Sir Thomas More's Utopia

Sir Thomas More's Utopia Born:  February 7, 1478 London, England Died:  July 6, 1535 Tower Hill, London, England

Sir Thomas More's Utopia About four centuries before "Star Trek," three centuries before Jules Verne and his Time Machine, and two centuries before Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels, there was Sir Thomas More's Utopia.

Sir Thomas More's Utopia Utopia, which translates roughly as "no place" in Greek, was published in 1516. The book played a key role in the Humanist awakening of the 16th century, which moved away from Medieval otherworldliness toward Renaissance secularism.

Utopia Written in Latin, Utopia was inspired by Plato's Republic and the accounts of explorers such as Amerigo Vespucci. It is also largely based on the voyages of More himself, specifically to the Netherlands.                                                                  

Utopia The term "Utopia" has come to mean an idyllic, visionary Shang-ri-la type of community. However, when More derived the term from the Greek, it literally meant "nowhere."                                                                  

Utopia Much of More's book was extracted from and influenced by the Bible, especially from the "Christian Humanists" biblical interpretations that formed a vanguard of social criticism in his time.

Utopia More yearned to change his world for the better. He saw that wanton greed and terrible poverty were often irrevocably bound to one another, and he argued vehemently for the closing of the separation between classes.                                                                  

Sir Thomas More's Utopia

References Thomas More. (2008, February 22). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 14:16, February 26, 2008, from http://en.wikipedia.org/