Utopia...Model Or Reality
In his famous work Utopia, Sir Thomas More describes the society and culture of an imaginary island on which all social ills have been cured. As in Plato's Republic, a work from which More drew while writing Utopia, More's work presents his ideas through a dialogue between two characters, Raphael Hythloday and More himself. Hythloday is a fictional character who describes his recent voyage to the island of Utopia. Throughout the work, Hythloday describes the laws, customs, system of government, and way of life that exist on Utopia to an incredulous and somewhat condescending More.
Throughout the work, Hythloday presents a society organized to overcome the flaws of human nature. This ...
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such a way More creates a perfect society to be modeled after. Many of the ideals in More's Utopia are, as the name implies, based on ideal situations and not reality. They would work well in a civilization of automatons, but would be abolished quickly in a human situation. Nevertheless, we can apply the ideals held by the Utopians to our own societies since the ideals themselves are attainable even if a perfect society is not.
More seems to think that the seven deadly sins will be fairly easy to overcome. Pride, for instance, is counterbalanced in several ways in his social system. For instance, he makes sure that all people wear the same clothing, except that the different genders wear different styles, as do married and unmarried people. More also makes individuals fairly interchangeable within the social system-one carpenter, for instance, seems to be more or less like another to him, and can find work anywhere that carpenters are needed. He also says that the Utopians ...
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intercourse harshly). Wrath, which seems to be the lone exception, is to be treated not through the general practice of its corresponding virtue, peacemaking, but by removing the things that enrage people in the first place. Though we can not rid our society of these sins, we can use More's methods to prevent them.
Some of the ideals presented in Utopia are abundantly present in today's society. These include having a commodity in one culture be totally worthless in another, communal living within cities, and euthanasia as a means of release from burden. There are commodities in the world today that are totally worthless in America, but serve as a main staple in many other ...
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"Utopia...Model Or Reality." Essayworld.com. October 13, 2007. Accessed November 28, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Utopia-Model-Or-Reality/72627.
"Utopia...Model Or Reality." Essayworld.com. October 13, 2007. Accessed November 28, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Utopia-Model-Or-Reality/72627.
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