technologia: Utopia

Evidence: 100 • authority: 72

A utopia ( yoo-TOH-pee-ə) is an imagined community or society that possesses highly desirable or near-perfect qualities for its residents. The term was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book Utopia, which describes a fictional island society in the New World, but some utopian visions predate it. Hypothetical utopias and existing intentional communities that have utopian elements focus on, among other things, equality in the areas of economics, government and justice, with the method and structure of proposed implementation varying according to ideology. Lyman Tower Sargent argues that the nature of a utopia is inherently contradictory because societies are not homogeneous. Their member…

Evidence: 24 • authority: 80

Book Review: Citizen Thomas More and his Utopia Citizen Thomas More and his Utopia, by AmesRussell. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1949. $3.50. Pp. viii, 230.

Evidence: — • authority: 72

Island is a 1962 utopian manifesto and novel by English writer Aldous Huxley, the author's final work before his death in 1963. Although it has a plot, the plot largely serves to further conceptual explorations rather than setting up and resolving conventional narrative tension. It is the account of Will Farnaby, a cynical journalist who is shipwrecked on the fictional island of Pala. Island is Huxley's utopian counterpart to his most famous work, the 1932 dystopian novel Brave New World. The ideas that would become Island can be seen in a foreword he wrote in 1946 to a new edition of Brave New World: If I were now to rewrite the book, I would offer the Savage a third alternative. Between t…

Evidence: — • authority: 72

New Atlantis is a utopian novel by Sir Francis Bacon, published posthumously in 1626. It appeared unheralded and tucked into the back of a longer work of natural history, Sylva Sylvarum ("Forest of Materials"). In New Atlantis, Bacon portrays a vision of the future of human discovery and knowledge, expressing his aspirations and ideals for humankind. The novel depicts the creation of a utopian land where "generosity and enlightenment, dignity and splendour, piety and public spirit" are the commonly held qualities of the inhabitants of the mythical Bensalem. The plan and organisation of his ideal college, Salomon's House (or Solomon's House), prefigured the modern research university in both…

Evidence: — • authority: 72

Utopia (Latin: Libellus vere aureus, nec minus salutaris quam festivus, de optimo rei publicae statu deque nova insula Utopia, "A truly golden little book, not less beneficial than enjoyable, about how things should be in a state and about the new island Utopia") is a work of fiction and socio-political satire by Thomas More (1478–1535), written in Latin and published in 1516 and revised in 1518. The book is a frame narrative primarily depicting a fictional island society and its religious, social and political customs. Many aspects of More's description of Utopia are reminiscent of life in monasteries.

Evidence: — • authority: 72

Utopian and dystopian fiction are subgenres of speculative fiction that explore extreme forms of social and political structures. A utopia is a setting that agrees with the author's ethos, having various attributes of another reality intended to appeal to readers. A dystopia offers the opposite: the portrayal of a setting that completely disagrees with the author's ethos. Some novels depict both types of society to more directly contrast their properties. Both utopias and dystopias are commonly found in science fiction and other types of speculative fiction. Utopian literature is of two basic types. Some describe imagined societies of the future to be desired or simply predicted. Others pro…

Evidence: — • authority: 72

Sir Thomas More (7 February 1478 – 6 July 1535), venerated in the Catholic Church as a martyr and saint, was an English lawyer, judge, social philosopher, author, statesman, theologian and Renaissance humanist. He also served Henry VIII as Lord Chancellor from October 1529 to May 1532. He wrote Utopia, published in 1516, which describes the political system of an imaginary island state. More opposed the Protestant Reformation, directing polemics against the theology of Martin Luther, Huldrych Zwingli and William Tyndale. More also opposed Henry VIII's separation from the Catholic Church, refusing to acknowledge Henry as supreme head of the Church of England and the annulment of his marriage…

Evidence: — • authority: 72

A utopia is a community or society possessing highly desirable or perfect qualities. It is a common literary theme, especially in speculative fiction and science fiction. The word "utopia" was coined in Greek language by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book Utopia, but the genre has roots dating back to antiquity. One reference has it that 1500 works of fiction that can be characterized as utopian were published between 1516 and 1975. In general, utopian societies are presented as being either in a different place (eutopia) or a different time in the future (euchronia). Most early utopian novels show a eutopia; many utopian works written after the seventeenth century show an euchronia, set in…

Evidence: — • authority: 72

Utopian studies is an interdisciplinary field of study that researches utopianism in all its forms, including utopian politics, utopian literature and art, utopian theory, and intentional communities. In his 1516 book Utopia, Sir Thomas More coined the term. Utopian studies can be subdivided into three major areas: study of utopian works, communitarianism and utopian social theory. A study opposite to Utopian studies is Dystopian studies. While Utopias are non-existent societies people dream of, dystopias are essentially non-existent and non-desirable societies that individuals deem worse than their present society. They are also known as negative utopias.