Idola specus

This article relies excessively on references to primary sources. Please improve this article by adding secondary or tertiary sources. Find sources: "Idola specus" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (January 2011) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Idola specus (singular Idolum specus), normally translated as "Idols of the Cave" (or "Idols of the Den"), is a type of logical fallacy whereby the peculiar biases of individuals lead them to errors. This Latin term was coined by Sir Francis Bacon and used in his Novum Organum, one of the earliest treatises arguing the case for the logic and method of modern science. He described them as deriving from "the peculiar constitution, mental or bodily, of each individual; and also in education, habit, and accident".^[1]