Ascendency Through Knowledge Essay -- Intellectual History, Sociology,

Ascendency through Knowledge New Atlantis begins with the apparent utopian society successfully synthesizing scientific endeavor and achievement with Christian theology. This revelation is only half-hearted; Bacon’s true motive is nothing less than the subversion of Christian scholastic dogma and replacing it with material wellbeing through scientific scholarship as outlined in Bacon’s works. Through proper method a different kind of knowledge could be acquired liberating human destiny from divine intervention. Bacon’s knowledge empowers mankind reducing suffering and improving our wellbeing. â€Å"Wherefore, as in religion we are warned to show our faith by works, so in philosophy by the same rule the system should be judged by its fruits, and pronounced frivolous if it be barren,† (New Organon, Bacon, 12) Bacon in the 17th century elevated the measure for knowledge where it must be able to produce useful works separating itself from the past. Intellectual history as a discipline and as a way of thinking about the world has a history. Ideas and ways of thinking and ways of understanding the world have a history. Considering the history of human achievement whether we are talking about political history, economic history, military history, and gender history nothing compares in raw measure to our living history. This history includes what we think is possible or what is impossible. How we think about the world determines our relationship to it. Human thought has a history, which the way we think in modern times is not the way people have understood it or thought about it. Humanity changes how we think about the natural world, what is out there to be known? What is the stuff of the world? Why things happen? What is good evidence?... ...ist Bacon explains is a wise man or member of Solomon’s House where after receiving the heavenly manuscripts falls to his knees and remarked, â€Å"†¦to those of our order to know thy works of creation, and true secrets of them; and to discern, as far as appertaineth to the generations of men†¦.† (Bacon, New Atlantis, 67) Bacon outlines knowledge not from deduction from authority but induction from the distinct events in nature. Through patient observation we may form considerate thoughtful generalizations, where we may test these generalizations always refining and always open to new avenues of experimentation. Bacon’s Knowledge is verifiable and productive, the New Atlantis was dedicated to human knowledge and with it the technological progress that empowered humanity this view was in contrast to the scholastic perspective of an unchanging, contemplative universe.