SOURCE: "Science and Rule in Bacon's Utopia: An Introduction to the Reading of the New Atlantis," in The American Political Science Review, Vol. LXX, No. 3, September, 1976, pp. 865-85.

Here, Weinberger provides a comprehensive overview of the New Atlantis, examining the roots of modernity in order to provide a more complete understanding of the vision behind Bacon's seemingly anomalous, strictly scientific, approach toward the development of a modern utopia.

Modern Utopian thought springs from the promise of modern science. It is the political expression of the claim of science to relieve man's estate and to enlarge the bounds of human empire. The modern utopianism of modern science is nowhere more succinctly presented than in the claim Hobbes made for his novel political science. When founded on the principles of the new science with its "clear and exact method," the study of morals and politics would disclose a "true and...