The New Atlantis and The City of the Sun: Two Classic Utopias

Two authors from The Age of Reason and Enlightenment, in keeping with the spirit of their times, envisioned their own philosophical and intellectual utopias. Tomasso Campanella, a Calabrian monk, published The City of the Sun in 1623, and Francis Bacon's The New Atlantis appeared in 1627. Campanella was a student of logic and physics who formulated the first scientifically based socialistic system — one that furnished a model for subsequent ideal communities. Bacon focused on politics and philosophy, emphasizing the duty of the state toward science. Despite the authors' differences in setting and treatment, each of these 17th-century classics mirrors the period's prevailing thought, reflecting the idealism of an age and its revolutionary trends in philosophy.