![]() ![]() Socialists believed that agricultural economies with property held in common would cure the ills of industrial capitalization. The abolition of money, private property, and class structure would undermine the power of the bourgeoisie. ![]() Utopia's criticisms of the nobility's perversion of law to subjugate the poor were applied to the suffering of industrial and factory workers. 1848, the year of Marx's Communist Manifesto is a year of urban revolutions. The Utopian celebration of common property and dependence upon extensive state planning are the groundwork for communism and socialism as presented in Marx and Engels' written works. These Utopian projects were especially popular in Britain, France, and New England. Utopia became the project of creating an ideal society apart from the demoralizing city. In the 1800s, the rise of urban industrialization triggered the proliferation of Utopian projects (agricultural communes), all of which failed. These reformatory practices, designed to quantify happiness, calculate moral goodness and produce the optimal balance, echo the anti-privacy measures inflicted upon the citizens of More's Utopia. Jeremy Bentham, a leading Utilitarian thinker, developed ideas of surveillance and the panopticon by which all can be seen. The utilitarian philosophy expounded in the late 1700s and early 1800s developed the idea of the ideal and perfect balance of happiness. Utopia has inspired a diverse group of political thinkers. The term "utopia" has gained more significance than More's original work. The Greek word Utopia translates as "no place" or "nowhere," but in modern parlance, a Utopia is a good place, an ideal place (eu-topia). More's work has left a lasting impact on subsequent political thought and literature. More opposed the vast land enclosures of the wealthy English aristocracy, the monopolistic maneuvers of London's guilds and merchants, and the burdensome oppression of the work through the imposition of unjust laws. He is less interested in New World politics and more interested in offering Utopia as an indirect critique of the Catholic European societies (England mainly, but also France, the Italian city-states, and other areas to a lesser extent). ![]() More uses the New World theme to get his philosophical points across. Columbus, Vespucci, and others returned with stories of the New World but earlier works of Marco Polo and John Mandeville already developed a genre of travel writingstories of far-off lands that combined fact with a great deal of fiction. The First Four Voyages of Amerigo Vespucci was published in Latin in 1507. Raphael Hythloday gives us the story of Utopia because he once sailed with Amerigo Vespucci. The Puritan experiments of the 1600s (in Britain and in North America) exemplify the programming of Utopian New Jerusalem.Ĭertianly, we must remember the context of New World exploration. Utopia is a type of New Jerusalem, a perfect place on earth. Augustine's City of God established the theme of the earthly city of God, reiterating the image of New Jerusalem presented in the Biblical Book of Revelations. All the same, More's Utopia implies that Utopians are better than some Christians. In the 1530s, More wrote polemical tracts and essays attacking Lutheranism as heresy. Though Aristotle was opposed to the idea of common property and the abolition of private property, Aristotle's ideas of aesthetics, justice and harmony are present in the Utopian's philosophy.Ī devout Catholic, More was beheaded as a martyr in 1535, standing opposed to the principle of the Anglican Church and the King of England's role as the head of the Church (replacing the Pope in Rome). Sustaining the arguments of The Republic, Utopia fashions a society whose rulers are scholars (not unlike Plato's philosopher-king). As a philosopher brave enough to tackle the idea of the "ideal state," More leans away from Aristotle and towards Plato, author of The Republic. Is an ideal state possible? Utopia means "no place" but sounds like "good place." At the very least, Utopia exposes the absurdities and evils of More's society by depicting an alternative.Īs a satirist, More continues the tradition of Ancient Roman writers like Juvenal and Horace. In depicting Utopia, More steps outside the bounds of orthodox Catholicism, but More's ultimate goal is to indicate areas of improvement for Christian society. Alongside his close friend, the philosopher and writer Erasmus, More saw Humanism as a way to combine faith and reason. Utopia is a work of satire, indirectly criticizing Europe's political corruption and religious hypocrisy. The work was written in Latin and it was published in Louvain (present-day Belgium).
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