Chapter Commentary of Utopia - Study Guide by Thomas More

be split between precept and practice. Or perhaps as a frame for Book Two, a dialogue introducing the philosophy so that it is not received as a mere plaything.

To construct the Utopia that More narrates in the voice of Hythloday in book two, the method and design for an ideal commonwealth springs from the ancient antecedents as devised by Aristotle and Plato. It concerned the principle of self-sufficiency, ‘autarkeia’; in that the best commonwealth is one that includes everything that is necessary to the happiness of its citizen’s, and nothing else. The central question of ethical theory is to determine what constitutes the happiest life for the individual. The next decision is to derive communal goals whose attainment result in the happiness of the citizens. The third decision is a programme of physical and institutional components that the commonwealth must include. The final consideration is the particular form that these components should be given in order to assure that collectively they would constitute the best commonwealth.

Plato’s tract differs from the society envisioned in Utopia because there are still class distinctions: the ruling class, auxiliary class and the rest of society are compared to gold, silver and iron. Plato recommends communism only for the ruling classes. Hythloday’s vision of Utopia pictures a communal almost medieval monastic lifestyle. It is almost totally egalitarian and classless as everyone is equal, shares the same work and has the same rights.

The communist republic, communal labour and eating, no private property, no exchange of money radically contradicts the workings, social mores and systems of More’s age and turns upside down a host of traditional aristocratic ideals. There is in Utopia no one State religion and the State’s basis is essentially secular where in More’s sixteenth century England the social hierarchy was held as an earthly shadow or mirror of God’s divine hierarchy. Where in England there was a divinely ordained hereditary monarch to mediate between the secular and eternal realms Utopia has nothing of the sort - its law is based rather on reason and logic not tradition. Thus Utopia signifies an ideological break and shift towards a more secular world-view, something hard to reconcile with the author’s strong religious sentiments.

The Height of Organisation – Surveillance and social control.

"Anyone who wants to visit friends in another city, or simply to see the place itself, can easily obtain permission … Because they live in full view of all, they are bound to be either working at their usual trades or enjoying their leisure in a respectable way."

So travel is restricted, movements are watched and controlled, and even leisure time is managed. In Utopia there is an obligation for everyone to work for six hours a day at whatever he/she is best at. All people in the country spend time working the land, as this is an agriculturally based society they must assure themselves of continued crop growth. The government is representative in form. From each city three wise and experienced men are sent each year to the capitol to deliberate on public affairs. The rural population live in farm-houses scattered through the island, each of which contains at least forty persons besides two slaves. For every thirty farm houses there is a leader called a philarch. Ten philarchs together with their groups of families are under an officer called a chief philarch. The prince of the island is chosen for life by the philarchs from four candidates nominated by the people. He may be deposed if he is suspected of tyranny. The laws are few in number and seldom violated.

However the regulation of their dress and all their waking hours shows the standardisation of behaviour in Utopia and the lack of personal freedom:

"of the day’s twenty four hours, the Utopians devote only six to work. They work three hours before noon, when they go to lunch … they go to bed and sleep eight hours"

The monotony of dress, houses and gardens creates an image of a restrictive world sowing the seed for Aldous Huxley’s "dystopian" (anti-utopian rather than anti-Utopian) Brave New World. There is no freedom of speech or travel, individualism is minimal, family affection discounted as they transfer people from households for the sake of balancing numbers. It is a society where utilitarianism seems dominant: an