The New Atlantis

Dawn of the Scientific Age

The Recovery of Eden

• The scientific and technological revolution that began in Renaissance Europe eventually transformed the world

What do you think are the purposes

and uses of technology?

The ancient Christian view of technology

• St Augustine (4th century AD) one of the most important theologians of early Christianity wrote in his City of Gods:

• ‘…there have been discovered and perfected, by the natural genius of man, innumerable arts and skills which minister not only to the necessities of life but also to human enjoyment’

• ‘in saying this of course, I am thinking only of the nature of the human mind as a glory of this mortal life, not of faith and the way of truth that leads to eternal life…

The ancient Christian view of technology

• And remember, all these favors taken together are but the fragmentary solace allowed us in a life condemned to misery’

• In other words technology has no place in the redeemed world and is only something to slightly alleviate the condition of the fallen humanity

The transformation of the technological ideal

• The European perception of technology slowly changed in the Middle Ages (roughly est. AD 1000-1400)

• Renaissance - a revolutionary conception of technology, quite simply unique to the Christian Europe, has begun to appear

The Rosicrucian Manifestos

• In 1617 1)Renaissance was at full swing

2)A ‘secret society’ - Rosicrucian Brotherhood published 2 manifestoes

3)These two succinctly captured the spirit of the age

4) In these manifestoes Rosicrucians stressed the importance of the collective advance of scientific and technological knowledge

Francis Bacon: Prophet of modern science

• Even though evidence is not conclusive (the Rosicrucians is after all a secret society!), many scholars are suspected to be Rosicrucians

• Most important Sir Francis Bacon, great prophet of the modern science and technology in the 16th to 17th century

A Rosicrucian Portrait of

Bacon

Sir Francis Bacon• (22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626) • English philosopher, statesman, spy, freemason

and (in the Rosicrucian context) essayist

• Knighted in 1603

• Began professional life as a lawyer but became best known as a philosophical advocate and defender of the scientific revolution

Sir Francis Bacon• Works establish and popularize an

inductive methodology for scientific inquiry, often known as the Baconian method

• Works and philosophy an inspiration of The Royal Society, the world’s first ever scientific society (1660) which was later headed by Sir Isaac Newton

Bacon’s technological/spiritual

agenda• ‘Knowledge is power’

• Bacon one of the first to expound the need for science to be applied to technology

• Vehemently against traditional philosopher’s disdain of mechanical and practical things (e.g. Plato and Archimedes)

Bacon’s New Atlantis• Bacon’s New Atlantis is an essay about a technological

utopia called Bensalem

• At the pinnacle of Bensalem’s society is knowledge, science and theology.

• They also learn that Bensalem began history as a monarchy and they hear vaguely of the present king but he seems primarily to symbolize piety and the comity between the two pillars of the state: religion and science with the latter clearly the more prominent. http://www.sirbacon.org/links/newatlantis.htm

House of Salomon• Three hundred years before Christ, Bensalem had

been ruled by a great lawgiver called Solamona.

• Now Bensalem's crowning institution is named in his memory, an unusual institution part chancery, part university, and part experimental research laboratory.

• Although Salomon's House runs the nation's educational system, its prime responsibility is to administer a centralized R&D institute which serves the nation somewhat as Bell Labs serves AT&T.

http://www.sirbacon.org/links/newatlantis.htm

House of Salomon• It pioneers in the development of scientific innovations

which are then franchised out to industry.

• Direction of Salomon's House was by a sage scientist who can best be pictured in the image of Alfred North Whitehead, not only because he was a distinguished mathematician and philosopher, but also because his philosophy interpreted the presuppositions of modern science in a way completely compatible with the theological presuppositions of the Church of England.

http://www.sirbacon.org/links/newatlantis.htm

State control of technology

• Salomon's House not only controlled the investments in pure and applied research, it also indirectly "legislated" Bensalem's future developmental course by evaluating each scientific discovery as it was made and deciding whether or not it qualified for acceptance, or instead warranted suppression.

• An invention that failed to pass this qualitative assessment could not be chartered out for further development and exploitation. Although the Church had no formal role in those decisions, the entire society was thoroughly suffused with a dense force field of Christian values. These informally set the parameters of the moral ecology within which all activities were judged.

http://www.sirbacon.org/links/newatlantis.htm

In what way is the House of Salomon different or similar to our scientific establishment?