Utopia Beyond Illusion: Possible Criteria for the Concept of Utopia in Political Philosophy

Ulrich Arnswald (University of Innsbruck, University of Innsbruck)

Utopia, Thomas More's world-famous masterpiece, shaped the later tradition of the partly theoretical, partly literary development of fictional state models. The proper name More created for this fictitious island became a generic term for political fictions. Utopia is an idea that is conceivable but cannot be realized in reality. It is equivalent to a wishful dream or a vision of a world or time in which a new social, religious or technical order prevails. Due to the supposed perfection, however, it is still widely assumed that every member of the community agrees to follow the maxims of this community ideal in all areas of life. Such a view does not emerge from Thomas More's work. Utopia is rather an experimentum rationis, i.e. a thought experiment, and not the design of an ideal state. The fictional state brings neither a definitive nor a serious solution to the problems of its time. More’s Utopia is therefore not the comprehensive social-reform work that it is often portrayed as.