96 TEASER | What is Utopia? Part IV. Bacon's New Atlantis Artwork

What's Left of Philosophy

In What’s Left of Philosophy Gil Morejón (@gdmorejon), Lillian Cicerchia (@lilcicerch), Owen Glyn-Williams (@oglynwil), and William Paris (@williammparis) discuss philosophy’s radical histories and contemporary political theory. Philosophy isn't dead, but what's left? Support us at patreon.com/leftofphilosophy

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What's Left of Philosophy

96 TEASER | What is Utopia? Part IV. Bacon's New Atlantis

August 28, 2024 • Lillian Cicerchia, Owen Glyn-Williams, Gil Morejón, and William Paris • Season 1 • Episode 96

In this episode we talk about the weird little unfinished utopian novel The New Atlantis, written by founding enlightenment figure Francis Bacon. We talk about his fetish for differential novelty, his understanding and valorization of knowledge production, and his ambivalent status as a pivotal figure between medieval and modern science. He’s right that European rationality is sickly, but what can orgiastic science deliver for utopian consciousness? Not clear! But it definitely would be cool to be able to make meteors and multiply natural forms.

This is just a short clip from the full episode, which is available to our subscribers on Patreon:

patreon.com/leftofphilosophy

References:

Francis Bacon, The New Atlantis, in Bacon et. al., Three Early Modern Utopias (New York: Oxford, 2009)

Music:

“Vintage Memories” by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com

“My Space” by Overu | https://get.slip.stream/KqmvAN