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1	Francis Bacon, the ideology of utopia McKay, Allyson. January 1981 (has links) This dissertation explores the social and political thought of Francis Bacon. While Bacon's contribution to the philosophy of science is recognized, his work is seen as having been focused primarily on the reform of the human estate. Bacon's Great Instauration, his programme for the advancement of learning and the restoration of mankind to pre-lapsarian dominion over nature, is examined for the influence of four main Renaissance perspectives: humanism, Christianity, millenarianism and historical optimism. Bacon wedded Renaissance humanism to millenarian-eschatology to provide an alternative to the classically-oriented interpretation of universal history. / Despite the frequent use of millenarian-eschatological metaphors, Bacon's proposed reforms were based on human endeavour, not on divine will. The New Atlantis, Bacon's utopian portrayal of ideal social order, expresses his vision of the advancement of learning and its relation to politics. There the principal problem he confronts is resolving the contradiction between the mutability of all things, human and natural, and the inexorable progress promised by the new learning. Bacon's solution in the New Atlantis is ultimately unsatisfactory for it is based on a radical separation of the active will from the public sphere, and is thus achieved only at the expense of politics. Bacon, Francis, 1561-1626. Bacon, Francis, 1561-1626. New Atlantis.
2	Francis Bacon, the ideology of utopia McKay, Allyson. January 1981 (has links) No description available. Bacon, Francis, 1561-1626. Bacon, Francis, 1561-1626. New Atlantis.
3	The Relationship Between the State and Salomon's House in Francis Bacon's New Atlantis Gallo, Evan January 2009 (has links) Thesis advisor: Robert Faulkner / Over the past century we have witnessed and benefitted from a technological boom. Issues ranging from how science should progress to how it should be used continually gain prominence in public debates. This raises the question: what is the ideal relationship between the state and the scientific institutions? I attempt to explain how Francis Bacon, one of the founders of the modern era, answers this with his New Atlantis. Bacon’s realpolitik nature allows the New Atlantis to achieve what very few utopias can, actualization. By looking at New Atlantis’s fictionalized country, Bensalem, we can see Bacon’s ideal relationship between the scientific institution (Salomon’s House) and the state. First, I examine the state and Salomon’s House independently of each other, and then how they interact. Eventually, Bacon shows us that a strong and independent scientific institution is necessary to establish perpetuity to a well ordered state. / Thesis (MA) — Boston College, 2009. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Political Science. Francis Bacon Salomon's House New Atlantis science and politics political theory Bensalem
4	Sublime Subjects and Ticklish Objects in Early Modern English Utopias Mills, Stephen 02 December 2013 (has links) Critical theory has historically situated the beginning of the “modern” era of subjectivity near the end of the seventeenth century. Michel Foucault himself once said in an interview that modernity began with the writings of the late seventeenth-century philosopher Benedict Spinoza. But an examination of early modern English utopian literature demonstrates that a modern notion of subjectivity can be found in texts that pre-date Spinoza. In this dissertation, I examine four utopian texts—Thomas More’s Utopia, Francis Bacon’s New Atlantis, Margaret Cavendish’s Description of a New World, Called the Blazing World, and Henry Neville’s Isle of Pines—through the paradigm of Jacques Lacan’s tripartite model of subjectivity—the Imaginary, the Symbolic, and the Real. To mediate between Lacan’s psychoanalytic model and the historical aspects of these texts, such as their relationship with print culture and their engagement with political developments in seventeenth-century England, I employ the theories of the Marxist-Lacanian philosopher, Slavoj Žižek, to show that “early modern” subjectivity is in in fact no different from critical theory’s “modern” subject, despite pre-dating the supposed inception of such subjectivity. In addition, I engage with other prominent theorists, including Fredric Jameson, Jacques Derrida, and Donna Haraway, to come to an understanding about the ways in which critical theory can be useful to understand not only early modern literature, but also the contemporary, “real” world and the subjectivity we all seek to attain. Utopia Thomas More New Atlantis Francis Bacon Blazing World Margaret Cavendish Isle of Pines Henry Neville Slavoj Žižek Michel Foucault Jacques Derrida Fredric Jameson
5	Margaret Cavendish and Scientific Discourse in Seventeenth-Century England Bolander, Alisa Curtis 06 May 2004 (has links) Although the natural philosophy of Margaret Cavendish is eclectic and uncustomary, it offers an important critique of contemporary scientific methods, especially mechanism and experimentalism. As presented in Observations upon Experimental Philosophy and Blazing World, Cavendish's natural philosophy incorporates rationalistic and subjective elements, urging contemporary natural philosophers to recognize that pure objectivity is unattainable through any method of inquiry and that reason is essential in making sense and use of scientific observation. In addition to its scientific implications, Cavendish's three-tiered model of matter presents interesting sociopolitical associations. Through her own use of metaphor and her theoretical fusion of matter and motion, Cavendish confronts the masculinist metaphors and implications of mechanism. Through the dramatization of her model of matter in the narrative Blazing World, Cavendish exposes the theoretical failings of contemporary methods and legitimizes her alternative to pure experimentalism. By envisioning a new planet to place the utopia of Blazing World, Cavendish actively uses the rational functions of the mind, showing that reason and rational matter are above all else in natural philosophy. Although Cavendish's scientific theory in some ways promotes the participation of women in natural philosophy, it becomes complicated as she simultaneously reinforces her social biases and urges a traditional class system with a monarchical government. Cavendish actively separates the gender constraints in philosophical inquiry from the social limitations placed on the lower classes to promote herself and other aristocratic women in the pursuit of natural philosophy, urging that the rational realm, where all sexes are equal, should govern scientific investigation. Margaret Cavendish Blazing World natural philosophy Newcastle Duchess England scientific revolution natural philosophy scientific philosophy seventeenth-century science scientific discourse metaphor mechanism mechanist experimentalism experimentalist rationalism rationalist empericism empiricist Descartes Boyle Hooke Hobbes Bacon New Atlantis women woman feminist inductive deductive model matter utopia rational eschatology eschatological gender inquiry political monarchy aristocracy monarchical aristocratic English Language and Literature

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