Political Idealism in More's Utopia

Bibliographic Data

ID6402098
AuthorsJames Nendza (corresponding author)
Year1984
Volume46
Issue3
Pages428-451
Publication date1984-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Review of Politics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0034-6705 • E-ISSN: 1748-6858
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0034670500047963
OpenAlexW2155849822
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited12

While this century has witnessed large-scale attempts to actualize political Utopias, the study of such regimes is as old as political philosophy. The most famous of such imaginary republics is More's Utopia. In the form of a dialogue, Utopia presents the best regime of a philosophic character, Raphael Hythlodaeus. In constructing a regime based on the belief that happiness consists in the acquisition of pleasure, Utopia presents one of the first proposals for political hedonism. While the Utopian understanding of happiness restricts their pursuit of pleasure to those austere pleasures which are natural, their hedonism nevertheless causes problems which require strict political control. More important, an analysis of the text reveals that the Utopian understanding of the requirements of human nature is simplistic. Thus, the proper understanding of the dialogue reveals that More's purpose is not to recommend such radical change but to show the dangers of such idealistic proposals

Aesthetics · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Happiness · Hedonism · Idealism · Pleasure · Political philosophy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Utopia · Law · Philosophy · Political Economy and Marxism · Political Theory and Influence · Psychology

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