Crusoe and The New Science

Are Crusoe’s perceptions of events twisted by the “Idols” Bacon mentions in his essay The New Science and does the character’s insight into these idols allow him to correct for their influence on his understanding of the event as Bacon asserts it can?


I was exceedingly surpriz’d with the Print of a Man’s naked Foot on the Shore… I came Home to my Fortification, not feeling, as we say, the Ground I went on, but terrify’d to the last Degree...mistaking every Bush and Tree and fancying every Stump at Distance to be a Man… I fancy’d it must be the Devil; and Reason joyn’d in with me upon this Supposition.
Robinson Crusoe Pg. 112
Oh what ridiculous Resolution Men take, when possess’d with Fear! It deprives them of the Use of those Means which Reason offers for their Relief.
Robinson Crusoe Pg. 115

The idols and false notions which are now in possession of the human understanding, and have taken deep root therein, not only so beset men’s minds that truth can hardly find entrance, but even after entrance obtained, they will again in the very insaturation of the sciences meet and trouble us, unless men being forewarned of the danger fortify themselves as far as may be against their assaults.
Portable Enlightenment Reader Pg. 41

   
    When Crusoe comes upon the imprint of a foot, his understanding of the event is entirely twisted by the fear he experiences. His perception of the cause of the footprint is wildly illogical and even his perception of physical objects around him seems to be highly perturbed. He concludes the maker of the footprint to be the devil himself and is able to support this assertion with reason.
    Crusoe’s perceptions and resulting assertions seem to follow the model that Bacon categorized when he described the four “Idols” which can take possession of the human understanding. According to his distinctions I believe Bacon would categorize the “Idol” in this case as The Idol of the Cave, or the idols of the individual man. It asserts the ways in which the each man’s individual mind can color and refract experiences.
    Bacon takes a second step though and asserts further that by understanding the ways our own individual minds can refract and bend experiences, we can accommodate and correct for our perceptions. However, the process which Bacon describes for adjusting for our individual bias to come closer to the truth is not actualized by Crusoe. We notice that at an early point Crusoe acknowledges his faculties for reason were highly influenced by his fear. His preceding actions and thoughts continue to revolve around the acknowledged flawed belief. It wasn’t until Crusoe essentially rested and exausted his mind of worry naturally that he was able to come to a more plausible conclusion concerning the cause of the foot imprint.
    This brings us to question the second assertion that Bacon makes. Specifically, does the acknowledgment of our biases actually allow us to correct for their effect on our perception and reason? If novels can be used to come to some understanding of the experiences people faced during an era of time, we may be able to draw evidence  from this piece that Bacon’s second second assertion does not hold true. During the 18th century, it seems to have required more to uncolor  perceptions from their biases than mere acknowledgement of said biases.