Utopia

Categories: Ethics | Fictional countries | Utopias | Communalism | Social philosophy

For other uses, see Utopia (disambiguation).

Utopia, in its most common and general positive meaning, refers to the human efforts to create a better society, a perfect society that does not exist (yet).

Ideas which could radically change our world are often called utopian ideas.

"Utopia" in a negative meaning is used to discredit ideas as too advanced, too optimistic or unrealistic, impossible to realize.

It has also been used to describe actual communities founded in attempts to create such a society.

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Basics of Utopia

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Utopia's Family

Adjective - utopian:

According to Oxford dictionary, it is usually used negatively to criticise proposals or ideas having or aiming for a level of perfection of utopia which is impossible or very difficult to achieve.

Noun - utopian:

The word utopian can be used as a noun to mean someone who imagines or proposes or supports a utopia.
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Derivation of utopia

The term utopia was coined by Thomas More as the title of his Latin book De Optimo Reipublicae Statu deque Nova Insula Utopia (circa 1516), known more commonly as Utopia. You can read the original text here, in the wikisource.

The term "utopia"" is combined from 2 Greek words - "not" (ou) and "place" (topos), thus meaning "nowhere". He created the word "utopia" to suggest two Greek neologisms simultaneously: outopia (no place) and eutopia (good place). In this original context, the word carried none of the modern connotations associated with it.

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Related terms

  • Anti-utopia questions the moral or practical validity of utopias
  • Dystopia is a negative utopia.
  • Eutopia is a positive utopia, roughly equivalent to the regular use of the word "utopia".
  • Heterotopia, the "other place", with its real and imagined possibilities (a mix of "utopian" escapism and turning virtual possibilities into reality) - example: cyberspace.

Other subcategories include Arcadias and Cockaygnes. Ruth Levitas is one who has developed such a categorisation.

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History of utopia

Thomas More depicts a rationally organised society, through the narration of an explorer who discovers it - Raphael Hythlodaeus.

Utopia is based on The Republic where all property is held in common. Furthermore it is a perfect version of The Republic where the beauties of society, eg equalism and no war, all exist and the evils of society, eg poverty and misery, are all extinct. It has few laws, no lawyers and rarely sends its citizens to war, but hires mercenaries from among its war-prone neighbours.

It is likely that Thomas More, a religious layman who once considered joining the Church as a priest, was inspired by monastical life when he described the workings of his society. Thomas More lived during the age when the Renaissance was beginning to assert itself in England, and the old medieval ideals – including the monastic ideal – were declining. Some of Thomas More's ideas reflect a nostalgia for that medieval past. It was an inspiration for the Reducciones established by the Jesuits to Christianize and "civilize" the Guaranis.

His book reached high popularity so the term utopia became a byword for ideal concepts, proposals, societies etc. Therefore for every author who proposes an utopia, it usually involves criticisms of many faults in the world, and all these faults will disappear in his envisioned society. The things outlined in the utopic visions are usually radical, revolutionary, inspirational, or speculative.

Although some authors have described their utopia with some sorts of practicality, the term utopia has become stereotyped as reflecting notions that are too optimistic and idealistic for practical application; and readers will often mislabel their concepts as impossible or void.

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Types of utopia

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Economic utopia

Particularly in the early nineteenth century, several utopian ideas arose, often in response to the social disruption created by the development of commercialism and capitalism. These are often grouped in a greater "utopian socialist" movement, due to their shared characteristics: an egalitarian distribution of goods, frequently with the total abolition of money, and citizens only doing work which they enjoy and which is for the common good, leaving them with ample time for the cultivation of the arts and sciences. One classic example of such an utopia was Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward. Another socialist utopia is William Morris' News from Nowhere, written partially in response to the top-down (bureaucratic) nature of Bellamy's utopia, which Morris criticized. However, as time passed and the socialist movement matured, utopianism was discarded. Socialists grounded their ideas firmly in what they saw as the realities of the age; among the different emerging socialist currents, Marxism became by far the harshest critic of utopian socialism. (for more information see the History of Socialism article)

Utopias have also been imagined by the opposite side of the political spectrum. For example, Robert Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is an individualistic and libertarian utopia. Capitalist utopias of this sort are generally based on perfect market economies, in which there is no market failure—or the issue is never addressed.

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Political and historical utopia

A global utopia of world peace is often seen as one of the possible inevitable endings of history.

Sparta was a militaristic utopia founded by Lycurgus (though some, especially Athenians, may have thought it was rather a dystopia). It was a Greek power until its defeat by the Thebans at the battle of Leuctra.

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Religious utopia

The Christian and Islamic ideas of the Garden of Eden and Heaven tend to be a form of utopianism, especially in their folk-religious forms: inviting speculation about existence free of sin and poverty or any sorrow, beyond the power of death (although "heaven" in Christian eschatology at least, is more nearly equivalent to life within God Himself, visualized as an earth-like paradise in the sky). In a similar sense, the Buddhist concept of Nirvana may be thought of as a kind of utopia. Religious utopias, perhaps expansively described as a garden of delights, existence free of worry amid streets paved with gold, in a bliss of enlightenment enjoying nearly godlike powers, are often a reason for perceiving benefit in remaining faithful to a religion, and an incentive for converting new members.

In the United States during the Second Great Awakening of the nineteenth century, many radical religious groups formed utopian societies. They sought to form communities where all aspects of people's lives could be governed by their faith. Among the best-known of these utopian societies was the Shaker movement. The largest such movement was The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' settlement in Utah after 1846 (See Mormon Pioneer).

See also: End of the world, Eschatology, Millennialism, Utopianism

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Scientific and technological utopia

These are set in the future, when it is believed that advanced science and technology will allow utopian living standards; for example, the absence of death and suffering; changes in human nature and the human condition. In place of the static perfection of a utopia, libertarian transhumanists envision an "extropia", an open, evolving society allowing individuals and voluntary groupings to form the institutions and social forms they prefer.

One notable example of a technological and libertarian socialist utopia is Scottish author Iain M. Bank's Culture.

See also: hedonistic imperative, transhumanism, technological singularity, abolitionist society

Opposing this optimism is the prediction that advanced science and technology will, through deliberate misuse or accident, cause humanity's extinction. These pessimists advocate precautions over embracement of new technology.

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Examples of utopia

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See also

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External links

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