Harshit

Early Modern World(120351102)

31st March 2022

Q. "More's Utopia presents a debate between Early Modern Progressive ideas and

Medieval Collectivism."

More's Utopia is a proto-communist and highly moral puritan world that emulates a mix of

progressive and conservative values. The Utopians system is influenced by the

philosophical thought of Plato's Republic, Plutarch's account of Spartan life, and the Bible's

way of morality, which makes Utopia's institutions righteous, cruel and impartial. It is a

society and polity of ascetics where the importance of social justice, morality, and religion

transcend freedom and human rights while reconciling this system in a medieval setting

that presents a stable and peaceful but tyrannical society. Despite its progressiveness, the

utopian system doesn't tolerate dissent, and severe punishment is meted out for

disobedience. Hence, the Utopians inhabit an in-between world of countering

characteristics of democracy, extreme logic, and justice, but also of collectivism,

ruthlessness, and less regard for human rights. Although a serious dialogue between two

contrasting thought processes, More intended it as experimental in nature, seen in Raphael

Hythloday's surname, where Hythloday means speaker of nonsense.

The kingdom of Utopia is a social experiment that debates the progressive intellectual ideas

in a nation-state rather than among intellectual classes. It instills philosophical extremes of

logic into human behavior, thereby making utopians ruthlessly practical and creating an
absurd reality where for example, suicide victims are scorned, and their bodies are thrown

in a ditch without a proper burial. Human empathy for the dead, a natural human instinct, is

disdained by intellectual reasoning, and utopians' view of suicide only becomes cowardice

and an offense to god, which seems bizarre. In fact, More seems to denigrate human

instincts and completely sever them from Utopia, which he sees as the perfect society. His

fictional society is filled with scholars and other high-minded people who, as he said, find

pleasures of mind only in pursuing truth and knowledge but have sacrificed their humanity

for the 'perfect' system.

While demonstrating adherence to extreme forms of logic like letting the potential couples

look at each other's naked bodies, but at the same time making women extremely

subservient to their husbands, according to Biblical morality, he presents an imperfect

world that rather than presenting a Utopia, initiates a discourse between medieval values

and modern progressive thought.

Utopia, like the spartan society, is a collective society, highlighted through the self-

righteousness and restrictiveness that Raphael narrates about the Utopians. For example, all

Utopians disdain hunting for pleasure and consider health the greatest bodily pleasure. The

conclusive tone of words indicates that a perfect political, social and economic system in a

society can eliminate human follies and evil temptations. It also suggests that Utopia is a

surveillance state where the community system is supreme. In Utopian society,

individualism does not exist, and people identify themselves with the whole community,

and this medieval collective consciousness allows Utopia to achieve its modern progressive
social goals where crime is exceptional, and people have blind faith in both extreme logic

and female subjugation.

Utopians live as ascetics and suppress their desire for seven sins. Their faith in morals,

logic, and modern progressive ideas is as firm as their faith in religion. In fact, religion is

far superior to them than even logic. They think that 'no man's reason can carry him to a

truer idea of them unless some discovery from heaven should inspire him with sublimer

notions' Hence we see that modern ideas are part and parcel with religious belief systems

showing a colorful mix of both religion and logic.

Utopia is conveniently placed in the new world, far removed from the European continent

and known oriental world, and hence becomes an unknown sacred land where, it seems, an

honest attempt has been made to create a socialistic pattern of society in a medieval setting.

The other name of the novel is 'On the Best Kind of a Republic, and About the New Island

of Utopia,' which tells that rather than a perfect society, Utopia is a society that is striving

for perfection rather than claiming to be ideal, proclaiming its experimental nature. Hence

every practice that is misogynistic and inhuman is unavoidable due to that age.

The chimeric concept of Utopia and its implausibility is seen in its contradictory practices.

For example- Utopians respect human life and have an anti-war morality while accepting

slavery and punishing enslaved people. People in Utopia appear collectively aged through

their mindset, and society expects every adult to become a logician. Adulthood is a

synonym with ending emotions, and impulsiveness is expected only from children or

animals.
The Utopian society is established due to the subjugation of uncivilized barbarians, in

which collective society imposes its precepts on the individual. Despite having its moral

and pragmatic basis, Utopian society is a result of the Utopian system imposed by Utopus

and not a naturally developed system. Hence, its artificial nature as an intellectual

experiment is certain.

Bibliography-

More, Thomas, and Paul Turner. Utopia. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, Eng. ; Baltimore,

Md.: Penguin Books, 1981. Print.