The kingdom of science : literary utopianism and British education, 1612-1870
This book examines Baconian utopias as blueprints for a scientific sociology of knowledge that founded a new social and economic world in the seventeenth century. Looking backward, the author begins with More's Utopia and Shakespeare's The Tempest, static state utopias designed to woo us toward a moral as opposed to a scientific reform. To these he then contrasts the primary subjects of his study--Bacon's New Atlantis, the Commonwealth educational utopias, and the utopianism of Adam Smith and his Utilitarian followers. These later utopias increasingly point to an ideal world to be dominated by a science linked to technology, compelled education, and competitive capitalism
Print Book, English, ©2002
University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, ©2002
History
xi, 375 pages ; 24 cm
9780803235687, 0803235682
49249778
Shakespeare's utopian Tempest and education by the book
New Atlantis and the chiliastic utopias
Bacon's commonwealth offspring
The Scribleran revolt against education to extend human empire
Adam Smith and Utopia as process
Utilitarian compulsory utopia
The second generation utilitarians
Dickens's utilitarian dystopia and the death of the social commons
Conclusion