Francis Bacon, long considered a minor figure in the founding of modern political thought, is now recognized as one of its foremost thinkers. Bacon not only championed a new type and method of scientific inquiry, he also developed a plan for how modern society could be re-ordered to accommodate and promote scientific progress. Bacon’s scientific writings cannot be wholly understood apart from his political writings, and many of his works combine the two topics so subtly that it is difficult to even place them in a definitive category; in this book, Kimberly Hurd Hale identifies the thread in Bacon’s body of work that links modern science and liberalism. Hale provides a detailed analysis of New Atlantis, examining Bacon’s place in the founding of modern political philosophy and the ways he relates to Plato, Machiavelli, and Hobbes. Hurd argues that Bacon’s demonstration of scientific rule in the New Atlantis is not meant as a blueprint for modern society; rather it shows us the dangers of a scientific society devoid of liberty. By examining what is troubling about the New Atlantis, this book explains what problems lead to the emergence of Atlantean societies, i.e. societies that are prosperous, ambitious, and doomed. It shows that Bacon’s portrait of Bensalem may provide the light necessary to guide those of us living in a world shaped by modern science through the dangerous seas.

New Atlantis is a utopian novel by Sir Francis Bacon, which he never finished. It was published posthumously in 1626. In "New Atlantis," Bacon portrayed a vision of the future of human discovery and knowledge, expressing his aspirations and ideals for humankind.

Campanella was a student of logic and physics; Bacon focused on politics and philosophy — but despite their authors' differences, both of these utopian visions reflect the spirit of 17th-century philosophy.

New Atlantis is a utopian novel by Sir Francis Bacon, which he never finished. It was published posthumously in 1626. In "New Atlantis," Bacon portrayed a vision of the future of human discovery and knowledge, expressing his aspirations and ideals for humankind.

The Corporate Commonwealth traces the evolution of corporations during the English Renaissance and explores the many types of corporations that once flourished. Along the way, the book offers important insights into our own definitions of fiction, politics, and value. Henry S. Turner uses the resources of economic and political history, literary analysis, and political philosophy to demonstrate how a number of English institutions with corporate associations—including universities, guilds, towns and cities, and religious groups—were gradually narrowed to the commercial, for-profit corporation we know today, and how the joint-stock corporation, in turn, became both a template for the modern state and a political force that the state could no longer contain. Through innovative readings of works by Thomas More, William Shakespeare, Francis Bacon, and Thomas Hobbes, among others, Turner tracks the corporation from the courts to the stage, from commonwealth to colony, and from the object of utopian fiction to the subject of tragic violence. A provocative look at the corporation’s peculiar character as both an institution and a person, The Corporate Commonwealth uses the past to suggest ways in which today’s corporations might be refashioned into a source of progressive and collective public action.