Imagination and Philosophy: The role of the fable New Atlantis in Bacon s Great Instauration

• Grant number: 24/01284-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: February 01, 2025
• End date: February 28, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Philosophy - History of Philosophy
• Principal Investigator: Fátima Regina Rodrigues Évora
• Grantee: Ana Beatriz Munarolo
• Host Institution: Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas (IFCH). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The literary shape of New Atlantis, as well as its posthumous publication and its unfinished nature, have always been obstacles to interpreting its purpose. However, by analyzing it in the light of the Great Instauration, it becomes clear that it is precisely the element that allows the identification of a certain unity in the author's major works, since, by conceiving an extremely advanced utopian society due to its commitment to progress, the fable embodies the main Baconian theoretical devices in order to promote his reformist project to a wider audience. But besides trying to verify and show how this unity is sustained and the propagandistic importance of this work, this research aims to defend its philosophical value. To do so, it is first necessary to understand that the project it sponsors is political, since it proposes a radical transformation of 17th century Europe into a scientific society. Secondly, it is vital to find out whether imagination and literature have the capacity, in Francis Bacon's view, to create knowledge and thus constitute a kind of method of discovery. Therefore, through a theoretical analysis of the primary bibliography, which includes the works Gesta Grayorum (1594), The Advancement of Learning (1605), Novum Organum (1620), The Great Instauration (1620), Sylva Sylvarum (1626) and New Atlantis (1626), and the interpretative proposals of the commentators, it is intended to indicate a reading key which, by showing that New Atlantis plays an essential role in Baconian philosophical discourse, proposing a new civil attitude towards knowledge and even a new investigative path, will reveal that its configuration, far from being disconnected from the author's works, is the best choice for promoting a real reform of knowledge.