New Atlantis Lecture 2024 PDF

Francis Bacon, New Atlantis, A Work Unfinished “To the Reader: This fable my Lord devised, the end that he might exhibit therein a model or description of a college instituted for the interpreting of nature and the producing of gr...

Francis Bacon, New Atlantis, A Work Unfinished “To the Reader: This fable my Lord devised, the end that he might exhibit therein a model or description of a college instituted for the interpreting of nature and the producing of great and marvelous works for the benefit of men….” (151)  A fable which culminates in a list of scientific miracles (185-186)  Places the relation between Science, Nature, and Technology at the center of its vision of society  Happiness, health, prosperity achieved through technological innovation and mastery  Science in power, science as power  Allows us to think about the relation between Utopian Literature and what would become Science Fiction and Speculative Fiction Science as power / scientists in power “He was carried in rich chariot without wheels, litter-wise; with two horses at either end, richly trapped in blue velvet embroidered; and two footmen on each side in like attire. The chariot was all of cedar, gilt and adorned with crystal; save that the for-end had panels of sapphires, set in borders of gold, and the hinder-end the like of emeralds of the Peru colour. There was also a sun of gold, radiant, upon the top, in the midst; and on the top before, a small cherub of gold, with wings displayed. The chariot was covered with cloth of gold tissued upon blue. He had before him fifty attendants, young men all, in white satin loose coats to the mid-leg; and stockings of white silk; and shoes of blue velvet; and hats of blue velvet; with fine plumes of divers colours, set round like hat-bands.” (175)  A sumptuous, royal entry; a commanding performance of overwhelming wealth, power, and obedience: “Behind his chariot went all the officers and principals of the Companies of the City. He sat alone, upon cushions of a kind of excellent plush, blue: and under his foot curious carpets of silk of divers colours, like the Persian, but far finer. He held up his bare hand as he went, as blessing the people, but in silence. The street was wonderfully well kept: so that there was never any army had their men stand in better battle-array, than the people stood. The windows were not crowded, but everyone stood in them as if they had been placed.” (176)  Contrast with More’s Utopia: apparently no desire to break with the societal form of monarchy (rank, hierarchy, luxury) UTOPIAN commodities, comparatives, and the shimmer of technoscience From the very earliest encounters – “there came towards us a person (as it seemed) of place. He had on him a gown with wide sleeves … of an excellent azure colour, far more glossy than ours” (153) A commodity like ours, familiar, but glossier, shinier, more exquisite:  Parchment of a “shining yellow” (174)  Ivy “like the leaf of a silver asp, but more shining … [and] green all winter” (169)  Beneath the Father’s foot: “curious carpets,” made of “silk of divers colors like the Persian, but far finer” (176)  (Recalls chariot decorated with “emeralds of a Peru color”) What is “Science” in Bacon’s time? // The “Scientific Revolution”  1620 Novum Organum, sive Indicia Vera de Interpretatione Naturae [New organon, or true directions concerning the interpretration of nature]  Bacon was a champion of what we would now call “The Scientific Method”: inductive reasoning and experimentation (rather than logical deduction or the elaboration of classical texts known as scholasticism)  This new ethos, called “the New Science” or “experimental philosophy” is eminently represented by the works and methods of the House of Saloman  Bacon’s fictional scientific society was one model for England’s first real, official national scientific society, which formed some 35 years later as The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge under the slogan “nullius in verba,” take no one’s word for it – i.e., prove it by experiment.  England’s Royal Society began as a self-organized so-called “invisible college” – an explicit call-back to New Atlantis – before it was granted Why did it take a “revolution” to establish empiricism and the experimental method as legitimate means of investigating nature?  Contemptus mundi (contempt for the world)  Curiosity as “lust of the eyes,” aligned with “lust of the flesh”  Renaissance “humanism” and “naturalism” More: Science as Worshipful Contemplation of the Creation “[T]he worship which pleases God is the contemplation of nature and the praise which springs from it.” (121) “When they investigate the secrets of nature using the resources of science, they not only experience wonderful pleasure from doing so but they also think they win the highest approbation from the creator and maker of the world. For they suppose that he, like other workmen, set up the marvelous mechanism of this world for mankind to view and contemplate (and men are the only creatures he made capable of doing so) and that therefore he [God] is fonder of a careful observer and meticulous admirer than he is of some lazy blockhead who ignores such a marvelous spectacle as if he were a mindless brute.” (94)  KEYWORDS: contemplation, wonderment, admiration  Nature is God-created spectacle created for our wonderment, gratitude, viewing pleasure.  For humans, specifically, exceptionally  Little emphasis on technology Bacon: Science as hands-on experimentation, manipulation of Nature SALOMAN’S HOUSE: “An Order or Society … dedicated to the study of the Works and Creatures of God … [A] House for the finding out of the true nature of all things (whereby God might have the more glory in the workmanship of them and men the more fruit in the use of them).” (167) “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.” (177)  From (passive) contemplation to active transformation  New metaphor of “imperial conquest”  Beyond what exists as given (by nature), toward what is possible (by art)  NATURE pressed past its existing limits toward “THE EFFECTING OF ALL THINGS POSSIBLE”  they do not just make it rain, but they make “artificial rains of bodies and not of water” (178)  they do not just plant “large and various orchards and gardens, “ but they “make (by art) in the same gardens, trees and flowers to come earlier or later than their seasons”(179)  “We make them also by art much greater than their nature, and their fruit greater and sweeter and of differing taste, smell, colour, and figure, from their nature.” (179)  they artificially create non-existing types of plants without seeds, and “make one tree or plant turn into another.”  they not only keep “all sorts of beasts and birds” for observation, but also for dissection and animal testing (“trials”) (179)  “By art likewise, we make them greater or taller than their kind is; and contrariwise dwarf them, and stay their growth: we make them more fruitful and bearing than their kind is; and contrariwise barren and not generative. Also, we make them differ in colour, shape, activity, many ways. We find means to make commixtures and copulations of different kinds; which have produced many new kinds, and them not barren …” (179)  -- check out the verbs in the incomplete list of projects with which the book closes (185-186) – increasing, altering, accelerating… “The point was not that truth and knowledge were no longer important, but that they could won only by ‘action’ and not by contemplation. It was an instrument, the telescope, a work of man’s hands, which finally forced nature, or rather the universe, to yield its secrets. The reason for trusting doing and for distrusting contemplation or observation became even more cogent after the results of the first active inquiries. After being and appearance had parted company and truth was no longer supposed to appear, to reveal and disclose itself to the mental eye of a beholder, there arose a veritable necessity to hunt for truth behind deceptive appearances. Nothing indeed could be less trustworthy … than passive observation or mere contemplation. In order to be certain, one had to make sure, and in order to know one had to do. Certainty of knowledge could be reached only under a twofold condition: first, that knowledge concerned only what one had done himself – so that its ideal became mathematical knowledge, where we deal only The Re-Creation of Nature: A world within a world -- “We have large and deep caves of several depths” (177) -- “great lakes both salt and fresh” (178) -- “engines for multiplying and enforcing of winds” (178) -- “artificial wells and fountains, made in imitation of the natural sources” (178) -- “great and spacious houses, where we imitate … meteors … snow, hail, rain … thunders, lightnings” (178) SENSORY POWER & FALLIBILITY / DECEPTION : “Miracles,” scientific and divine “We imitate smells, making all smells to breathe out of other mixtures than those that give them. We make diverse imitations of taste likewise, so that they will deceive any man’s taste.” (182) “We also have houses of houses of deceits of the senses; where we represent all manner of feats of juggling, false apparitions, impostures, and illusions; and their fallacies. And surely you will easily believe that we that have so many things truly natural which induce admiration could in a world of particulars deceive the senses, if we would disguise those things and labour to make them seem more miraculous. But we do hate all impostures and lies: insomuch as we have severely forbidden it to all our fellows, under pain of ignominy and fines, that they do not show any natural work or thing, adorned or swelling; but only pure as it is, and without all affectation of strangeness.” (183) “Lord God of heaven and earth, thou has vouchsafed of thy grace to those of our order, to know the works of creation, and the secrets of them; and to discern … between divine miracles, works of nature, works of art, and impostures and illusions of all sorts. I do here acknowledge and testify before this people, that the thing which we now see before our SCIENCE, SECRECY & POWER  The findings and powers of the House of Saloman are selectively shared with the wider society: “we have consultations [regarding] which of the inventions and experiences which we have discovered shall be published, and which not: and take all an oath of secrecy, for the concealing of those which we think fit to keep secret, though some of those we do reveal sometimes to the state, and some not.” (184)  like More, an UTOPIAN emphasis on isolation, closure, seclusion, and, especially, secrecy - An island hidden “in the secret conclave of such a vast sea” (162); “beyond both the old world and the new” (156) - A founder-king who, “doubting novelties, and commixture of manners” (165) severely restricted foreign trade, relations, and “the entrance of strangers” (166)  Concentric layers of security before the inner sanctum where the workings of the House of Salomon are revealed” - Stopped in the harbor; Quarantined in “the Strangers’ House” for three days; - granted permission to explore, but only within 1.5 miles of the city walls (158): “we took ourselves for free men … within our tedder [tether]” (168) Even the citizens of New Atlantis almost never see the members of the Society : “There is word come to the governor of this city that one of the Fathers of Saloman’s House will be here this day seven-night: we have seen none of them this dozen years. His coming is in state; but the cause of his coming is secret” (175) OBJECTIVITY and Empire “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.” (177) SCIENCE AS “A TRADE IN LIGHT”: “[E]very twelve years there should be set forth out of this kingdom two ships, appointed to several voyages … [and carrying] a mission of three of the Fellows or Brethren of Salomon’s House; whose errand was only to give us knowledge of the affairs and state of those countries to which they were designed, and especially of the sciences, arts, manufactures, and inventions of all the world; and withal to bring unto us books, instruments, and patterns in every kind” (167-8) “But thus you see we maintain a trade, not for gold, silver, or jewels; nor for silks; nor for spices; nor any other commodity of matter; but only for God’s first creature, which was Light; to have light (I say) of the growth of all parts of the world.” (168)  Additional OCULAR and SPECULAR METAPHORS FOR SALOMAN’S HOUSE, i.e. Scientific Vision and Scientific Authority: -- “the very eye of this kingdom” (159) -- “the lanthorn [lantern] of this kingdom” (167) -- “indeed, if there be a mirror in the world worthy to hold to men’s eyes, it is that country.” (169) Donna Haraway: scientific objectivity as a “view from nowhere” “You shall understand that there is not under the heavens so chaste a nation as this of Bensalem; nor so free from all pollution or foulness. It is the virgin of the world. I remember I have read in one of your European books, of an holy hermit amongst you who desired to see the Spirit of Fornication; and there appeared to him a little foul ugly Ethiop. But if he had desired to see the Spirit of Chastity of Bensalem, it would have appeared to him in the likeness of a fair beautiful Cherubim.” (173) “Lord God of heaven and earth, thou has vouchsafed of thy grace to those of our order, to know the works of creation, and the secrets of them; and to discern … between divine miracles, works of nature, works of art, and impostures and illusions of all sorts. I do here acknowledge and testify before this people, that the thing which we now see before our eyes is thy Finger and a true Miracle.” (160) “And surely you will easily believe that we that have so many things truly natural which induce admiration could in a world of particulars deceive the senses, if we would disguise those things and labour to make them seem more miraculous. But we do hate all impostures and lies: insomuch as we have severely forbidden it to all our fellows … that they do not show any natural work or thing, adorned or swelling; but only pure as it is, and without all affectation of strangeness” (183)  NEW ATLANTIS A Work Unfinished To the Reader: This fable my Lord devised, the end that he might exhibit therein a model or description of a college instituted for the interpreting of nature and the producing of great and marvelous works for the benefit of men … Certainly the model is more vast and high than can possibly be imitated in all things; notwithstanding most things therein are within men’s power to effect. His Lordship thought also in the present fable to have composed a frame of Laws, or of the best state or mould [pattern] of a commonwealth; but foreseeing it would be a long work, his desire of collecting the Natural History diverted him, which he preferred many degrees before it. This work of the New Atlantis … his Lordship designed for this place; in regard it hath so near affinity … with the preceding Natural History. W. Rawley Regal Splendor of the “Father of Solomon’s House” when he appears to the people: “The day being come, he made his entry. He was a man of middle stature and age, comely of person, and had an aspect as if he pitied men. He was clothed in a robe of fine black cloth, with wide sleeves and a cape. His under garment was of excellent white linen down to the foot … and [he wore] shoes of peach- coloured velvet … He was carried in a rich chariot with wheels, litter-wise, with two horses at either end, richly trapped in blue velvet embroidered … The chariot was all of cedar, gilt, and adorned with crystal; save that the fore-end had panels of sapphires, set in borders of gold, and the hinder-end the like of emeralds of the Peru colour. There was also a sun of gold, radiant, upon the top, in the midst; and on the top before, a small cherub of gold, with wings displayed… He had before him fifty attendants, young men all, in white satin loose coats to the mid-leg; and stockings of white silk; and shoes of blue velvet; and hats of blue velvet … He held up his bare hand as he went, as blessing the people, but in silence … ” (175-176)  Donna Haraway, from “Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective” (1988) “So, I think my problem, and 'our’ problem, is how to have simultaneously an account of radical historical contingency for all knowledge claims and knowing subjects … and a non-nonsense commitment to faithful accounts of a ‘real’ world, one that can be partially shared and that is friendly to earthwide projects of finite freedom, adequate material abundance, modest meaning in suffering, and limited happiness.” (579) “The moral is simple: only partial perspective promises objective vision. All Western cultural narratives about objectivity are allegories of the ideologies governing the relations of what we call mind and body, distance and responsibility. Feminist objectivity is about limited location and situated knowledge, not about transcendence and splitting of subject and object. It allows us to become answerable for what we learn how to see.” (583)