The History of Utopias

1
The History of Utopias
2
Ancient Traditions
3
Platos Republicled to the story of
Atlantisa Utopia brought about through human
effort
4
Ancient Traditions
5
The Roots of UtopiasBiblical Traditions such
asThe Garden of Edenvs. Earthly sufferingHell
Dystopia
6
Ancient Traditions
7
Heaven Utopia
8
Ancient Traditions
9
Platos Republic explained why earthly life
could not be a Utopiawe do not see clearly but
as in a glass, darkly.
10
Ancient Traditions
11
Greek 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.
12
Medieval Monasteries
13
Monastic 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.
14
Renaissance
15
Man 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.
16
Arcadia
17
Utopias 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.

18
Thomas Mores Utopia Nowhere
19
VoltaireThe best of all possible
worlds. Cultivate your own garden.
20
The Noble Savage16-18th CWe lose our equality
when a man says This land is mine.
21
The 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.
22
15th-19th C . Imaginative writing
23
Imaginative Utopic WritingRobinsonades (from
Robinson Crusoe) and Gulliveriana (from Swifts
Gullivers Travels) intrigued society as they
explored human reason, its potential and its
problems.
24
18th Century--Robinsonades
25
18th Century--Gullivernia
26
MillenialismUtopias through grace
27
MillenialismThe 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.
29
Colonialism17th - 19th C.
30
Colonial 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.
31
Colonialism17th -19th C.
32
At the same time, Colonialists were creating
markets for their home economies.
33
Colonialism21st C.
34
The 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.
35
19th 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),
36
Utopian 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.
37
20th 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.
38
Post WWI Utopias and Dystopias Increase as a
reaction to war and destruction
39
Post 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.
40
20th 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)
43
The 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.
44
Fascism
45
Science 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
46
Rights of Women
47
Herland by Charlotte PerkinsThe
Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged by Ayn
RandUrsula K. LeGuins The Left Hand of Darkness
48
Ecotopias
49
Psychological and Philosophical Utopias20-21st
C.such as Walden II by B. F. Skinner of Harvard
50
20th C. Utopian Architects
51
Architects of a utopian bentFrank Lloyd
WrightR. Buckminster Fuller Le CorbusierBruno
TautPaulo Soleri
52
The Communal MovementIntentional Communities
53
The Communal Movement/Intentional
CommunitiesTwin Oaks, VirginiaEast Wind,
MissouriLos Horcones, MexicoSeaside,
FloridaCelebration, Florida
54
Is the opposite of the unified societies of
utopias individuality, leisure, privacy and
freedom of movement-- or anarchy?