The Road to Magic Kingdom Detail of Utopia by Thomas More, 1516, via USC Libraries The telling of events, consequences, and fantasies encountered by real people add much-needed fleshing. Utopias become more tangible through the eyes of fictional writers and creators. They dealt only with the rules and standards of their world but had little regard to how human interactions would be during their perfected societies. If someone could perform a discipline they did, on the contrary, it was prohibited because they would not be contributing their best to the community.īoth More and Plato presented their utopias more like an essay or trial. At eight past midday, there was a curfew, and everybody had to sleep eight hours. Everybody worked six hours per day, and if by any chance there were surpluses, labor hours were shortened. People were assigned two slaves per household. The only possible difference was between the clothes of men and women. Everybody made their clothes identically. All houses and towns were of the same size, and to avoid sentimentalism, everybody had to move each passing decade.

Everything was public, and there was no private property. Utopia had 54 cities, where all except for the capital were identical. On the other hand, the island of Utopia was much more thorough in its composition and set of rules with a traced map included.

The Republic by Plato, 370 B.C., via Onedio Philosopher-kings had souls in which reason reigned over courage and appetite, and for that reason, they possessed the foresight and knowledge to rule wisely. Auxiliaries were ruled by courage in their souls and possessed the spirit necessary to protect the state from invasion. In his republic, there were three categories of citizens: artisans, auxiliaries, and philosopher-kings, each of whom possessed distinct natures and capacities.Īrtisans were dominated by their appetites and therefore destined to produce material goods. In his utopian vision, Plato constructed an ideal state based on his soul trifecta, which professed every human soul was composed of appetite, courage, and reason. As much credit as the Catholic saint deserves, if we are to deep-dive into the perfect society, the island of Utopia must take a step back and allow for the first-ever proposition of nowhere land.Ĭontroversial as it may seem in today’s political climate, it was Plato’s Republic that initially described how a proper society must function. On its surface, utopia describes worlds and cities that aspire to be perfect, but underneath, it cheats itself, as the place that does not exist. Just like that, the term utopia was born. The name of the island originates from the forging of two Greek words, “ou” (no) and “topos” (place). Thomas More, a British philosopher, released in 1516 On the Best State of a Republic and on the New Island of Utopia. Creating Nowhere (Utopia) The Fifth Sacred Thing by dreamnectar, 2012, via DeviantArt

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