La Nouvelle Atlantide

The New Atlantis, a utopian text by Francis Bacon, tells of the discovery of an ideal society by a group of Europeans who come across an island governed by a community of wise rulers. In contrast to Utopia by Thomas More, Francis Bacon is less interested in the ideal form of society than in the idea of a reform of science. In his eyes, scientific understanding of the world does not lie in theories but rather in the empirical study of facts. This is why Francis Bacon resorts to the journey, the symbol of the discovery of an alternative reality. Journey, observation and experience are tied to and make up part of the progress of science. The journey of Europeans to the island of Bensalem is therefore the opportunity to encounter an ideal society whose perfection reveals the limits of European society. For Bacon, science must work towards the improvement of man’s individual and collective well-being: in Bensalem, the travellers discover an ideal city where the progress of science has enabled life to be significantly improved. Therefore, Francis Bacon imagines that access to the ideal is incumbent upon the development of experimental research, free of the yoke of the religious traditions of the Middle Ages.