Francis Bacon

The Advancement of Learning and New Atlantis Francis Bacon

The Advancement of Learning (Or: Of the Proficience and Advancement of Learning, Divine and Human) by Francis Bacon is a book that inspired the taxonomic structure of the highly influential Encyclopédie by Jean le Rond d'Alembert and Denis Diderot, and is credited by Bacon's biographer-essayist Catherine Drinker Bowen with being a pioneering essay in support of empirical philosophy. And the New Atlantis by the same author is an incomplete utopian novel, first published in 1627. This book portrays a vision of the future of human discovery and knowledge, expressing his aspirations and ideals for humankind, and it depicts the creation of a utopian land where "generosity and enlightenment, dignity and splendour, piety and public spirit" are the commonly held qualities of the inhabitants of the mythical Bensalem.