Kingdom of Science

The Kingdom of Science examines Baconian utopias-blueprints for a scientific sociology of knowledge that founded a new social and economic world in the seventeenth century. Looking backward, Olson begins with More's Utopia and Shakespeare's Tempest, static state utopias designed to woo us toward moral as opposed to scientific reform. Olson then contrasts the primary subjects of his study-Bacon's New Atlantis, the Commonwealth educational utopias, the utopianism of Adam Smith and his Utilitarian followers which increasingly point to a more ideal world to be dominated by a linked science, technology, compelled education and competitive capitalism. The conquest of nature is the goal. The routinising of research and education is the means. The British and Americans have consciously chosen the new dominant forms of education despite warnings and a full presentation of their potential consequences for the environment and culture. The dilemma for constructing social movements is how to create sufficient vision to energise the group and sufficient critical reflection to see the dangers. Olson's erudite work explores how literature enables social groups to create cohesion and to attempt the task of creating the future. Paul A. Olson is a professor of English at the University of Nebraska. He is the author of many books, including The Journey to Wisdom: Self-Education in Patristic and Medieval Literature and The Struggle for the Land: Indigenous Insight and Industrial Empire in the Semiarid World, both published by the University of Nebraska Press.