Thomas More's Utopia

Thomas More's Utopia, first published in 1516, has often been called the greatest humanist reform tract of the Renaissance, and he is generally considered to be the father of the modern utopian conceptions. The philosophical foundations of More's Utopia are humanism, with its passion for the classics and social reform; Christianity, and especially the monastic ideal; communism and utilitarianism, with an emphasis on the collective good; and rationalism and self-interest.

A deep concern with the conflict between an individuals conscience and the laws and institutions of the society in which he lives informs Morels writing and his life (Davis 46). He argues in Utopia that laws and social institutions must be made to confirm the dictates of conscience rather than oppose them, as was occurring with tragic consequences in late fifteenth and early sixteenth century England, when he wrote the book. More eventually paid for his convictions of conscience with his life: he was beheaded in 1535 for refusing to sanction the Act of Supremacy which made Henry VIII rather than the Pope the head of the Church of England (and therefore allowed Henry VIII to divorce his wife Catherine and marry Anne Boleyn) (Scott xxvii).

More's humanist ideas are apparent in Book One of Utopia, in which he (through the mouth of Raphael Hythloday, the spokesman for Christian conscience), condemns the idleness and excesses of the nobility and the priesthood, and applauds the virtue of the common laborer.

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ore lived for four years with the monks of Charterhouse, and he obviously was deeply impressed by their customs. The plainness and uniformity of dress, the general austerity and lack of material wealth, the satisfaction of the basic human needs rather, the manufacture of new needs, the emphasis on study, prayer, and work, the communal meals, and the complete lack of privacy and personal possessions are all monastic ideals which are major components of Morels Utopian society (Kumar 19). Ironically, More depicted Utopia as a pagan (although still monotheistic) society, based on rationality rather than revelation. Utopian scholars have speculated that he did this in order to shock his Christian readers by showing that conditions in pagan Utopia were far superior to conditions in Christian Europe. He also implies that Christians could actually create an even better culture than Utopia if they tried because they have the additional benefit of divine revelation (Sullivan 35). However, Krishan Kumar argues that Utopia had to be pagan because to set up a perfect Christian society on earth would be blasphemy since it would make Heaven redundant and render meaningless man's expulsion from Paradise (22). Utopia's firm grounding in ra

Category: Philosophy - T