Blog 13

Bacon and Darwin

1.) Bacon says that idols are errors in society.  We can find the errors in ourselves, false teachings, and our culture.  I feel that he uses the term idol incorrectly though.  To me an idol is a positive thing that people can look up to and gives them the drive to be a better version of themselves.

2.) Bacon says the word idol means that these are the false images in which a person has an error.  We have the tribal idol that symbolizes our natural human errors as a group. The idols of the cave are our errors that come from ourselves. The idol of the marketplace represents errors that come from others. A marketplace idol is sort of like a rumor.  I believe that the least severe idol is the idol of the tribe. The most severe idols are the idols of the marketplace and idols of the theater.

3.) The idols that are the result of social intercourse are those of the tribe and marketplace. The idols that are the result of individual reflection are the idols of the cave and theater.  If a person was restricted in society they would be trapped with the idols. We would be exposed to more of the idols of the cave. This is why a hermit would not be completely free of the idols, not only this but they would be ignorant in all facts. Socialization is always good, this how we learn street smarts and natural instinct. People who travel know more, and people who are around other people are more knowledgeable as well.

1.) Survival of the fittest means that the strongest of a species will survive to pass their traits on to their offspring.  The weak will die off because they do not have the skills or traits that allow them to keep themselves alive.  A good example would be the runt of a litter of dogs.  They will usually die off because they are not strong or big enough to fend off the other dogs to get food.

2.) When people breed animals, they get to choose certain traits to carry on and they breed those animals to keep those traits prominent.  Natural selection has more chance to it because the animals don't understand genetics and they can only guess what the best mate for them will be.  Breeding is a more efficient way to get rid of the weak traits in a species.  However, natural selection is very important though because that is the natural way to have genetic improvements without humans interfering in any way.

3.) Darwin would have liked the idea of cloning because it is a way for humans to select certain traits to keep in the blood lines.  This helps to keep the strongest traits around and get rid of the "weak".  I feel that cloning won't undo the work of natural selection.  It will just be a different way to get genetic change to improve the species.

4.) Human social policies is undermining the survival of the fittest idea.  They are allowing sick humans to have medicine that makes them better to survive longer.  In the wild, they would just die off but we now have ways to make them better so they don't die off.