Title: The History of Utopias
1The History of Utopias
2Ancient Traditions
3Platos Republicled to the story of
Atlantisa Utopia brought about through human
effort
4Ancient Traditions
5The Roots of UtopiasBiblical Traditions such
asThe Garden of Edenvs. Earthly sufferingHell
Dystopia
6Ancient Traditions
7Heaven Utopia
8Ancient Traditions
9Platos Republic explained why earthly life
could not be a Utopiawe do not see clearly but
as in a glass, darkly.
10Ancient Traditions
11Greek and Roman TraditionsElysian Fieldsall
soldiers who struggled for the State
automatically went to the Elysian Fields, a
section of Hades, when they died. This was their
reward.
12Medieval Monasteries
13Monastic Rule6th CenturyWork is Holy.Monks
professed Rules of Poverty, Chastity, and
Obedience to the Abbot and the Catholic Church.
All should receive necessaries in like
measure.Monasteries were bastions of health and
learning.Monks were ambassadors to prevent
wars.Their lifestyle was inspired by early
Christianity because it gave an example of
community living.
14Renaissance
15Man is the measure of all things. This
promoted the Utopian concept that Utopian
societies were designed for an ideal life in this
world, a heaven ON EARTH.
16Arcadia
17Utopias of Calm Felicity16th C
- Thomas Mores Utopia16th CenturyWise order
leads to a good life. Happiness is vested in
the best state of a Publyque Weale. - 1. eclectic state religion
- 2.toleration of suicide and divorce, in certain
cases - 3. married priesthood
- 4. Epicurean rather than Stoic philosophy Eat,
drink and be merry for tomorrow we may die. - French Utopias1750-1850logical rational
defined laws maybe too smoothly
engineeredcompartmentalized - Voltaires CandideThe best of all possible
worlds. Cultivate your own garden. - Rousseaus Noble SavageIn the best possible
world, Symbols arent necessary because the real
thing reigns, justice rather than nature,
obedience to law replaces freedom. - French RevolutionIn our Civil Society, reason
rather than inclination reigns, justice rather
than nature, obedience to law replaces freedom..
We must substitute an authority of sincerity and
honesty for an authority of rank.
18Thomas Mores Utopia Nowhere
19VoltaireThe best of all possible
worlds. Cultivate your own garden.
20The Noble Savage16-18th CWe lose our equality
when a man says This land is mine.
21The French Revolution18th CIn our Civil
Society, reason rather than inclination reigns,
justice rather than nature, obedience to law
replaces freedom. We must substitute an
authority of sincerity and honesty for an
authority of rank.
2215th-19th C . Imaginative writing
23Imaginative Utopic WritingRobinsonades (from
Robinson Crusoe) and Gulliveriana (from Swifts
Gullivers Travels) intrigued society as they
explored human reason, its potential and its
problems.
2418th Century--Robinsonades
2518th Century--Gullivernia
26MillenialismUtopias through grace
27MillenialismThe world is soon coming to an end
so we must perfect ourselves and our society.The
Apocalypse approaches! Prepare for The New
Jerusalem for the end is near! (This philosophy
seems to rear its head every thousand years as
the new millenium dawns.)
28 Utopias at the end of the 19th C1. There is a
guide/1st person narrator.2.There is proscribed
social behavior.3.The shipwrecked society is
better than the authors society which he
satirizes.4. The utopia is static ideal,
flawless, perfect.5.There are built-in
safeguards against radical alteration of the
structure.6.The society permits as much freedom
and happiness for its inhabitants and possible to
human life.7. Members spend their whole life in
the community.8. The society is a secularized
take on the monastic society. Vow of
povertyeconomic security vow of
chastitymonogamous marriage vow of
obediencepersonal independence.9. Utopia comes
to pass NOT through grace (millenarian concept),
but through human will and effort.10. Dismay
was aroused by extreme laissez-faire versions of
capitalism(the Robber Barons particularly) which
were thought of as manifestations of anarchy.
29Colonialism17th - 19th C.
30Colonial N. American and S. American societies
saw themselves as creating utopic communities for
the unfortunate primitives. They usually saw
themselves as saviors as they imposed their
rules and standards.
31Colonialism17th -19th C.
32At the same time, Colonialists were creating
markets for their home economies.
33Colonialism21st C.
34The practice continues today in the philosophy of
exporting Democracy, the perfect system to any
country that shows an inclination. The delivery
can be particularly ham-fisted.
3519th C. American Utopias Flourish
Founders of American Utopian Communities Amana
and Shaker CommunitiesJohn Humphrey Noyes
(complex marriage) at the Oneida Community,
NYBronson Alcotts Brook Farm, MACharles
Fourier Robert Owen (New Harmony, IND),
36Utopian Socialists Established Communities
Robert Owen, Charles Fourier, Henri de
Saint-Simon, Etienne Cabetall of these leaders
and their followers wished to withdraw from
society. Socialists promoted womens rights.
3720th C. Psychological and Philosophical Utopian
Thought1. Film became a major means for
presenting both utopias and dystopias.2.
Architecture reemerged as a major utopian
form.3.Science Fiction-- In literature, the
critical utopia or the utopia that is
open-ended, self-reflective, and with
identifiable problems yet to be solved, developed
as literary genre.
38Post WWI Utopias and Dystopias Increase as a
reaction to war and destruction
39Post WWI Utopias and Dystopias increase as a
reaction to war and destruction. World War I
produced a loss of hope. The successful
Bolshevik Revolution in Russia was followed by
rapid disillusionment.
4020th C.--Communism
41 Karl Marx and Friederich Engles attacked
utopianism at the same that there was a rapid
growth in explicitly Communist utopianism.Dystop
iasWe by ZamiatinBrave New World by
HuxleyNineteen-Eighty-Four by Orwell
42(No Transcript)
43The Age of Facism and Totalitarianism was
followed by a flowering of the rights of the
poor, the rights of women, and the rights of
racial, sexual, and ethnic minoritiesUtopian
eras follow Dystopian eras.
44Fascism
45Science Fiction as a utopian response to the
horrors of fascism-- Olaf Stapledon wrote
Darkness And the Light about future Human
evolution Katherine Burdekin wrote
Swastika Night Margaret Atwood wrote
The Handmaids Tale
46Rights of Women
47Herland by Charlotte PerkinsThe
Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged by Ayn
RandUrsula K. LeGuins The Left Hand of Darkness
48Ecotopias
49Psychological and Philosophical Utopias20-21st
C.such as Walden II by B. F. Skinner of Harvard
5020th C. Utopian Architects
51Architects of a utopian bentFrank Lloyd
WrightR. Buckminster Fuller Le CorbusierBruno
TautPaulo Soleri
52The Communal MovementIntentional Communities
53The Communal Movement/Intentional
CommunitiesTwin Oaks, VirginiaEast Wind,
MissouriLos Horcones, MexicoSeaside,
FloridaCelebration, Florida
54Is the opposite of the unified societies of
utopias individuality, leisure, privacy and
freedom of movement-- or anarchy?