A Brotherhood of Learning

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A Brotherhood of Learning

• New Atlantis

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• So it would yet be more advanced, if there were
  more Intelligence Mutual between the universities
  of Europe than now there is. We see, there be
  many Orders and Foundations, which thought they
  were divided under several sovereignties and
  territories, yet they take themselves to have a
  kind of contract, fraternitie and correspondence,
  one with the other (6r)

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• .As nature createth Brotherhood in Families, and
  Arts Mechanical contract Brotherhoods in
  Communalties, and the Anoyntmens of God
  superinduceth a Brotherhood in Kings and Bishops
  so in like manner there cannot be but a
  fraternitie in learning and illumination

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• Indeed friendship among learned men is a great
  aid to the investigation and elucidation of the
  truth if such friendship could be spread through
  the whole world of learning and established among
  those whose minds are unfettered and above
  partisan zeal because of their devotion to truth
  and human welfare, philosophy would be raised to
  its greatest heights.

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Conflicting readings of NA

• B. Vickers, The world of New Atlantis is no
  fantasy, but the world of modern science and
  technology (1978, 28-9).
• Zagorin an imaginary picture of an ideal or an
  advanced society

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• Weinenberger, New Atlantis as a model of the
  (proper) utopian thought
• Modern utopian thought springs from the promise
  of modern science. It is the political expression
  of the claim of science to relieve mans estate
  and to enlarge the bounds of human empire
• Weinberger, Science and Rule in Bacons
  Utopia An Introduction to the Reading of New
  Atlantis, The American Political Science Review,
  70, 1976, 865-885

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• Spedding, Ellis New Atlantis is a recording of
  Bacons own feelings
• Perhaps there is no single work of his which has
  so much of himself in it. The description of
  Solmons House is the description of the vision
  in which he lived

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• Other interpretations questioning the benevolent
  and ideal nature of the society and pointing out
  to the hidden nature of power
• David Spitz a finished work treating about the
  functions of the philosopher
• 1. to emphasize the distinction between religion
  and philosophy
• 2. to demonstrate de superiority of philosophy
  over religion
• 3. to describe a possible link between religion
  and science
• David Spitz, Bacons New Atlantis A
  Reinterpretaton, Midwest Journal of Political
  Science, 4, 1960, 52-61

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A reformation of knowledge

• S. Hutton New Atlantis is a persuasive exercise
  of rhetoric destined to convince Bacons
  contemporaries to embark in this project of the
  reformation of knowledge

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17th century readings

• Rawley
• An unfinished fable
• Joseph Glanvill
• Bacon desired and formed a Society of
  Experiments in a Romantick Model but could do no
  more his time was not ripe for such
  performances1
• 1 Glanvill, Plus ultra, p. 88

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• John Evelyn
• There is certainly nothing more expedient than
  in pursuite of that stupendious Idea of your
  illustrious predecessor Bacon to set upon a
  Design no way beneath that of his Solomons
  House, which, however lofty, and to appearance
  Romantic, has yet in it nothing of Impossible to
  be effected2
• 2 Evelyn, Introductions Concerning Erecting a
  Library, 1661, cited by R.F. Jones, p. 317.

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• Robert Burton
• I will yet to satisfy and please myself, make an
  Utopia of mine owne, a new Atlantis, a poeticall
  Commonwealth of mine owne, in which I will freely
  domineere, build cities, make statuse, as I lift
  myselfe.3
• Utopian parity is a kinde of government to be
  whished for, rahter thaneffected, Respublica
  Christianopolitana, Campanellas city of the Sun,
  and that new Atlantis, witty fictions, but meer
  Chimeras and Platos community in many things is
  impious, absurd and ridiculous..4
• 3 Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy, p.
  60
• 4 Ibid., p. 63

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Contradictions and paradoxes

• The New Atlantis is, then, not just a curiosity
  as a Baconian fiction, but an interpretative
  paradox the only excursion into narrative
  fiction by a writer who repudiated the charms of
  language a work of imagination that is read as a
  virtually factual document of Bacons project for
  the advancement of learning, and especially of
  science. Although an apparently unfinished
  narrative, it is treated as the epitome of his
  lifes work as a whole, its apparently unfinished
  state a fit emblem for the incompletness of his
  project at the time of his death.1
• 1 S. Hutton, in B. Price, p. 48-49

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• Who are the characters of this story?
• Who are the travellers and where do they come
  from?
• Why are the dialogues taking place in Spanish?
• What are the steps of revealing the existence and
  structure of Salomons House?
• What are the people of Bensalem? (they seem to be
  of different races and to speak different
  languages see the revelation scene)
• What kind of religion is the religion of
  Bensalemians?
• What is the Feast of the Family?

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• Most of the discourses revealing the
  organisation, religion, history etc. of Bensalem
  are interrupted by exterior events (apart from
  the last one). What is the purpose of such
  literary devices?
• There is an interesting imagery of light in New
  Atlantis, to be seen at various levels. What is
  its purpose?
• What is the number of the Fathers of Solomons
  house?

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Manifestoes announcing a reformation of knowledge

• The privileged times of learning
• Learning and salvation
• A general reformation of the human being through
  knowledge
• The general purpose of giving hope in the
  possibility of a general reformation of human
  being (and of humankind).
• Organizing knowledge outside universities
• Finding alternative sources of knowledge

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A reformation of knowledge

• Scientia universalis
• Moral and cognitive reformation of the human mind
• Universal language
• A Brotherhood of learning
• Political reformation

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New Atlantis versus The Advancement of Learning

• Closed, secret society, confined in one place
• Obtains information through experiments and
  espionage (secret expeditions every seven years)
• Hierarchical organized
• Secret, unknown or just revealed in an incomplete
  form

• Open, international brotherhood spread across
  Europe
• Obtains information through frequent exchanges of
  letters and travel
• democratically organized
• Public, self promoting open access

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• Political and religious power
• Having acquired the knowledge already is
  preserving and enhancing it

• Subordinated to the king, state founded,
  separated from religion
• At the very first steps of acquiring the knowledge