Francis Bacon

Howard B. White in his contribution to History of Political Philosophy focuses on the political theory of Francis Bacon. Though Bacon is more commonly thought of as a scientist, or perhaps a philosopher of science, he is still included in History of Political Philosophy as not only did his work on science ended up having political ramifications, he also produced political philosophy in its own right, abet in a version that was heavily tied up in his ideas on science. Much like many of the others that came before him, most notably Plato and Aristotle, for Bacon, the central question of political philosophy is “What is the best state?”. In order to answer this question, Bacon both drew from as well as rejected certain elements of his philosophy of science.

First off, though he rejected the idea of a “fifth essence” in space, which Aristotle used to explain the functioning of the stars, he appears to grant one to the state. Furthermore, he also incorporates some idea of a “final cause” in his theory of the state, an idea which he rejects in science. As a result of Bacon’s ideas of the final cause in the state, the highest good for Bacon becomes rooted in human achievement. Another consequence of this idea was that man became much more detached from nature, and thus can attain no natural good from nature. Instead of some sort of natural order, the state for Bacon rooted in the actions of its founder.

Bacon’s rejection of natural order, at least in the Aristotelian sense had several consequences. One of these was that without natural order to guide people, a far greater emphasis was placed on observation as the way in which humans could be guided. This created the conception of the “expert”, a move which would replace the old dichotomy of philosopher and non-philosopher with a new trichotomy of philosopher, expert, and public. The experts and the philosophers were to both have a role in the new technologically driven world as the experts were to understand the physical workings of new technologies while the philosophers were to understand the effects of these new technologies on the general public. As a result of his expert-philosopher distinction, Bacon also creates another distinction, one between experimental and pure knowledge.

Bacon has great hope that technology will eventually be able to being about a better future. First off, for Bacon technology is not for the individual or even nation that invented it, but for all mankind. What’s more, for Bacon only two criteria were needed to bring about progress: technology and peace. Thus, as can be seen, all of mankind holds one of the key elements in bringing about progress. It is here where the political ramifications of Bacon’s theories on science can be most clearly seen. Bacon though has several ideas on how best to bring about the peace that is also needed to bring about progress. For Bacon, a key component of this is tradition as Bacon thought that tradition was key in bringing about the stability needed to bring about peace that would eventually produce progress. According to Bacon, this tradition had three components. These components are as follows: monarchism, Anglicanism, and imperialism. Though he thought all three were important in bringing about peace, he approaches them in different ways. For Bacon, monarchy is to be favored simply because that is what currently actually exists and any attempt to move to a republican form of government would disrupt the stability needed to bring about progress. Though he does have someone similar views on Anglicanism, his defense of it is more robust as he also concedes that it still has value beyond the fact that it currently exists as Bacon noted that to Anglicanism’s favor, it is more tolerant that the Catholic or Calvinist Churches. Despite his qualified support for the first two elements of his three part scheme of bringing about peace, Bacon has a much more robust defense of imperialism as Bacon sees imperialism as a civic duty and is rooted in his belief of man’s triumph over nature.

Bacon’s theories on the state also lead to him writing about his own utopia in the New Atlantis, where he discusses the hypothetical utopia Bensalem. In Bensalem, Bacon describes two major safeguards. These safeguards are as follows: 1) Collegiate power, which decides which inventions may be revealed to the general public and what the limits of knowledge should be and 2) Paternal power, which is concerned with enforcing virtue. Thus, in Bensalem, power is rooted in the unity of the old, paternalistic power and the new, vigorous science. It may appear odd to many that Bacon, a man so connected with the scientific revolution would be willing to limit what sort of technologies the general public is aware of, but there is in Bacon’s view a very simple reason for this. The reason is that if there were no limits to what sort of technologies the general public were aware of, then eventually stability would be under minded which would stop scientific progress. For Bacon then, science must be limited in order for its long term survival to be guaranteed. Bacon’s utopia has several other interesting characteristics, among these is that power is seen as being rooted in the state rather than the king. Furthermore, though it is possible for anyone to become a ruler, the gap between the ruled and the rulers is quite large.

Several other aspects of Bensalem would likely strike the modern reader as highly authoritarian, particularly for a supposed utopia. One of these aspects is the travel is greatly restricted as travel is restricted so that the people may resist corruption. Such an idea is particularly odd in light of Bacon’s previous support of commerce and imperialism, so it appears to be the case that for Bacon, imperialism and commerce are simply means to an end and once his ideas have firmly taken root, they will no longer be needed. Bacon also has a dim view of the masses as he sees the science of politics secret science that is hard to know and not fit to utter and as such is only for the select few. Misused, this science can bring about doom and gloom. Thus, for Bacon, though some people can be truly free, not all of them can, as while it is true people can be freed from their old superstitions; these superstitions would have to be replaced by new institutions in order to maintain stability. Only a very select few can forgo both of these things.