Thomas More’s Utopia: An Analysis of an Ideal Society
Conclusion
In Utopia, Thomas More depicts an ideal society free of problems, where everyone helps one another. This is exemplified by the lack of importance given to gold and silver, as they are considered expendable. However, the society presented can be seen as monotonous and lacking passion.
This book, especially Book II, is quite entertaining. It presents innovative aspects that, from our modern perspective, can even be humorous.
Utopia Island
The island of Utopia is named after its conqueror, Utopus. Its previous name was Abraxas.
In the past, the land was not entirely surrounded by sea. Utopus, the conqueror, transformed the rough and rugged people into a nation surpassing most others in culture and civilization. Immediately after his landing and victorious conquest, he ordered the cutting of the fifteen-thousand-step isthmus that connected the country to the continent, thereby encircling the land with the sea.
The island has fifty-four cities, all identical in language, customs, laws, and organization.
Each year, three elderly and experienced inhabitants from each city gather in Amaurote to discuss common issues. This city, considered the navel of the island, is conveniently located for representatives from all regions and is therefore regarded as the capital.
The lands are well distributed, and Utopians never desire to extend their boundaries, as they see themselves as farmers rather than landowners.
- Farm family: At least 40 people, men and women
- 2 slaves
- Directed by a father and a mother
- 30 families = Phylarchus
Each year, twenty members of each family return to the city after spending two years in the countryside. They are replaced by an equal number of newcomers from the city, who are trained in agricultural work by those who have been in the field for a year.
This system ensures that no one is entirely ignorant of agriculture, preventing crop losses due to inexperience.
They have few horses and use oxen, believing that although the ox lacks the horse’s momentum, it is more patient, less prone to disease, requires less maintenance, and can be used for food when no longer useful for work.
Of Cities and Mainly Amaurote
Amaurote is the seat of the Assembly. Every house has a door to the street and a garden, which is always open, as there is no private property. Houses are changed every ten years by lot. Nowadays, every house has three floors. Flat roofs are covered with a fire-resistant product.
The Judges
- Each group of 30 families elects a magistrate (Syphogrant or Phylarchus)
- A head of 10 Syphogrants is a Traniboro (Protafilarca)
The Syphogrants, numbering around 200, elect a prince by secret ballot from among four candidates proposed by the people.
Each quarter of the city designates a candidate, who is then presented to the Senate.
Every three days, the Traniboros meet in council with the prince to deliberate on public affairs and settle disputes between individuals, which are rare.
Discussing public business outside the Senate or public elections is punishable by death.
Proposals are never discussed in the Senate on the same day they are presented. The discussion is postponed until the next session. This prevents individuals from speaking impulsively and then having to defend their words, rather than considering what would be in the public interest.
Of Trades
The primary occupation of all Utopians is agriculture, in which they are trained from childhood. In addition to this, they learn a specific trade, such as weaving wool or linen, masonry, or blacksmithing and carpentry.
Trades are usually passed down from parents. However, if someone is attracted to another profession, they can be adopted into a family that practices it.
The main function of the Syphogrants is to ensure that no one is idle and that everyone diligently practices their craft.
They work for six hours a day: three in the morning, followed by a two-hour break after lunch, and then another three hours until dinner. They retire to bed at eight and sleep for eight hours.
During their leisure time, gambling is prohibited. Most dedicate their free time to the cultivation of letters, and in the early morning, they often attend public lectures.
It might seem that a six-hour workday would lead to shortages, but this is not the case. They produce not only enough to meet their needs but also a surplus.
Exemption from work is granted to those who, upon a proposal from the priests and a secret vote of the Syphogrants, are given a permanent waiver to dedicate themselves to study.
Mutual Relations
When women reach marriageable age, they marry and live in their husbands’ homes. Children and grandchildren remain in the family and owe allegiance to the oldest ancestor.
To ensure that the population does not decrease or increase excessively, each family must have no fewer than ten and no more than sixteen pubescent children. The number of prepubescent children is unlimited.
The city is divided into four equal parts, each with a public market in the center. Families deliver the products of their labor to special stores, where they are sorted by type. Parents can then go to these stores to obtain what they and their families need, without having to give money or anything in return.
They do not kill animals for consumption; this is done by slaves outside the city. Utopians do not tolerate their fellow citizens becoming accustomed to killing living beings, as they believe this practice gradually diminishes the feeling of pity essential to human nature.
They take great care of their sick, who are cared for in public hospitals, where they never suffer hardships or discomfort. Those with contagious diseases are isolated. Cures are performed gently and quickly.
Everyone has the right to eat at home, but this privilege is rarely used. Everyone eats in communal dining halls, where the cooking is done by women, and the dirty or heavy work is done by slaves.
Special care is given to the elderly, who occupy places of honor. They can share choice pieces of their food with their neighbors. This honors the elderly and benefits the community.
The Travel of Utopians
When a citizen wants to visit a friend in another town or simply travel, they easily obtain permission from the Syphogrants and Traniboros.
They are given a vehicle and a public slave to lead and care for the horse. They do not carry anything with them, yet they lack nothing during the voyage, as they are everywhere at home.
If someone goes beyond the limits of the territory without a permit from the prince, they are arrested as a fugitive and severely punished. If they repeat the offense, they are reduced to slavery.
In any town they visit, they are not given food unless they work for it, performing the tasks ordinarily done in a morning or an afternoon.
They do not use currency, keeping it only for events that may or may not occur.
They do not actively seek pearls and diamonds, but if they find them, they polish them and use them to adorn children. As children grow older, they realize that only young children wear such ornaments and, without any prompting from their parents, they discard them out of embarrassment.
They do not value fine clothes or gold. Gold is used for the chains of slaves.
They debate virtue and pleasure, but their main controversy is what constitutes human happiness, and whether it is singular or multiple. They never argue about happiness without substantiating it with religious principles.
They believe that not all pleasure is happiness, only good and honest pleasures. They define virtue as”living according to nature”
They despise hunting, considering it an activity unworthy of free men.
Among the greatest pleasures of the body, they give primacy to health. They believe that no pleasure should be an obstacle to a greater one, nor should it cause any pain.
They consider it foolish to despise beauty, deplete the body with fasting, damage one’s health, or reject other gifts of nature. Similarly, they judge anyone who inflicts suffering upon themselves without any benefit.
Of Slaves
Utopians do not enslave prisoners of war unless they were the aggressors, nor the children of slaves, nor anyone who is sold as a slave in other lands. They enslave only those who have committed a crime deserving of such punishment and those who were sentenced to death in a foreign city.
They take great care of the sick. Those who are terminally ill are persuaded to let themselves die of starvation or are euthanized in their sleep without realizing it. This is not imposed on anyone, and those who refuse are still cared for. If someone commits suicide without the approval of the priests and the Senate, they are not considered worthy of earth or fire, and their body is thrown into the swamps.
Women do not marry before the age of 18, and men not until they are four years older. If a young person engages in premarital relations, both are severely reprimanded and are forever barred from marriage unless the prince grants them leave.
A woman, whether a virgin or a widow, is shown naked to her suitor by a serious and honest midwife. Conversely, the man is shown naked to the woman by an honest man. Utopians believe that under the most beautiful exterior, the most disgusting deformities can hide, which could embitter the soul of the spouse when separation is not possible.
Utopians are monogamous and are only separated by death, except in cases of adultery or insufferable incompatibility. In such cases, the Senate gives the innocent party permission to remarry, while the guilty party is condemned to perpetual celibacy.
They consider it extremely unfair to bind men with so many laws that it is impossible to read them all, and so obscure that few can understand them. They have eliminated all lawyers who defend cases and subtly dispute about laws. Experience has taught them that it is preferable for each person to plead their own case and tell the judge what they would have told their legal counsel. They have few laws and they are easy to interpret.
The Art of War
They believe that war is something bestial. They do not undertake war for futile reasons, only to defend their borders or if moved by compassion for a people tyrannized, they decide to use their forces to remove the yoke of the tyrant and slavery.
Nevertheless, they regularly exercise in the art of war, both men and women, on certain days, so that no one is unskilled in fighting when it is necessary to use weapons.
They celebrate a victory publicly if they defeat the enemy without bloodshed, and if they do so by cunning and deceit, as only this, and not force, separates them from other animals.
When they declare war, they try to resolve it quickly, inviting the enemy to betray their own countrymen, offering large sums of money to those who deliver the prince and others responsible. If this is unsuccessful, they hire people from other towns to fight their enemy. Their own soldiers are the last resort, used only after other methods have failed, and they never engage in battle prematurely.
Utopians’ Religions
Some worship the sun, others the moon or a planet. There are also those who consider a man who became famous for his glory and virtues to be not only a god but the supreme god. However, most do not accept any of these beliefs and recognize only one god, who is above the human mind, whom they call”The Father”
Even those Utopians with different beliefs agree on the existence of a Supreme Being, commonly called Mithra.
Utopians learned early on that before their arrival, the country was engaged in continuous religious wars. Therefore, when Utopus achieved victory, he proclaimed the freedom for each person to profess the religion they liked and even allowed proselytizing, as long as it was done with restraint, tenderness, and rational arguments, without destroying the other’s religion.
Intolerance in religious controversies is punishable by banishment or slavery.
Almost all Utopians are so convinced of the infinite bliss that awaits men after death that they cry for the sick but never for the dead, except when they see someone who eagerly abandoned life, fearing death.
They do not give credit to soothsayers or to the vain divination practices that are respected by other peoples.
The priests are very holy, which is why there are few. There are only thirteen in each town, with an equal number of temples.
Although not all citizens profess the same religion, all attend the same churches, where they do not see or hear anything that does not fit perfectly with what is common to all religions. If a sect has special rites, its followers celebrate them in their own homes.
Conclusions
Reading and understanding More undoubtedly heightens the things that we, people of a globalized world, consider simple. In that ideal world that More describes, we find a place where there are no painful or humiliating social differences that lead to a power struggle regulated only by paper or metal to which only man has given value.
More was ahead of his time and had an accurate vision of a place where freedom of thought reigns, where although religion plays an important role, it does not profit from it. Although discrepancies can be found between More’s actions and his writing, he had more successes than questions for his time. He was the first to speak of euthanasia in cases of serious illness where nothing could be done, and of divorce as a solution to infidelity or incompatibility, issues with which I agree. I believe that people with terminal illnesses are entitled to a dignified death, without pain or suffering for themselves or their relatives. Regarding divorce, although it can be seen as an instrument that destroys the institution of the family, I also believe in the loss of dignity and respect when two people are united by everything except love and understanding.
It is also worth noting that More, despite being a man of the Roman Catholic Church, spoke of religious freedom, respect for others, the marriage of priests, and women priests. These ideas, which may have seemed out of place at the time, should not be so today, at least for the Catholic religion. In my opinion, priests, before instilling the word of God, are men, with errors and flaws like any mortal. More was also right when he viewed religious beliefs outside of dogma and all forms of fanaticism as harmful, especially for those lacking knowledge, as augurs and vain divinatory practices only engender ignorance and poverty.
The existence of rules as simple as”no pleasure is forbidden so as not to cause any har” makes Utopia a great place. The absence of a multiplicity of laws and confusing interpretations allows citizens to be aware of them and, therefore, to dispense with lawyers. This stance is as viable as the Roman idea of unifying the law into a single code, which would benefit the entire community and avoid multiple criteria and problems in its application.
More’s opinion about the absurdity of punishing simple robbery with death is quite wise. He points out that this punishment would not be necessary if a man had the education, job training, and resources needed to live a dignified life, away from begging. He also notes that even if a man has offended, if he has what he needs for survival, he should be punished with slavery and hard labor, but never with the death penalty. Leisure and service work are prevented by adequate preparation, and gambling is suppressed because it leads man to perdition.
Mexico inherited many of the utopian tenets of Thomas More, and his influence can be seen in historical figures such as Vasco de Quiroga. Appointed as a judge of Colonial New Spain in 1530 and later the first Bishop of Michoacán, Quiroga, driven by the longing for a pure Renaissance world, sought to bind traditional Spanish culture to humanistic influence. With the prospect of the newly discovered lands and their natural tendencies, he saw an opportunity to implement utopian ideals that were ineffective in Europe at the time. Spanish supporters of Thomas More’s Utopia continued this humanistic orientation, with Vasco de Quiroga adjusting the life of the indigenous people to the utopian scheme he reinterpreted.
Thus, between 1531 and 1535, Vasco de Quiroga, with his own salary, founded the first model utopian village called Hospital-Town Santa Fe, two leagues from Mexico City. Later, under the same model, he created another center in Atamataho, Michoacán, in 1533.