Nickhil Singh
Title: Sir Francis Bacon
Sir Francis Bacon's name may be most noted because some conspiracists believe that he is the man responsible for the works written by "Shakespeare." Although it is unknown whether this is true or not, we can conclude that Bacon played a seminal role in the change of philosophical thought from strictly theological and religous grounds to technological and scientific grounds. Bacon's New Atlantis and The Great Instauration may be the first great work to accomplish this change in thought.
As an empiricist, it is not a surprise that Bacon would want a society centered around knowledge and science. Notably, Bacon's work is a fictitous story that lends it philsophical value only from truly appreciating the hidden subtleties of the text. The entire crux of the story surrounds a captain and his crew who are lost at sea after a severe thunderstorm. They end up on an island named Bensalem, which symbolizes Bacon's eutopian state. In this eutopian state, everyone is not only homogeneously Christian, but seemingly Christian without the fallacies of Christian thought that dominated Bacon's life during the Renaissance period. (This Christian purity can be attributed to the long backstory Bacon desrcibes in the creation of Bensalem's society. To better understand its origin, specifically the "great miracle" that spawned the creation of Bensalem culture, please read the book). Additionally, the people of Bensalem are segregated from the rest of the world; only a select few people get the opportunity to travel off the island and visit other parts of the world.
Most importantly, Bensalem contains the House of Solomon, which is the integral part of its society. As the House of Solomon is described in the book,
"The End of our Foundation is the knowledge of causes and secret motions of things; and the enlarging of the bounds of human empire, to the effecting of all things possible.
In particular, The House of Solomon is the technological center of Bensalem. In fact, all of Bensalem is affected by the inner workings of this place. The people in power (i.e. the politicians, although this is not necessarily clear) even come from this house and mandate certain societal laws based off of their scientific findings. Thus, science is the means by which all of society is evaluated. In fact, those people in the House of Bensalem even determine what types of inventions are appropriate for mainstream population. (Essentially, censorship is a regular occurence in Bensalem). Moreover,
The aforementioned people who are allowed to leave the island come from the House of Bensalem, too. They only leave the island because they need to discover all the technological advancements of the world!
Strikingly, Bacon's fictitous work leaves us all to ponder the merits of a society completely based off of empricism and technology. Is this how society should evolve? Is this evolution impossible to avoid? When reading this book, those are the salient questions to ask yourself. If nothing else, you will find Bacon's dream state fascinating and a joy to experience.
Personally, I enjoyed reading the book, but I did not agree with Bacon's ideas of censorship nor could I find any plausability in his scenario. Like I said earlier, it truly is fascinating to read the origins of Bensalem because the allusions to Original Sin are frequent and the imagery vivid. If you are an aspiring theologian, you are in for a treat.
Want to reach me? E-mail me at nickhil@nickhil.com
