Idols of the Mind

Four families of cognitive bias that distort human reasoning.

Bacon's catalogue of mental traps: Idols of the Tribe (biases common to all humans), Idols of the Cave (biases of individual temperament), Idols of the Marketplace (distortions from imprecise language), and Idols of the Theater (received doctrines accepted on authority). The taxonomy remains useful four hundred years later.