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War and Peace in the Political Thought of Francis Bacon By War and Peace in the Political Thought of Francis Bacon By Samuel Garrett Zeitlin A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science and the Designated Emphasis in Renaissance and Early Modern Studies in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Kinch Hoekstra, Chair Professor Mark Bevir Professor Timothy Hampton Professor Victoria Kahn Professor Shannon Stimson Summer 2018 War and Peace in the Political Thought of Francis Bacon Copyright 2018 By Samuel Garrett Zeitlin Abstract War and Peace in the Political Thought of Francis Bacon by Samuel Garrett Zeitlin Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science University of California, Berkeley Professor Kinch Hoekstra, Chair This dissertation examines war and peace in the political thought of Francis Bacon, moving from internal warfare (civil war) outward via wars of expansion, attrition, and empire to Bacon’s conception of peace. The first chapter considers Bacon’s views of the causes of civil war and strife within the body politic in relation to the contemporary and near-contemporary views held by Machiavelli, Montaigne, Bodin, and Edward Forset, concluding that for Bacon civil wars are caused by poverty and discontentment, both of which are themselves caused by excess population. Excess population may, in Bacon’s assessment, best be reduced by being spread outward in wars for colonies, expansion, and empire and by wars of attrition in which a state engages in wars of aggression for the purposes of killing its own population. The second chapter of the dissertation examines Bacon’s views of empire based upon the title of conquest and Bacon’s preference for the government of colonies under martial law. Wars for colonies, expansion, and empire, do not, in Bacon’s assessment, justify themselves, but had to be legitimized in terms of the justifications of war that then predominated. Chapters three and four of the dissertation thus examine Bacon’s deployments of and innovations within the just war tradition and within the tradition of justifying war on religious grounds. Here, Bacon’s views are contrasted with those of his contemporaries Justus Lipsius and Alberico Gentili. The final chapter of the dissertation examines Bacon’s views of peace and his understanding of true peace as the incapacity of rival states and opponents to do harm. The chapter argues that this view of peace is in concord with Bacon’s views of empire and amounts to an understanding of peace as hegemony. The final chapter further examines Bacon’s distaste for the 1604 Treaty of London and offers a reading of Bacon’s classic fable, The New Atlantis, in light of Bacon’s views on peace. The dissertation concludes with a summation of its findings alongside a consideration of avenues for future research. 1 For my mother, Elizabeth, my sister, Ellie, and my dear friend and partner, Joanna. i Table of Contents Acknowledgments iii Curriculum Vitae iv Introduction 1 Chapter 1: Bacon on Civil War, Sedition, and Rebellion 17 Chapter 2: Bacon on Imperial and Colonial Warfare 48 Chapter 3: Bacon on Just War 78 Chapter 4: Bacon on Wars for Religion 113 Chapter 5: Bacon on Peace 148 Conclusion: War and Peace in the Political Thought of Francis Bacon 175 ii Acknowledgments I am deeply grateful to my doctoral dissertation committee—Professors Mark Bevir, Timothy Hampton, Kinch Hoekstra, Victoria Kahn, and Shannon Stimson—for their guidance, feedback, scholarly example, and support throughout my studies and for their approval of this dissertation. From their seminars on topics ranging from Rabelais to Renaissance rhetoric, the philosophy of history to Shakespeare’s political thought, I have been privileged and deeply honored to study with them at the University of California, Berkeley. Beyond my doctoral committee, Professor John Dunn, Dr. Megan Donaldson, Dr. John Harpham, Adam Leibovitz, Joshua Smeltzer, and Dr. Joanna Williamson read and very helpfully commented on individual chapters of the dissertation, which was aided by their feedback. An earlier version of the first chapter of the dissertation was presented at the Renaissance and Early Modern Studies graduate conference at the University of California, Berkeley in April 2018, and benefitted especially from comments by Professor Timothy Hampton both on that occasion and in preparation for the presentation. At the International Relations seminar at Berkeley, I presented an earlier version of chapter five and am thankful for the comments and feedback on that occasion from Professors Ron Hassner, Kinch Hoekstra, Aila Matanock, and Michaela Mattes. In Erlangen in December 2016, Professor Clemens Kauffmann, Dr. Eva Odzuck, and David Schkade offered helpful comments on a preliminary sketch of the fourth chapter, for which I am grateful. Throughout my time in graduate school, it was a great honor both to study with and serve as research assistant to Professor Shannon Stimson, who read every chapter and every draft of the present study with intellectual generosity, thoughtful criticism, and constructive encouragement. Professor Stimson’s intelligence, masterful prose, and scholarly generosity are exemplary of the scholar and teacher I wish to become. Dr Richard Serjeantson of the University of Cambridge very generously read every draft of every chapter of this dissertation and offered meticulous and helpful feedback throughout. I have profited greatly from his unsurpassed knowledge of Francis Bacon and his scholarly example. Without his encouragement and guidance, I doubt whether the present study would have been written to completion. Not least, I owe great and longstanding intellectual debts to my dissertation supervisor and chair, Professor Kinch Hoekstra. As the great scholar Muhsin Mahdi wrote of his teacher, “If we had to repay the debt of gratitude incurred by his kindness to us, not even the whole of time would suffice.” Finally, I am thankful for the love and support of my family, of my mother, Elizabeth, my sister, Ellie, and my dear friend and partner, Joanna. With love, I dedicate my work on this study to them. iii Curriculum Vitae Samuel Garrett Zeitlin University of California, Berkeley 210 Barrows Hall #1950 Berkeley, CA 94720-1950 Academic Position: Harper-Schmidt Fellow in the Society of Fellows and Collegiate Assistant Professor, University of Chicago (from 1 September, 2018 to 31 August, 2022) Education August 2011-August 2018, University of California, Berkeley Doctoral student and PhD candidate in the Department of Political Science; Member of the Renaissance and Early Modern Studies Designated Emphasis. Advanced to doctoral candidacy: May, 2014. Doctoral Dissertation: War and Peace in the Political Thought of Francis Bacon Committee: Professors M. Bevir, T. Hampton, K. Hoekstra (chair), V. Kahn, S.C. Stimson Award: Mark Rozance Memorial Dissertation Award, Department of Political Science, UC Berkeley, 2018 Master of Arts in Political Science (conferred May, 2012). Thesis: “History and Spirit in Alexis de Tocqueville’s Ancien Régime et la Révolution” (Master’s Thesis Supervisor: Professor Shannon C. Stimson) September 2010-July 2011: Cambridge University Master of Philosophy (MPhil) in Political Thought and Intellectual History Thesis: “Politics and Human Nature in the Thought of Pierre Charron” October 2008-September 2009: Ludwig-Maximilians Universität, Munich Exchange with Balliol College, Oxford iv October 2005-June 2008: Oxford University Bachelor of Arts in Politics, Philosophy, & Economics (PPE) Thesis: “Sovereign Mimicry: Imitation and Rebellion in the Behemoth of Thomas Hobbes” Academic Honors, Prizes and Distinctions (selected, since 2009) Phi Beta Kappa, Northern California Chapter, Inducted 2015 Mark Rozance Memorial Dissertation Award, Political Science Dept., UC Berkeley, 2018 Visiting PhD Student, King’s College, Cambridge and History Faculty, 2015-2017 UC Berkeley, Institute of Governmental Studies, R. Kirk Underhill Fellowship 2016- 2017. Independent Book Publisher Awards 2016—Bronze Medal for an edition of Land and Sea UC Berkeley/King’s College, Cambridge, Sidney Ehrman Fellowship 2015-2016 for a year of post-graduate study at King’s College Cambridge. UC Berkeley, Philo Sherman Bennett Prize in Political Science, 2012-2013 and 2013- 2014. University prize in political science “awarded for the best essay encompassing some aspect of politics other than international relations.” UC Berkeley, Dorothy Rosenberg Memorial Prize in Lyric Poetry (Graduate Winner), 2011-2012. University prize in poetry “awarded for composition of the best unpublished lyric poem.” Finalist in Philosophy, Sélection International, École Normale Supérieure, Rue d’Ulm (Paris, France)—2009 Maximilianeum Stiftung (Munich, Germany) Exchange with Balliol College, Oxford— 2008-2009; Visiting Scholar, 2009-2010; 2011; 2014; 2015; 2017. Publications Peer-reviewed journal articles “Political and Moral Vision in the Thought of Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626),” Journal of Intellectual History and Political Thought, 1:1 (October, 2012), pp. 32-55. “Interpretation and Critique: Jacob Taubes, Julien Freund, and the Interpretation of Hobbes,” in Telos 181 (Winter 2017), pp. 9-39. Edited Book v R.A. Berman and S.G. Zeitlin eds., S.G. Zeitlin trans.; C. Schmitt, Land and Sea, A world- historical Meditation (Candor, New York: Telos Press Publishing, 2015). Awards: 2016 Independent Book Publisher Awards, Bronze Medal (Religion); 2015 London Book Festival
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