Bacon s New Atlantis: The Emergence of a Scientific Discourse

Abstract

Abstract<br><br>Francis Bacon (1561-1626) in his New Atlantis, like his predecessor Sir Thomas More, presents the outlines of an ideal state. The main objective of this essay is to show how Bacon in this work manages to depict the transition from the religious to the scientific discourse in one of the most important historical periods of Europe (i.e., the Renaissance). Historically, the seventeenth century can be considered as the time when this shift in paradigm can make its presence more palpably felt. The essay intends to show how these two seemingly discordant discursive practices have a great deal in common in exerting their power on the subjects in Bensalem. The essay claims that discourses merge and supersede each other in a struggle to establish new paradigms only to be toppled by more powerful ones; each no better than the next in bringing us closer to the eternal “truth”.