![]() This extraordinary treatise on the values of rationality and reason - here presented in a sparkling new translation by Roger Clarke and accompanied by copious notes and additional texts - questions what a philosopher can do to enact change in society, and how idealized visions can inform political practice.Ī sparkling new translation by Roger Clarke of one of the most influential philosophical works of all time, which renders the original Latin into an English that is clear, readable and true to the spirit of Thomas More's writing.Īccompanied by: Biographical notes on contemporary figures and an index explaining More's Utopian vocabulary a map of the island of Utopia correspondence relevant to the text (as well as letters of endorsement and even celebratory verses), written by numerous prominent sixteenth-century European humanists. One of the indicators of the profound cultural and political influence of More's masterpiece is today's common use of the word "Utopia" - a term he invented. The book imagines a community in which laws, personal relations and professional ambition are based on reason, in contrast with the tradition-bound superstitions of Europe, which were, in More's eyes, impediments to equality and peaceful coexistence. In Thomas More's hugely influential Utopia, a traveller recounts his discovery of an island nation in which the inhabitants enjoy unprecedented social cohesion and justice. To learn more about how and for what purposes Amazon uses personal information (such as Amazon Store order history), please visit our Privacy Notice. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie Preferences, as described in the Cookie Notice. ![]() Click ‘Customise Cookies’ to decline these cookies, make more detailed choices, or learn more. Third parties use cookies for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalised ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. This includes using first- and third-party cookies, which store or access standard device information such as a unique identifier. ![]() If you agree, we’ll also use cookies to complement your shopping experience across the Amazon stores as described in our Cookie Notice. We also use these cookies to understand how customers use our services (for example, by measuring site visits) so we can make improvements. The reception of the work has been shaped by this ambivalence audiences have interpreted Utopia both as an excoriation and a defense of communism.We use cookies and similar tools that are necessary to enable you to make purchases, to enhance your shopping experiences and to provide our services, as detailed in our Cookie Notice. Although told primarily from the limited first-person vantage of More (who also appears as a character ), the work is mostly presented as faithful recollection of the words of a character named “Raphael Nonsenso.” In the original text Raphael’s name appears in Greek as “ Hythlodaeus,” meaning “dispenser of nonsense.” For these reasons, it remains unclear whether More is primarily satirizing communist views or capitalist and monarchist views, or both. The book shifts, for instance, between fictional documentary evidence like poems and letters to More’s recollection of his meeting with Raphael. The complex, multigenre framing allows More to cultivate some distance between his views as an author and the philosophical and political positions espoused in the book. More combines various elements from philosophical dialogues (such as Plato’s Republic) and New World travel literature (such as the pamphlets of Amerigo Vespucci) to frame the discussion. Utopia describes an ideal island nation from which the novel receives its name. ![]()
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