interrupted by the “Idols of Tribe”, the “Idols of the Cave”, the “Idols of the Market Place” and the “Idols of the Theatre” (p 10). Among those four idols, I found the “Idols of the Market Place” especially interesting. Words are always in our brain, and I think they can be both interrupting and helping clear thinking.

As Bacon says, words can be “plainly force and overrule the understanding” (p 10). Misuse of language happens every moment, and this can lead a fatal miscommunication depending on the situation we are in. Thus, when we make a promise or an agreement on something, we often sign on a hard document rather than inform orally. Unlike spoken words, written words can stay as long as we hold the document, and those words can be chosen more carefully than spoken words. This indicates that words often are a cause of troubles.

On the other hand, I also think words make our thought more visible and clearer. For example, I can get a solution for what I concern about simply by speaking a loud or taking to somebody whether or not he/she is listening. This happens to me a lot. By putting on words, I can think clearer.

Thus, I believe words can interrupt and also fix and help our understandings.