Are the four Baconian idols still alive in demography?

Courgeau, Daniel, Bijak, Jakub, Franck, Robert and Silverman, Eric (2014) Are the four Baconian idols still alive in demography? Revue Quetelet/Quetelet Journal, 2 (2), 31-59. (doi:10.14428/rqj2014.02.02.02).

Record type: Article

Abstract

In this paper, we examine the four Idols that beset human minds according to Francis Bacon’s Novum Organum (1620). These are: Idols of the Tribe – false assertions resulting from the belief that «the sense of man is the measure of things»; Idols of the Cave – peculiar to the individual people; Idols of the Market Place – resulting from «the intercourse and association of men with each other», and Idols of the Theatre – stemming from «dogmas of philosophies and… wrong laws of demonstration». We aim to see if these Idols are still alive in contemporary population sciences, and look at several examples from the fringes of demography – behaviour genetics, postmodern theory, hereditarianism, and modern hermeneutics. The analysis of these examples strongly suggests that demography needs to remain faithful to the scientific method whilst looking for new insights and inspirations.

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