Utopia: Difference between revisions

{{hatnote group|

{{other uses}}

{{redirect|Eutopia}}

}}

{{Utopia}}

 

Hypothetical utopias focus on, among other things, equality in categories such as [[economics]], [[government]] and [[justice]], with the method and structure of proposed implementation varying according to ideology.<ref name="Giroux, H. 2003. pp.91-105">{{cite journal |author=Giroux, H. |year=2003 |title=Utopian thinking under the sign of neoliberalism: Towards a critical pedagogy of educated hope |journal=Democracy & Nature |volume=9 |issue=1|pages=91–105|doi=10.1080/1085566032000074968 }}</ref> [[Lyman Tower Sargent]] argues that the nature of a utopia is inherently contradictory because societies are not [[homogeneous]] and have desires which conflict and therefore cannot simultaneously be satisfied. To quote:

 

==Etymology and history==

 

 

 

According to the ''Philosophical Dictionary'', proto-utopian ideas begin as early as the period of [[ancient Greece]] and Rome, [[Heretics|medieval heretics]], [[Peasants' Revolt|peasant revolts]] and establish themselves in the period of the early capitalism, [[reformation]] and [[Renaissance]] ([[Jan Hus|Hus]], [[Müntzer]], [[Thomas More|More]], [[Tommaso Campanella|Campanella]]), [[democratic revolutions]] ([[Jean Meslier|Meslier]], [[Morelly]], [[Gabriel Bonnot de Mably|Mably]], [[Gerrard Winstanley|Winstanley]], later [[Babeuf]]ists, [[Blanquism|Blanquists]],) and in a period of turbulent development of capitalism that highlighted antagonisms of [[capitalist society]] ([[Henri de Saint-Simon|Saint-Simon]], [[Charles Fourier|Fourier]], [[Robert Owen|Owen]], [[Cabet]], [[Lamennais]], [[Proudhon]] and their followers).<ref>Filozofický slovník 1977, s. 561</ref>

* "There is nothing like a dream to create the future. Utopia to-day, flesh and blood tomorrow." —[[Victor Hugo]]

* "A map of the world that does not include Utopia is not worth even glancing at, for it leaves out the one country at which Humanity is always landing. And when Humanity lands there, it looks out, and, seeing a better country, sets sail. Progress is the realisation of Utopias." —[[Oscar Wilde]]

* "None of the [[abstraction|abstract]] concepts comes closer to fulfilled utopia than that of eternal peace." —[[Theodor W. Adorno]]

* "I think that there is always a part of utopia in any romantic relationship." —[[Pedro Almodovar]]

* "When I die, I want to die in a Utopia that I have helped to build." —[[Henry Kuttner]]

* "A man must be far gone in Utopian speculations who can seriously doubt that if these [United] States should either be wholly disunited, or only united in partial confederacies, the subdivisions into which they might be thrown would have frequent and violent contests with each other." —[[Alexander Hamilton]], ''Federalist'' No. 6.

 

{{blockquote|Utopias and other models of government, based on the public good, may be inconceivable because of the disordered human passions which, under the wrong governments, seek to highlight the poorly conceived or selfish interest of the community. But even though we find it impossible, they are ridiculous to sinful people whose sense of self-destruction prevents them from believing.}}

 

 

Philosopher [[Slavoj Žižek]] told about utopia:

 

Philosopher [[Milan Šimečka]] said:

 

Philosopher [[Richard Stahel]] said:

 

==Varieties==

 

 

==Mythical and religious utopias==

These mythical or religious archetypes are inscribed in many cultures and resurge with special vitality when people are in difficult and critical times. However, in utopias, the projection of the myth does not take place towards the remote past but either towards the future or towards distant and fictional places, imagining that at some time in the future, at some point in space, or beyond death, there must exist the possibility of living happily.

 

 

The [[Oneida Community]], founded by [[John Humphrey Noyes]] in [[Oneida, New York]], was a utopian religious [[Intentional community|commune]] that lasted from 1848 to 1881. Although this utopian experiment has become better known today for its manufacture of Oneida silverware, it was one of the longest-running communes in American history. The [[Amana Colonies]] were communal settlements in [[Iowa]], started by radical German [[pietists]], which lasted from 1855 to 1932. The [[Amana Corporation]], manufacturer of refrigerators and household appliances, was originally started by the group. Other examples are [[Fountain Grove, California|Fountain Grove]] (founded in 1875), Riker's Holy City and other Californian utopian colonies between 1855 and 1955 (Hine), as well as [[Sointula]]<ref>{{cite web | title = Finnish Utopian Settlements in North America | author = Teuvo Peltoniemi | url = http://www.sosiomedia.fi/utopia/na_settlements.pdf | publisher = sosiomedia.fi | year = 1984 | access-date = 2008-10-12 | archive-date = 2010-10-26 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20101026020303/http://www.sosiomedia.fi/utopia/na_settlements.pdf | url-status = dead }}</ref> in [[British Columbia]], Canada. The [[Amish]] and [[Hutterites]] can also be considered an attempt towards religious utopia. A wide variety of [[intentional communities]] with some type of faith-based ideas have also started across the world.

Anthropologist Richard Sosis examined 200 communes in the 19th-century United States, both religious and secular (mostly [[Utopian socialism|utopian socialist]]). 39 percent of the religious communes were still functioning 20 years after their founding while only 6 percent of the secular communes were.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Sosis|first=Richard|title=Religion and Intragroup Cooperation: Preliminary Results of a Comparative Analysis of Utopian Communities|journal=[[Cross-Cultural Research]]|publisher=[[SAGE Publishing]]|volume=34|issue=1|year=2000|pages=70–87|doi=10.1177/106939710003400105|s2cid=44050390|url=https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/450a/edd9d7e55e9237ee092b0a86b3af986b46bf.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200125154257/https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/450a/edd9d7e55e9237ee092b0a86b3af986b46bf.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-date=January 25, 2020|access-date=January 7, 2020}}</ref> The number of costly sacrifices that a religious commune demanded from its members had a linear effect on its longevity, while in secular communes demands for costly sacrifices did not correlate with longevity and the majority of the secular communes failed within 8 years. Sosis cites anthropologist [[Roy Rappaport]] in arguing that [[ritual]]s and laws are more effective when [[Sanctification|sacralized]].<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Sosis|first1=Richard|last2=Bressler|first2=Eric R.|title=Cooperation and Commune Longevity: A Test of the Costly Signaling Theory of Religion|journal=[[Cross-Cultural Research]]|publisher=[[SAGE Publishing]]|volume=37|issue=2|year=2003|pages=211–239|doi=10.1177/1069397103037002003|citeseerx=10.1.1.500.5715|s2cid=7908906}}</ref> Social psychologist [[Jonathan Haidt]] cites Sosis's research in his 2012 book ''[[The Righteous Mind]]'' as the best evidence that [[religion]] is an [[Evolutionary psychology of religion|adaptive solution]] to the [[free-rider problem]] by enabling [[cooperation]] without [[Kin selection|kinship]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Haidt|first=Jonathan|author-link=Jonathan Haidt|title=The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion|publisher=[[Vintage Books]]|location=New York|year=2012|pages=298–299|title-link=The Righteous Mind|isbn=978-0307455772}}</ref> [[Evolutionary medicine]] researcher [[Randolph M. Nesse]] and theoretical biologist [[Mary Jane West-Eberhard]] have argued instead that because humans with [[Altruism (biology)|altruistic]] tendencies are preferred as social partners they receive [[Inclusive fitness|fitness advantages]] by [[social selection]],{{refn|group=list|name=socialselection|<ref name="Nesse 2019 pp. 172–76">{{cite book|last=Nesse|first=Randolph|author-link=Randolph M. Nesse|title=Good Reasons for Bad Feelings: Insights from the Frontier of Evolutionary Psychiatry|publisher=[[Dutton (imprint)|Dutton]]|year=2019|pages=172–176|isbn=978-1101985663}}</ref><ref name="West-Eberhard 1975">{{cite journal|last=West-Eberhard|first=Mary Jane|title=The Evolution of Social Behavior by Kin Selection|journal=[[The Quarterly Review of Biology]]|publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]]|year=1975|volume=50|issue=1|pages=1–33|doi=10.1086/408298|jstor=2821184|s2cid=14459515}}</ref><ref name="West-Eberhard 1979">{{cite journal|last=West-Eberhard|first=Mary Jane|title=Sexual Selection, Social Competition, and Evolution|journal=[[Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society]]|publisher=[[American Philosophical Society]]|year=1979|volume=123|issue=4|pages=222–34|jstor=986582}}</ref><ref name="Nesse 2007">{{cite journal|last=Nesse|first=Randolph M.|author-link=Randolph M. Nesse|title=Runaway social selection for displays of partner value and altruism|journal=[[Biological Theory (journal)|Biological Theory]]|year=2007|volume=2|issue=2|publisher=[[Springer Science+Business Media]]|pages=143–55|doi=10.1162/biot.2007.2.2.143|s2cid=195097363|citeseerx=10.1.1.409.3359}}</ref>}} with Nesse arguing further that social selection enabled humans as a species to become extraordinarily [[Cooperation|cooperative]] and capable of creating [[culture]].<ref name="Nesse 2009">{{cite book|last=Nesse|first=Randolph M.|author-link=Randolph M. Nesse|chapter=10. Social Selection and the Origins of Culture|editor-last1=Schaller|editor-first1=Mark|editor-link1=Mark Schaller|editor-last2=Heine|editor-first2=Steven J.|editor-link2=Steven Heine (psychologist)|editor-last3=Norenzayan|editor-first3=Ara|editor-last4=Yamagishi|editor-first4=Toshio|editor-last5=Kameda|editor-first5=Tatsuya|title=Evolution, Culture, and the Human Mind|place=Philadelphia|publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]]|year=2009|pages=137–50|isbn=978-0805859119}}</ref>

 

 

===Golden Age===

===Scheria===

 

 

[[Plutarch]], the Greek historian and biographer of the 1st century, dealt with the blissful and mythic past of humanity.

And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; [...] And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam and he slept: and he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh instead thereof and the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman and brought her unto the man.}}

 

 

===The Land of Cockaigne===

 

 

One way might be a quest for an "earthly paradise"&nbsp;– a place like [[Shangri-La]], hidden in the [[Tibet]]an mountains and described by [[James Hilton (novelist)|James Hilton]] in his utopian novel ''[[Lost Horizon (novel)|Lost Horizon]]'' (1933). [[Christopher Columbus]] followed directly in this tradition in his belief that he had found the Garden of Eden when, towards the end of the 15th century, he first encountered the [[New World]] and its indigenous inhabitants.{{Citation needed|date=December 2022}}

 

===The Peach Blossom Spring===

 

The sense of timelessness was predominant in the story as a perfect utopian community remains unchanged, that is, it had no decline nor the need to improve.<ref name=zh183/> Eventually, the Chinese term ''Peach Blossom Spring'' came to be synonymous for the concept of utopia.<ref>{{cite book| last=Gu| first=Ming Dong| title=Chinese Theories of Fiction: A Non-Western Narrative System| year=2006| publisher=State University of New York Press| location=Albany| isbn=978-0-7914-6815-9| page=59}}</ref>

===Datong===

 

 

===Ketumati===

 

 

==Modern utopias==

 

 

===Economics===

{{Main|Utopian socialism|Fourierism|Icarians|Owenism}}

 

[[Edward Gibbon Wakefield]]'s utopian theorizing on systematic [[colonialism|colonial]] [[settler|settlement]] policy in the early-19th century also centred on economic considerations, but with a view to preserving class distinctions;<ref>

Wakefield influenced several colonies founded in [[New Zealand]] and [[Australia]] in the 1830s, 1840s and 1850s.

 

 

 

 

|url= http://secure.pmpress.org/index.php?l=product_detail&p=432

|title= For All the People: Uncovering the Hidden History of Cooperation, Cooperative Movements and Communalism in America, 2nd Edition

|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170228044003/https://secure.pmpress.org/index.php?l=product_detail&p=432

|url-status= dead

| last1 = Curl

| first1 = John

| isbn = 9781604867329

| access-date = 24 June 2020

 

 

===Science and technology===

Though [[Francis Bacon]]'s ''New Atlantis'' is imbued with a scientific spirit, scientific and technological utopias tend to be based in the future, when it is believed that advanced [[science]] and [[technology]] will allow utopian [[living standards]]; for example, the absence of [[death]] and [[suffering]]; changes in [[human nature]] and the [[human condition]]. Technology has affected the way humans have lived to such an extent that normal functions, like sleep, eating or even reproduction, have been replaced by artificial means. Other examples include a society where humans have struck a balance with technology and it is merely used to enhance the human living condition (e.g. ''[[Star Trek]]''). In place of the static perfection of a utopia, [[libertarian transhumanist]]s envision an "[[extropianism|extropia]]", an open, evolving society allowing individuals and voluntary groupings to form the institutions and social forms they prefer.

 

 

One notable example of a technological and [[libertarian socialist]] utopia is Scottish author [[Iain Banks]]' [[The Culture|Culture]].

 

 

There are many examples of techno-dystopias portrayed in mainstream culture, such as the classics ''[[Brave New World]]'' and ''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four]],'' often published as "1984", which have explored some of these topics.

===Ecological===

[[File:Ecotopia 1990 yoga teacher.jpg|thumb|[[European Youth For Action#Ecotopia gathering|Ecotopia 1990]]. Yoga class]]

 

===Feminism===

Utopias have been used to explore the ramifications of genders being either a societal construct or a biologically "hard-wired" imperative or some mix of the two.<ref name=WSEncyc1442>{{cite book|title= Women's Studies Encyclopedia|last= Tierney|first= Helen|year= 1999|publisher= Greenwood Publishing Group|page= [https://archive.org/details/womensstudiesenc0001unse/page/1442 1442]|isbn= 978-0-313-31073-7|url= https://archive.org/details/womensstudiesenc0001unse/page/1442}}</ref> Socialist and economic utopias have tended to take the "woman question" seriously and often to offer some form of equality between the sexes as part and parcel of their vision, whether this be by addressing misogyny, reorganizing society along separatist lines, creating a certain kind of androgynous equality that ignores gender or in some other manner. For example, [[Edward Bellamy]]'s ''[[Looking Backward]]'' (1887) responded, progressively for his day, to the contemporary women's suffrage and women's rights movements. Bellamy supported these movements by incorporating the equality of women and men into his utopian world's structure, albeit by consigning women to a separate sphere of light industrial activity (due to women's lesser physical strength) and making various exceptions for them in order to make room for (and to praise) motherhood. One of the earlier feminist utopias that imagines complete separatism is [[Charlotte Perkins Gilman]]'s ''[[Herland (novel)|Herland]]'' (1915).{{citation needed|date=October 2021}}

 

 

 

===Urban Design===

 

 

==See also==

 

==References==

* ''Utopia: The History of an Idea'' (2020), by Gregory Claeys. London: Thames & Hudson.

*''Development of Socialism from Utopia to Science'' (1870?) by [[Friedrich Engels]].

* ''[[History and Utopia]]'' (1960), by [[Emil Cioran]].

*''Utopian Thought in the Western World'' (1979), by [[Frank E. Manuel]] & Fritzie Manuel. Oxford: Blackwell. {{ISBN|0-674-93185-8}}

*''[[The Principle of Hope]]'' (1986), by [[Ernst Bloch]]. See original, 1937–41, ''Das Prinzip Hoffnung''

*''Demand the Impossible: Science Fiction and the Utopian Imagination'' (1986) by [[Tom Moylan]]. London: Methuen, 1986.

*''The Utopia Reader'' (1999), edited by [[Gregory Claeys]] and [[Lyman Tower Sargent]]. New York: New York University Press.

*''Spirit of Utopia'' (2000), by [[Ernst Bloch]]. See original, ''Geist Der Utopie'', 1923.

*''Archaeologies of the Future: The Desire Called Utopia and Other Science Fictions'' (2005) by [[Fredric Jameson]]. London: Verso.

*''Utopianism: A Very Short Introduction'' (2010), by [[Lyman Tower Sargent]]. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

* [http://www.stadtbaukunst.org/cms/upload/texte_zur_stadtbaukunst/2_1_Towards_Another_Utopia_of_The_City.pdf Towards Another Utopia of The City] Institute of Urban Design, Bremen, Germany

*[http://ecotopia2121.com/ Ecotopia 2121: A Vision of Our Future Green Utopia – in 100 Cities.]

* [http://caius-ebook.com/Utopias.htm Utopia of the GOOD] An essay on Utopias and their nature.

* [https://web.archive.org/web/20090205225945/http://scatolini.net/G.2009.art.01_SCATOLINI_EhudBenZVI_Utopia-and-Dystopia-in-Prophetic-Literature.pdf Review of Ehud Ben ZVI, Ed. (2006). Utopia and Dystopia in Prophetic Literature. Helsinki: The Finnish Exegetical Society.] A collection of articles on the issue of utopia and dystopia.

*[http://utopian-studies.org./] North America

*[http://www.utopianstudieseurope.org/] Europe

*[http://www.psupress.org/journals/jnls_utopian_studies.html ''Utopian Studies''] academic journal

 

{{Narrative|state=collapsed}}

[[Category:16th-century neologisms]]

[[Category:Utopias| ]]

[[Category:Words originating in fiction]]