New Atlantis - Francis Bacon (1561-1626)

Plot summary:
the depiction of a scientific utopia (science as its foundation);
as in other accounts of utopias, Western men arrive to an unknown island by a sea voyage; the
country is called Bensalem meaning perfect son;
it is a fairly closed society: they seldom accept foreigners, sending some of their people (in
disguise) to visit Europe and other parts of the worl in order to access all the new knowledge and
novelties that might be useful for them;
it is also a family-oriented society, patriarchal (Feast of the Family: granted by the state to any
man with more than thirty descendants above 3 years old; chastity; marriage) ;
tolerance towards other religions (character of the Jew);
little social stratification
the foundation of their society is called either Salomon's House or College of the Six Days Works
(affinity with Christianity), a research centre dedicated to the study of the works and creatures of
god (science) key passage: 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
effectiong of all things possible (Governor of the city, one of the Fathers of Salomon's
House)
- they have artificial caves, wells and fountains;
- they have techonology to recreate natural phenomenons, such as snow or wind; medecine to
treat most of diseases; greenhouses to produce out of season or new species of trees and plants;
experiments with animals, genetic manipulation; experiments with light, sound, perfumes, motion;
this society is structured and organised so to meet the needs and dignity of its people;

Francis Bacon:
17th century
Lord Chancellor from 1618 to 1621, Francis Bacon was the founder of modern scientific method:
Baconian method - the application of inductive reasoning , i. e., Bacon suggests that the
underlying cause of the phenomenon, what he calls the "form," can be approximated by
interpreting the results of one's observations.

The New Atlantis

The myth of Atlantis is told by Plato in Critias and Timaeus: depiction of a political utopia with a
mythical background (Poseidon) Bensalem used to trade with Atlantis (which they identify as
America), and still have some of their descendants among them (from those who escaped the
deluge, not the earthquake as Plato tells) see Plato's Republic
The New Atlantis: scientific utopia
Eutopia

Utopia vs Science Fiction

Science fiction: an imagined reality different in its nature and functioning from our world of
ordinary experience. Often the setting is another planet, or this earth projected into the future, or
an imagined parallel universe(...) an explicit attempt is made to render plausible the fictional
world by reference to known or imagined scientific principles, or to a projected advance in
techonology, or to a drastic change in the organization of society. (in A Glossary of Literary
Terms, M. H. Abrams)
 Utopia: representation of an ideal state of a distante country reached by a venturesome traveler
(in A Glossary of Literary Terms, M. H. Abrams)
- utopian literature takes place outside historic time, this meaning that there is no transition
from before utopia to after utopia, that political problematic era in which the old is laid aside and
the new is tried is, in most cases, simply not discussed. There is no attempt made to deal, as
scientific history would deal, with process, development and the critical problem of transition -
this is not to say that science and technology don't belong there (From The Image of Science and
Technology in Utopian and Science Fiction Literature by Stephen Tonsor)