Knowledge is Power: Francis Bacon and the Birth of Modernity

3 credits · Undergraduate

Modern western culture draws close connections between three facets of human experience: a) our knowledge of nature; b) our visions of what it is to be human; and c) power, or the political, social, and technological means by which we relate the first two: nature and human nature. The Renaissance period (roughly 1400-1630) was highly influential in laying the foundations for such modern connections, even as it seems to us to be a period rather different from our own. We will examine those connections in an exploration primarily of the work of Francis Bacon (1561 - 1626). CROSSLISTED: HSTC 3205.03 FORMATS: Lecture | Seminar