Sir Thomas More
(1478-1535), friend and supporter of Erasmus (refer to previous Thinker), led a dangerous but incorruptible political
life which would earn him the death penalty from the same King who once
knighted him, Hendry VIII. Unimpressed by Henry’s solicitations, More’s
determined adherence to Catholic orthodoxy prevented him from recognising
either Hendry’s divorce from Catherine of Aragon or his subsequent
self-appointment as head of the English Church in order to marry Anne Boleyn.
Fortunately for the history of Western thought, More managed to complete his
most important philosophical work, Utopia
in good time, 1518 in fact, before Hendry took his head in 1535.
In More’s Utopia, a traveller brings back tales of
an island in the South Seas where everything is organized in the best possible
way. The book takes the form of a dialogue, in which the traveller, Raphael
Hythloday, divulges the wise ways of Utopia as he found them in the five years
he spent there. More’s vision of Utopia is a kind of Christian communism, in
which there is no personal property, internal commerce or personal ambition.
Each member of society works six hours a day regardless of their job. This,
says More, is entirely satisfactory in terms of providing enough labour. For
other societies only require the poor to work long and exhausting days because
of the existence of the idle rich.
The Utopia provides for
its citizens by means of a system of farms, each consisting of at least forty
workers. There are intellectuals and governors in More’s visionary society, but
these are chosen by merit and only remain in their jobs so long as they prove
satisfactory. There is also an elected Prince who acts as head of state, but
can be removed in case of tyranny. Interestingly, More does not rule out
slavery in his ideal society. So-called ‘bondsmen’ are given the distasteful
jobs that More does not want his happy citizens to partake in, such as
slaughtering the livestock and serving up communal dinners. The bondmen are
people serving penal sentences for the breaking of any of the Utopian laws,
such as virginity before marriage and chastity during wedlock. Bondmen are also
drawn from other societies from among those who have been condemned to death.
Whilst More’s Utopia possesses some admirable liberal
qualities, it is also, aesthetically oppressive in the same way as Maoist and
Cambodian regimes have been in the real world. More expects all his citizens to
wear the same plain, undifferentiated dress. Architecturally it is
unremittingly dull. Each of the fifty-four towns are built according to an
identical plan. The streets are all twenty feet across and every home is
exactly alike. The residents swap homes on a regular basis according to the law
to discourage the idea of private ownership, although since all the houses are
alike this seems somewhat pointless.
Like The Republic of Plato, it is doubtful that More’s utopian vision could
provide the basis for a realistic model of any society, let alone the
transformation of an existence one. Nevertheless, the value of Utopia lies in the articulation of
certain social and socialistic ideals in an age very far removed from such
philanthropic concerns. Bertrand Russell probably sums up the problem with
More’s vision, when he says, “If in More’s Utopia, as in most others,
would be intolerably dull. Diversity is essential to happiness, and in Utopia
there is hardly any.”
[Summarized from Philosophy 100 Essential Thinkers by
Philip Stokes, 2012]
Lord, Give
Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)
