...Utopia, as described by Thomas More, is a perfect society because they had a diverse religion, a low crime rate, and an established government. More expresses how Utopia had a very diverse and accepting religion. Everyone could believe in almost anything they wanted. More explained how “Many religions were practiced in Utopia, from worship of the sun or moon to a belief in one God.” (More, Paragraph 9) Overall, most religious beliefs were tolerated. This allowed Utopians to have freedom when it came to religion. Utopia was also shown to have a low crime rate. “Crime was also rare in Utopia because there was no incentive to steal in that all possessions belonged to everyone anyway.” (More, Paragraph 7) Since materials were shared among the...
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...Although our society or utopia are different in a lot of ways they are also somewhat the same. When everything is all said and done I believe that the two will be so similar that you will not be able to pick out our differences. The way parents are now a days for instance, just leaving their kids and expecting the children to raise themselves, a child needs a parent but Brave New World shows us that it is possible to live without a mother or father (Huxley). There are quite the amount of difference that will always stay the same for instance technology. Although technology plays a big role in our society, their utopia does not use it at all, they are more about the trial and error in science. I find it insane that anyone on this earth would want to have a child and then just leave it on the side of the...
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...Thomas More’s Utopia is a work of ambiguous dualities that forces the reader to question More’s real view on the concept of a utopian society. However, evidence throughout the novel suggests that More did intend Utopia to be the “best state of the commonwealth.” The detailed description of Utopia acts as Mores mode of expressing his humanistic views, commenting on the fundamentals of human nature and the importance of reason and natural law, while gracefully combining the two seemingly conflicting ideals of communism and liberalism. The presence of satirical irony and contradiction clearly defines Utopia as an unobtainable goal, though goal that all societies must pursue nonetheless. In essence, Utopia is a written manifestation of More’s humanist beliefs. Many of these views are vicariously present in the character of Raphael Hythloday. For example, Hythloday comments on the unwillingness of Kings to take advice from others, claiming they are “drenched as they are and infected with false values from boyhood and on” (More, 2011, p. 28). The idea of “infection” implies that a man is not naturally corrupt or sinful, but rather pure at heart and simply influenced by the environment an individual is exposed to. This is a key humanist concept, which suggests that human nature is malleable and inconstant, and therefore can be positively influenced to do good. Raphael later states, “Pride is too deeply fixed in human nature to be easily plucked out” (More, 2011, p. 98) Though this...
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...Utopia is a concept which many people claim to aspire to. It is likely that there are very few people who if asked if they would like to live in a utopian society would say no. The odd thing is that the definition of what utopia actually is can be highly debatable. The term itself was coined by Thomas More. The word Utopia came from the word eutopia which means good place and the word eutopia which means no place. So, essentially More wanted to describe a place that was good but did not exist. There are many different solutions or ideas for creating utopian societies. Large scale ideas do not seem to work very well for a variety of reasons. Forcing people into utopia is not only a difficult way to create a utopian society, but also inherently contradictory. One of the best solutions is one in which membership in the society is voluntary, and the size of the society is kept at a manageable number. This solution appears to be the only one that is truly feasible assuming that people are self interested. The world which More created was kind of complicated. As far as laws go, there were very clear cut laws, but lawyers did not exist. Private property was allowed to exist because if there was common property, people would not work hard for the property that they had. Money also did not exist. All people were involved in some sort of farming as well as another trade. All Utopians only worked six hours a day. The other time that they spent was up to them, as long as...
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...Thomas More was born in London in 1478, and after many events in his life, he published a book called Utopia in 1516. Utopia describes a perfect place that does not exist. Many interpret Utopia as a standard for an ideal society that would be most desirable to achieve. Lois Lowry is the author of The Giver, a book that can be argued as providing the community as a “Utopia”. Thomas More’s book sets the standard of a Utopia, but many argue that The Giver fits these descriptions. I believe that the community in The Giver is not a true Utopia. The community in The Giver is not a true Utopia, because it has a different geography than what Thomas More’s description described. According to Thomas More’s features of a Utopia, it is an island (pg. 1 Summary of Ideas). In The Giver, Jonas often talks about “land beyond the community”. On page 106 of The Giver online, Jonas mentions that the land beyond the bridge is the same, flat and well ordered land as the community’s, therefore proving that the community can’t be an island. As a rule, a community that isn’t an island could have problems with its borders, so it is not considered a true Utopia....
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...Brian Garcia English 102 Professor Koplow October 5, 2013 In his book, Utopia, Sir Thomas More examines the crippled government system in England. He wrote Utopia in 1516, during the reign of King Henry VIII. He takes on this satire through the eyes of his fictional character Raphael Hythloday, where Utopia is described as a society that seems to be the ideal living situation for human beings. A society far more advanced and just. Raphael believes Utopia’s greatest achievements include becoming the perfect society. As a nation that is based on rational thought, and religious tolerance. Where everything is shared, including your home, a world with great productivity for the greater good of the nation. In Utopia there is no class distinctions, no greed for money or gold, therefore crime and immoral behavior is kept to a minimum. In Utopia, there is no private property. Everything is owned by everyone and there is no need for anyone to want more that another person because everyone in the society works together to supply ample provisions for the whole community. When describing Utopia, Raphael points out many of the problems that he sees in English society. One of the most striking examples of English social problems that Hythloday points out is the insistence of the English monarchy to emphasize class distinction. You’re either wealthy or a peasant. But he does say how can anyone “value himself because his cloth is made of a finer thread: for how...
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...Savannah Morris Faris Honors English IV 09 January 2015 A Maggot-Less World A Utopia is an imaginative place that is beautiful in every aspect and is the author’s perspective of a “perfect society”. Aldous Huxley creates this Utopia in his novel, “Island”. He creates a perfect society with limited technology and a union of all people to work together. Huxley creates this Utopia during a time period of corruption and new discoveries. As the nation enters the literary time period of “the beat period”, Huxley's unconscious idea of a Utopian society is displayed uncensored in “Island” as opposed to “Brave New World” and he provides his personal solution to the world’s problems. In “Island” by Aldous Huxley the main character, Will Farnaby,...
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...despite the fact that such an ideal life has stayed in people’s mind, not too many people believe a real utopia exists. It is similar to when audiences watch a romantic movie with a perfect ending and tell themselves this can only happen on the screen where all the lines have been written and edited carefully. Without any hope for any possible alternatives, eventually, no one would strive to create a peaceful and fantasy world according to their dream. However, there is a country that is making the dream of a lot of people come true. In a recent decade, Singapore has been moving towards the idea of improving their social and economic problems through constructing the modern building projects. Needless to say, their significant achievement in economic social development has brought them opportunities to become one of the most stable economies in the world regardless of a limited space and sacred natural resources. Singapore is among the countries that has the lowest rate of unemployment, highest adequate living conditions and social pension, and fastest economic growth in Asia. Furthermore, it is also well known for the green environment and energy efficiency. Although Singapore is believed to be a clear example of how a utopian plan has improved human development, there are critics argue that its government is directing people in an oppressive setting through a so called utopia and that there is lack of innovation in a too stable economic organization. The rigid of the government...
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...America in the 1880s despite the unsavory politics, rabid economics, growing gap between rich an poor, and frequent labor strikes, all of which threaten to arrest industry and devastate the young nation. After a bizarre experience with “animal hypnotism,” West sleeps for over 113 years and awakes in the year 2000 in the home of Dr. Leete. West finds that the new society has no greed, no corruption, no poverty, no crime, and no war. A society in which everyone’s laundry is professionally laundered, meals are professionally prepared in public kitchens, everyone gets a quality education, working hours are short, and retirement comes at the age of forty-five. Everything is as in a utopia. This utopia, no doubt, represented the aspirations of the book’s nineteenth century author, Edward Bellamy. Channeled through the voice of Dr. Leete, Bellamy saturates the book with his ideas of the ideal society. Bellamy’s vision of the future was quite in sync with that of the basic American Dream: equality, justice, and responsibility, for all. Troubled in real life by the same problems that plagued his fictional society of the 1880s, Bellamy wrote his book as a wake-up call and road map to lead his contemporaries...
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...Walden's Utopia In a post-World War Two era, there was much longing for improvement on current society. Burrhus F. Skinner decided to give his take on what he felt were the appropriate steps to take in order to make a true "Utopia." There have been attempts at other utopia's (which is from the Greek for "no place") and Skinner in his book took the best elements of each utopia and put them into one. However, this does not mean that this utopia he creates in his story, called Walden Two, emulating Thoreau's Walden Pond in Maine, is not without flaws. The most obvious flaws that stand out to the modern day reader are simply due to the fact that this book was published nearly 60 years ago. Values in the post-WWII era differed from modern ones, and psychology took a back seat during the war for other "real sciences." This social commentary is extensively relevant to the study of psychology, especially conditioning/behaviorism, because all consequences of all the actions of people in Walden Two directly stem from some psychological event, be it the shaping of the children to want to learn, or the way the officials (planners/managers) are appointed (and not elected). The interesting thing about this book is the way in which it is written. The main protagonist's name is Burris, awfully close to the author and psychologist's name Burrhus, and they share nearly identical lives and professions. I believe this book basically breaks down B.F. Skinner's feelings about creating utopia's...
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...Utopian Societies in America Utopian societies while not abundant were far from rare in the nineteenth century. One such version of utopianism, Fourierism, attracted at some point numbers in the range of 100,000 members during the 1840’s alone. Nathaniel Hawthorne: A Letter from Brook Farm is just one of many primary documents preserving firsthand accounts of life in these communities. There are enough primary sources in enough detail such that Sterling F. Delano was able to create a secondary source, providing some evaluation and analysis in what has been referred to as a standard for a starting point when researching these societies in the book Brook Farm: The Dark Side of Utopia. Brook Farm was actually far from singular as a utopia experiment. In The Americanization of Utopia: Fourierism and the Dilemmma of Utopian Dissent in the United States an article by Carl J. Guarneri. Guarneri points out many such communities and experiments took place in the 1800’s. The Harmonys in Pennsylvania and New Harmony in Indianna, Onieda in New York, the list goes on although daily life Brook Farm, as was experienced by one of the community members, Nathanial Hawthorne, being the subject of the primary source of this paper. Brook Farm is seen as a trivial contribution by some writers, Guarneri’s article states the contrary that while Brook Farm is one of many experiments it was an important part of the utopian experiments of the time. Other secondary sources, reviews of Brook...
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...Utopia (/juːˈtoʊpiə/) is an ideal community or society possessing highly desirable or perfect qualities. The word was coined in Greek by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book Utopia, describing a fictional island society in the Atlantic Ocean. The term has been used to describe both intentional communities that attempt to create an ideal society, and fictional societies portrayed inliterature. It has spawned other concepts, most prominently dystopia. In many cultures, societies, and religions, there is some myth or memory of a distant past when humankind lived in a primitive and simple state, but at the same time one of perfect happiness and fulfillment. In those days, the various myths tell us, there was an instinctive harmony between humanity and nature. People's needs were few and their desires limited. Both were easily satisfied by the abundance provided by nature. Accordingly, there were no motives whatsoever for war or oppression. Nor was there any need for hard and painful work. Humans were simple and pious, and felt themselves close to the gods. According to one anthropological theory, hunter-gatherers were the original affluent society. Religious utopias can be intra-religious or inter-religious. The inter-religious utopia borders on a concept like Polyculturalism and is not deemed possible in the near future or the near-far future. Fledgling theories are generally canceled as impossible, but the ideology of God and Religion used in inter-religious utopia is commonly stated...
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...Published in 1516, Sir Thomas More’s Utopia drew attention to many of the issues contemporary European society faced at that time. While Utopia is considered a socio-political satire, there is little humor to be found in the problems of their day. Thomas More drew attention to the unfair socio-economic system, the egocentric kings and distrust in technology. Sadly, five hundred years later, the modern world still faces these same issues. Turn CNN on any time of the day and you will hear a multitude of examples. Currently, the United States faces an unfair socio-economic system that gives privilege and opportunity to wealthy citizens, while repressing minorities and the poor. The issues wealthy citizens face are represented fully and addressed...
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...Gamwell E Block 7 April 2014 Imperfect Perfect World Some people believe that a utopian world may be better than a less perfect world, yet the imperfections of a utopian society realistically outweighs its ultimate goal of perfection. Perfection is defined as the condition, state, or quality of being free or as free as possible from all flaws or defects. When it comes down to it, a utopian society has many rules and regulations. Yet, if a so called perfect society is so perfect, then there should be no need for any rules or regulations. However, a Utopia's goal of perfection in itself is a contradiction, because of its goal of being "more perfect and less free" (Huxley 1). As a matter of fact a utopian society would be like a heaven on earth. At the same time there is not really a unified view of utopia. All views of utopia involves change which affects human systems and institutions. How can a society aim to be perfect when by definition freedom is needed in order to be perfect. In fact that's something people still find hard to understand and today's society. Have you ever ask yourself what is freedom,it's the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint. Foremost this is something they didn't have at the time of the utopian society. Well by definition a utopia is a perfect world where everything is prefect and equal but you have no freedom to do what you want; Basically your life is scripted like a book. However if you want a perfect...
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...Where Is Utopia in the Brain? DanieL s. Levine Introduction The designer of utopian societies, whether fictional or real, often confronts the limits of what is possible for members of our species. But how severe or flexible are those limits? The explosive growth of behavioral neurobiology and experimental psychology in the last decade has produced many results on the biological bases of social interactions. This growth suggests that we can now look to science for some partial answers to the question of limits. Until recently, the social sciences and the biological sciences have mainly developed separate and disconnected accounts of human behavior. In the “nature/nurture controversy,” for example, anthropology has tended to emphasize cultural influences on human nature whereas behavioral biology has tended to emphasize genetic influences. The journalist Matthew Ridley (Nature via Nurture) provides an accessible account of the intellectual history and rhetoric of these two fields. Yet an increasing number of scholars in both areas are now realizing that behavioral biology and anthropology are studying the same human phenomena from different viewpoints. This overlap means there should be an underlying reality that is consistent across the different disciplines regardless of any disagreements in terminology. The behavioral biologist Edward O. Wilson calls this type of interdisciplinary commonality consilience, a term coined earlier by the nineteenth-century philosopher William Whewell...
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