Utopia and its meaning?

Question

What is the meaning of "utopia" by Thomas More.

While reading utopia, theres an obvious and almost opposite meaning attributed to the word compared to modern day meaning...

so i was wondering... what actually did utopia mean to More.

Answer 1

to him, it meant a totally orderly and reasonable society, with tolerance for religous freedom, though no tolerance for a lack of belief in God. so it wasnt total religous tolerance, as lack of belief wasnt tolerated. he felt " that if a man did not believe in God or an afterlife of any kind he could never be trusted as he would not be logically driven to acknowledge any authority or principles outside himself"
he included no personal ownership of private property.

Answer 2

In Greek, the word literally means 'no place'. There can be little doubt that More has this meaning in mind because it applies variants of it to many other things in his book: Achoria (no land), the river Anydrus (no water), and so on. More is not talk about a place that exists, and perhaps not even one that he believes could or should exist.

This is a meaning the word 'utopia' still retains today. A utopian solution to a problem is unrealistic and probably unworkable. It is a kind of slur to accuse someone of dreaming instead of actually paying attention to what's really going on.

Starting from More's work it began to pick up a second, implied meaning. He wasn't the first nor the last to write about imaginary far-off lands with hypothetical social systems. His was popular enough, however, that when other authors wrote similar works about imaginary perfect places, they were compared to More's and called 'utopian'. Eventually a utopia was not only an imaginary place, but a PERFECT imaginary place.

These meanings, however, sprang up AFTER More's work was published (he never sought to have it published himself) so arguably he could never have intended them before the fact. There is even some suggestion that he would have preferred his book wasn't so widely distributed as it was... if so, I'm sure he would have been appalled to have it coined as a word that everybody was familiar with!

Answer 3

Sorry i can't help you on the not being silly thing..As the scorpion said to the frog.."I can't help it. It's in my nature" Perfect = me and the every sexy Jennifer Tilly alone together forever watching all the best comics ( Greg Bennett, Carlos Mencia, Dave Chapel ,Dave Attell,Dane Cook,Margret Cho, Kathy Griffin ,Steven Lynch,Rodney Carenton and many more I can't think of right now) *sigh* I <3 Miss Tilly

Answer 4

It is the state of perfection but I think Thomas Moore knew it was not on this side of life. It does exist. Some have seen it.