The Renaissance was a fascinating time for intellectuals and thinkers, as humanity began to explore ways to make the perfect society outside of the realm of religion. As scientific knowledge began to advance further and further, writers such as Francis Bacon and Thomas More began to write about how these changes were reflecting the ways in which societies were to be constructed. The notion of a utopia – a perfect society – was created, and More and Bacon penned their own visions of utopias that would have a more humanist, scientific basis in their societal construction, rather than religion. Through the work of Thomas More’s Utopia and Francis Bacon’s The New Atlantis, utopias were shown to need a greater emphasis on science and empiricism as the founding principles of their society, illustrating the diminished need for religion to define social structures and norms for a civilization.
The use of Renaissance practices to create a new, perfect society was innovated by Thomas More in his work Utopia. Utopia tells of the creation of a fictional utopian society on an island, and writes anthropologically about its rituals and customs, even with regards to religion. The innovation of More’s work lies in his comprehensiveness with which he creates an entire country from scratch, even with its own set of laws. Throughout the book, an egalitarian, humanist class system is established, eschewing an English-style hierarchy in favor of a communal realm that offers strict family structures rather than social classes that pit people above each other. To that end, science can be pursued as a collective rather than as something only the elites can enjoy or work on. This attribute of social equality extends to the entirety of Utopia, as More advocates for a more egalitarian social structure that provides support for everyone of all classes, such as when More explains to Nonsenso the sick pride the King of England takes in hanging thieves “sometimes twenty on one gibbet”: “There are dreadful punishments enacted against thieves, but it were much better to make such good provisions by which every man might be put in a method how to live, and so be preserved from the fatal necessity of stealing and of dying for it” (More Book I, 8). By directly comparing the casual cruelty of English aristocracy and classism to the more even-handed nature of Utopian justice, More advocates for his superior system of government.
Science is a hugely important endeavor in the world of Utopia – in this society, More writes about how every child receives a complete education, as citizens are given their values and attitudes through education. While some children can choose to forego manual labor for studying the intellect, More points out that many Utopians pursue intellectual studies on their own, choosing to maintain the nation through manual labor as their work. The accomplishments of the Utopians are incredibly admirable, with a European level of understanding of a variety of scientific fields like geometry and mathematics. Astrology is something that is not given intellectual weight, though Utopians are masters of astronomy; they “were perfectly acquainted with the motions of the heavenly bodies, and have many instruments, well contrived and divided, by which they very accurately compute the course and positions of the sun, moon, and stars” (More Book II, 27). To that end, science is a highly important priority for the Utopians, More providing a contrast to European irrationality and skepticism of science by offering a society that thrives on empirical discovery rather than religion. Furthermore, the fact that they actually do the work to make these discoveries shows Utopians’ emphasis on practical science over abstractions and conjecture. Instead of dividing the labor and intellectual classes, the two pursuits are required of all citizens.
Religious pluralism is a central tenet of More’s Utopia, a direct contrast to the limited, Christianity-centered nature of Renaissance England. Instead of making Utopia a Christian nation, Utopians use a pluralistic method of universal prayer that leaves them able to be open to any possibility of faith: “if they are mistaken, and if there is either a better government, or a religion more acceptable to God, they implore His goodness to let them know it” (More, Book I, 114). All of these central religions are able to get along through their assertion that, “Though there are various religions in Utopia, as I've said, all of them, even the most diverse, agree in the main point, which is worship of the divine nature; they are like travelers going to a single destination by different roads” (More, Book I, 170). Through this move, More demonstrates a preferable humanist, rational alternative to the puritanical nature of 16th century Renaissance English religion, offering the work as a utopian criticism of England and its problems.
More’s overall purpose with Utopia is to showcase the advantages that come from educating the people as a collective:
“For if you suffer your people to be ill-educated, and their manners to be corrupted from their infancy, and then punish them for those crimes to which their first education disposed them, what else is to be concluded from this, but that you first make thieves and then punish them” (More Book I, 13).
More’s chief point is that social unrest comes from this lack of education, combined with the hierarchies that come from a dogmatic Christian value and religious system that 16th-century England enjoyed at the time; with Utopia, the collectivism and humanism along with the pursuit of science enjoyed by the people of this society prevents this kind of subjugation.
In Francis Bacon’s New Atlantis, science takes a particularly prominent role in the forming and engagement of this society. Telling the tale of the mythical island of Bensalem, a similarly More-esque utopian society is unraveled and explored, including its centerpiece of Solomon’s House, a scientific institution paid for and sponsored by the state. Solomon’s House is described as “the very eye of this kingdom,” placing science at the center of Bensalem’s many accomplishments (Bacon para 15). Solomon’s House works as a house of investigation, with only a few members of the House sent on scouting missions to other nations, to learn about the “sciences, arts, manufacturers, and inventions of all the world; and withal to bring unto us books, instruments, and patterns in every kind” (Bacon para 31).
Unlike More’s pluralistic, humanistic Utopia, Bacon’s Bensalem is a uniquely Christian nation, a Bible and a letter from St. Bartholomew arriving there not long after Jesus was resurrected; in this way, Bensalem maintains the Christian faith of 16th-century England. However, it is much more moralistic, with Christian tenets being combined with various attributes of scientific research stemming from the Solomon’s House to form the basis of this society. Bacon uses these cultural attributes to satirize 16th-century England in much the same way as More, as Solomon’s House acts as a rough stand-in for the court of King James I, with Solomon himself acting as a secular counterpoint to King James.
Solomon’s House as a symbol for the Church cements Bacon’s perspective that the Christian religion needs to be reformed in order to more concretely focus on God’s relationship to man, and place greater emphasis on natural philosophy to allow humanity to rule over nature. Here, science is not completely divorced from religion, but instead acts as a systematic way of explaining God’s world, and to “find out the true nature of all things; (whereby God might have the more glory in the workmanship of them, and men the more fruit in the use of them)” (Bacon para 30). By placing that last phrase in parentheticals, Bacon asserts that the study of Creation itself is inextricably linked to the discovery of how Creation’s gifts can be used in ways that are advantageous to men.
The ‘great machine’ of science is applied by Bacon, who “was quick not merely to anticipate its benefits but to outline the conditions for its achievement: the application of science to all human affairs, to the effecting of all things possible” (Mumford, 1965). The select few who are allowed to engage in these scientific pursuits in Solomon’s House within Bacon’s Bensalem are organized in a systematic manner, showing that the pursuit of science requires not just data collection, but analysis as well. In addition to the “merchants of light” that sail out to foreign countries to collect data, there are three “depredators” who collect experiments from books, “mystery men” who collect the mechanical and liberal science experiments currently being performed, and “pioneers or miners” who conduct brand new experiments (Bacon paras. 78-82).
In addition to these, there are “dowry-men or benefactors,” who look over the others’ experiments, looking for implications for future research, applicability to real life solutions “lamps,” who perform deeper analysis of the formers’ experiments by performing new ones based on their findings; “inoculators,” who replicate experiments, and “interpreters of nature,” who perform concrete analysis and spin findings into greater conclusions (Bacon paras. 84-86). By providing such a systematic approach to the scientific method, Bacon’s Solomon’s House becomes a perfect case study and example for the ultimate scientific institution.
One of the most fascinating aspects of both Utopia and The New Atlantis’ emphasis on science is the active role of the community in furthering these goals. Communitarianism is another aspect of utopian society that is put forward in Utopia and The New Atlantis, communitarianism being the ability for individuals to connect to the community as a larger whole (Avineri and de-Shalit, 1992). More notes that one of the essential points of pride in Utopia is the fact that the community works together as a seamless whole to create an equal, egalitarian society that is united in common purpose: “where virtue hath its due reward, and yet there is such an equality, that every man lives in plenty” (More, Book I, 30). Here, More decries the very notion of property as a way to set people apart from each other, another tenet of rationality and class criticism that sets his Utopia apart from the 16th-century England that is the target for his satire. The worlds of Bacon and More, and their focus on scientific pursuit and practicalities over religious class distinctions, provides an environment that not only achieves more empirical progress, but cleaner and more egalitarian social structures.
The focus of community is clear in both works through their centering of these civilizations around cities, the most condensed and clear form of community in a society. More’s Utopia cites the city as yet another means for providing avenues of work for its people: “in a great city, and in all the territory that lies round it, you can scarce find 500, either men or women, by their age and strength, are capable of labor, that are not engaged in it” (More, Book II, 12). Everyone happily engages in manual labor as they understand the necessity of keeping their civilization running. More’s fascination with the city as a metaphor for utopian, humanist society lies in his believe that “the city had the advantage of mirroring the complexities of society within a frame that respected the human scale” (Mumford, 1965). To that end, his use of the city as an indicator for the interplay between individuals as a means to create a utopian society becomes clear.
Bacon’s Bensalem is also communitarian in nature, but with a slightly stricter hierarchy than in More’s Utopia. Unlike the willing manual laborers of Utopia, who pursue intellectual interests in their spare time, the members of Solomon’s House are the primary researchers and scientists in Bensalem. Bacon has much less of a sense of respect and equality for the non-Solomon members of Bensalem, who are called “Renfusa.” These people are shown as slightly gullible, as they are unable to interpret the miracle of the books that washed ashore, except for one man (who is established as a wise man because of this interpretation). To that end, there is some stratification that occurs in Bensalem; however, this is done out of a sense of protectiveness and security for the empirical discoveries being made by the men of Solomon’s House. By the end of the book, Bacon demonstrates that science is the ultimate pursuit a society must make, and it must do so at all costs – the creation of Solomon’s House is the clearest piece of evidence for that thesis. The foundation of the ideal society, based on knowledge and discovery, is described by Bacon: "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 effecting of all things possible” (Bacon para 52). Here, Bacon’s thesis cements science and humanism, not religion and spiritual faith, as the chief method by which a perfect society can be attained.
In their exploration of fictional, egalitarian social structures emphasizing communitarian ideals, Thomas More and Francis Bacon provide compelling arguments for the advancement of science over religion in utopian societies in Utopia and The New Atlantis. More’s detailed ethnography of a communal society dedicated to humanist ideals and empirical pursuit of science is a harsh critique of the spiritual, superstitious 16th-century English society that favored astrology over astronomy, and superstition over science. Bacon’s Bensalem, on the other hand, contrasts More’s equal-work pluralistic population with a Christian-derived scientific institution in Solomon’s House, which offers a strict hierarchy over those who study at the House and those who do not. Bacon’s appeal to science over religion is done by folding science into religion, using the investigation of the natural sciences to bring people closer to empirical truth. Both of these individuals have distinctly different approaches to religion and utopian society, but nonetheless extol the virtues of scientific knowledge and investigation, explicitly linking this changing of priorities to better social and class structures overall.
Works Cited
Avineri, S.and de-Shalit, Avner. Communitarianism and Individualism. Oxford: Oxford
Bacon, Francis. The New Atlantis. H3Ewald, 1626.
More, Thomas. Utopia. More, 1551.
Mumford, Lewis. “Utopia, the City and the Machine.” Boletin 37, 1965.
