Science: Bacon and Saint-Simon

David Reisman

Chapter 6 in Economy and Utopia, 2026, pp 75-92 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: Bacon and Saint-Simon looked to the advance of knowledge for technological breakthroughs in economy and society. New discoveries make life better for everyone. Applied empiricism and sense perception are both the road to utopia and an essential part of the new order. Cartesian deduction and theological speculation are a poor second to the facts. Copernicus had applied science to astronomy. Mining and small manufactures were applying it to economic productivity. The voyages of discovery were collecting information about other countries. Bacon's New Atlantis provided an imaginary account of just such a country. In existence for almost 2000 years, its constitution kept in check the powers of monarchy and legislature that were themselves being kept in check by social consensus, public opinion and the scholarship of a truth-seeking college, Solamon's House. Saint-Simon, like Bacon, relied on evidence rather than metaphysics to keep progress in motion. Prosperity would increase. All would work. Stratification would disappear once capitalists, workers and bankers joined together in a single class of productives. Auguste Comte, Saint-Simon's collaborator, built a science of sociology on the belief in testable propositions, pragmatic state intervention and the hard core of the social organism.

Keywords: Science; Political Constitution; State Intervention; Consensus; Social Stratification; Comte (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035368600
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