Bacon’s Doctrine of the Idols and Skepticism

Abstract

Bacon recognizes some important similarities between skepticism and his own philosophy, especially the skeptic’s emphasis on the weakness of our cognitive faculties and his suspension of judgment. But there is also a key difference: although both affirm the impossibility of knowledge, the skeptic claims that nothing can be known tout court, whereas Bacon contends that this is the case only as far as the traditional way of attaining knowledge is concerned. This essay examines the affinities and differences between Bacon’s philosophy and ancient skepticism, both Pyrrhonian and Academic, by focusing on a comparison between his doctrine of the idols and the arguments and themes found in the ancient and contemporary skeptical sources which he presumably read.