MORE’S UTOPIA

Utopìa is a novel by Thomas More published in Aulic Latin in 1516.

It is one ofthe most famous in world literature and philosophy. Its title, in fact, has become a
word used in all languages to mean an imaginary perfect social and political system∴Utopia,
means, from the Greek, no place: The story takes place on an imaginary island called Utopia
’Where the inhabitants lead a liffrofhamony and justice, Which contrasts with the injustice
and corruption of European society. It is important to note that, though Utopia is a
philosophical work, it was much influenced by travel reports of the New World with their
idealized descriptions of Primitive Indian societies. In the book More explicitly says that the
story of Utopia was told to him by a mariner who had been to America with Amerigo
Vespucci.
Utopians, inhabitants of the island of the perfect system because produced by reason, have a
natural religiosity that brings them closer to Christianity. Moro introduces a close link
between religion and reason by elaborating reflections and positions that will anticipate the
themes of speculation 6-700: the debate of nature and the role of passions, to the deism that
advocates a Christianity that is reasonable and without the mysteries of Locke, to peace
understood as the natural form of human coexistence.
In this novel is described the imaginary journey of Raphael Hythlodaeus in an island-
republic, inhabited by an ideal society, the writer was particularly inspired by the work The
Republic of the Greek philosopher Plato, also written in dialogue form. In Utopia, as in the
above-mentioned work, we have the project of an ideal nation and topics such as philosophy,
politics, collectivism, economics, ethics and, more specifically, medical ethics are discussed
(A set of principles and values that govern medical practice, with specific reference to the
legitimacy and rightness of each medical act).

What initially inspired Thomas More to draft Utopia was probably the translation from Greek
to Latin of some of Lucian’s writings that he worked with Erasmus of Rotterdam, in
particular of a dialogue in which Menippo, a Greek playwright, He descends to the
Underworld and recounts his journey. The work also follows the outline of the pamphlet The
Face of the Moon by Plutarch’s Moralia.

Utopia expresses the Renaissance dream of a peaceful society where culture dominates and
regulates the life of men.

In 1519, the novel was translated into German in 1524, into Florentine in 1548, into French in
1550 and only in 1551 into English.