#POSTPONED# Magic and the Making of the Modern World

Centre for Renaissance and Early Modern Studies and York Festival Ideas Lecture

Philosopher, statesman and a pioneer of modern scientific thought, Francis Bacon's goal was to create an earthly paradise by turning the hopes and dreams of magicians into a reality.

His ‘alternative universe of things’ was to be filled with marvels such as physical immortality, extreme mental and bodily powers, drugs that cure all manner of diseases, bioengineered plants and animals, robots, and new artificial metals, cements and gems.

Historian Sophie Weeks of the University of York explores the origins of the human ambition to fashion a new and better world.  She will argue that in Bacon's notion of ‘the enlarging of the bounds of human empire, to the effecting of all things possible’, we find the beginning  of the modern vision of limitless technological innovation that expands toward an infinite horizon.

Join Sophie and discover why Bacon's belief in human potential for the future has been one of the most influential ideas to have shaped the aspirations of inventors since his death in 1626.

Dr Sophie Weeks is a Lecturer in Early Modern History at the University of York. She is a member of the Department of History, the Centre for Renaissance and Early Modern Studies, and the Centre for the History of Philosophy (CHiPhi). She has wide interests in early modern intellectual history, with a particular focus on the history of science. An expert on philosopher Francis Bacon (1561–1626), she is currently  completing the book Francis Bacon’s Science of Magic and editing (with Daniel Andersson and Rhodri Lewis) volume 5 of the Oxford University Press edition of Francis Bacon’s complete works, which comprises Bacon’s early philosophical writings to about 1611.

York Festival of Ideas ticketing goes live on Monday 4 May: http://yorkfestivalofideas.com/

Image: Title page of Bacon’s Francisci de Verulamio, summi Angliae cancellarii, Instauratio magna (London: apud Joannem Billium, Typographum Regium, anno 1620) [Scheide Library].