Robinson Crusoe often uses his "Idols" in the words of Francis Bacon to figure out his next move in light of things such as a footprint or a gunshot, which sometimes is unhelpful, but sometimes can lead to him being successful. Are Bacon's ideas about the gaining of knowledge by pure induction without the use of one's notions actually useful when applied to the strange life of Crusoe?
"This was to be sure a Surprize of a quite different nature from any I had met with before; for the Notions this put into my Thoughts, were quite of another kind. I started up in the greatest haste imaginable, and in a trice clapt my Ladder to the middle Place of the Rock, and mounting it the second Time, got to the Top of the Hill, the very Moment, that a Flash of Fire bid me listen for a second Gun, which accordingly, in about half a Minute I heard; and by the sound, knew that it was from that Part of the Sea where I was driven down the Current of my Boat" (Robinson Crusoe, p. 134).
"There is no soundness in our notions whether logical or physical. Substance, Quality, Action, Passion, Essence itself, are not sound notions: much less are Heavy, Light, Dense, Rare, Moist, Dry, Generation, Corruption, Attraction, Repulsion, Element, Matter, Form, and the like; but all are fantastical and ill defined" ("The New Science" p. 40).
Although there is the obvious connection because Crusoe describes his notions, it seems that this moment in the novel could be showing something that is lacking in the logic of Bacon. Before this moment, the reader saw Crusoe go through the frightening process of discovering who a footprint belonged to. He at first thought it was the Devil, which I would classify as "fantastical" definitely. So perhaps in this situation, Bacon is right that people need to let go of some of the ideas they have in their minds when trying to learn about something new. In the passage above, the reader sees Crusoe experience something new for him on the island-a gunshot of a ship in distress, and the way he addresses and acts in this situation actually seems logical, rational, and the right thing to do. It does help that Crusoe himself had been on a ship in distress and knew exactly how this goes. In the passage above, Crusoe lets his training as a sailor take over, since it is something familiar to him. The way it is described seems as though it was a natural impulse for him to do what he did, but at the same time it was not him acting irrationally.
If the quote by Bacon above is taken as is, Crusoe did the wrong thing because he let his concepts of things, or notions, take over his thinking, without pure, unbiased induction. It is hard to say that if he would have left his home to go investigate without the use of his prior experiences because it could have been a risk, and an unnecessary one at that. But what did he get out of it? He saved a dog's life and found a lot of money and supplies. That seems like a successful outcome to me, and he did it using his notions of what the gunshot meant, where it was coming from, and what happens when a ship wrecks close to his island. When one reads in-depth what Bacon says in "The New Science," a key passage is: "Therefore if the notions themselves...are confused and overhastily abstraced from the facts, there can be no firmness in the superstructure [syllogism]..." (40). He does argue that man inherently confuses his facts through the four kinds of idols, but this quote at least by itself seems like it applies to Crusoe's experiences. When he has concrete, rational explanations from experience for something, he does not impulsively do something that will lead him into trouble, but when he becomes overcome by anxiety and reality is confused, he tends to make mistakes.
No comments:
Post a Comment