Is Utopia Thomas More s masterpiece?

The book "Utopia" is More's immortal magnum opus, and the full title of the book was originally "The Golden Book of Interests and Fun on the Most Perfect State System and the New Island of Utopia". It was written in Latin during his European missions in 1515-1516. The book recounts the travels of a fictional navigator to a strange and exotic utopia.

There, property was communal, the people were equal, the principle of distribution according to need, everyone wore uniform work clothes, dined in public dining halls, and officials were elected by secret ballot. He believed that private property was the abyss of all evils and that it must be eliminated. Therefore, for the first time, Mohr raised the question of public ownership to the people.

But at that time, More's idea could only be a pipe dream. Henry VIII was opposed to the reforms, and soon the contradictions between More and the king became more and more profound, and in 1533 More was imprisoned in the Tower of London for refusing to take an oath of loyalty to England, and was guillotined on 6 July 1535.

Thomas More - Political career.

From 1510 to 1518, More was one of the Magistrates of the City of London, a position of considerable importance and responsibility. He was in a high position but was sincere and a servant of the people, thus earning him trust and respect. In 1517, he entered the court to serve the king and became a mentor to Henry VIII.

After completing a diplomatic mission to the Holy Roman Empire, he was knighted. As Henry VIII's mentor and privy councillor, he became the most influential of the Chinese and served as Henry VIII's liaison with Bishop Wolsey.

More's masterpiece is Utopia (1516), the first utopian socialism in the history of world literature. On the one hand, the work exposes all kinds of ugly phenomena in British and European society at that time, and on the other hand, vividly and rationally depicts an ideal country of social equality, public ownership of property, and harmonious coexistence of people. Utopia has become synonymous with utopia, and the author's expression of human yearning for an equal, ideal, and just society has obvious progressive and inspiring significance.

Utopia.

The meaning of utopia is that it is always transcendent, negative and critical in relation to the existent.

The concept of "utopia" first came from the famous book "Utopia" published by the English scholar Thomas More in 1516.

As an expectation of a better social form, utopia carries people's ideals and hopes, and is a kind of spiritual sustenance for people. This spirit expresses people's spiritual impulse to pursue ideals, perfection and freedom, and is also an important dimension of human existence.

In this work, Moore expresses his views vividly. On the one hand, in combination with the reality of British society at that time, he truly exposed the painful life of the working masses during the primitive accumulation of capital, and deeply expressed his sympathy and pity for the British lower class people. On the other hand, through the detailed depiction of a fictional utopian island nation, he expresses his brilliant vision of the political and economic system of an ideal society.

In this conception he depicts a perfectly rational republic in which all property is shared; In times of war, it prefers to hire mercenaries from neighboring warlike nations rather than use its own citizens; Religion is free in this country; In this country, women can also be full-time; In this country, everyone is required to work, and all citizens are politically equal.

It can be said that this is an ideal blueprint for Utopia that Moore paints, and this ideal blueprint is the design of a perfect secular society in the future, and to a large extent it means that it negates, transcends, and challenges the existing political order.

When trying to make these theories a reality, the beautiful societies outlined in utopia have proven impossible no matter how hard they try. This has to cause people to think: Does the unrealizability of utopia show that utopia itself is worthless and meaningless?

If not, what is the political significance of utopia? Of course it is: No.

Its significance lies in the fact that it has always been transcendent relative to the existing existence, and its ideal picture has provided a good model of life for future generations, and pointed out the direction for realpolitik to strive for, although it has never been realized, but the study of it has never stopped.

Some of the main contents of the book "Utopia" are: public ownership of property is the greatest feature of utopia, and it is also the most valuable element of Moore's liberal society. In utopia, all social wealth is owned by all.

No matter what the product, whether it is used or eaten, it gathers in a few designated markets in each city. Families go to the market to get all the things they need, without paying, without paying any price, and without being limited in quantity, in short, utopia implements public ownership of property and distribution according to need, and its premise is that the materials are very abundant and the products are very abundant. Moore makes this point emphatically, and this is where he has foresight.

The whole utopia is a communist family.

All the labor in Utopia is used to enhance the wealth of the country, improve social welfare, and benefit the improvement of the living conditions of all the people, so this kind of labor is productive. All but a very small number of people must participate in this useful work. The first is agricultural labor.

But in addition to this, each person must also learn a specialized trade; After learning one well, those who are willing to learn two subjects are at their own convenience. There are no aristocrats, landlords, etc., no second-rate people, and no people who beg for a living. Although the Utopians only work six hours a day during the day, they have a lot of products.

The Utopians firmly established the concept of agriculture, and paid special attention to agricultural labor. Both men and women receive agricultural education in school from an early age and go to the fields. Every citizen in the city had to live in the countryside for two years and make a living as a farmer.

Agriculture is a highly respected form of labor. They were always lenient in the production of grain and the raising of livestock, preferring to have a surplus for the benefit of neighbouring areas, but never allowing waste.

**Introduction: The book is divided into two volumes, the first volume is written by a traveler about what he saw during his travels, and thus introduced the observation and criticism of the situation in Britain at that time; The second volume is a description of an imaginary country named after a "utopia." Utopia was the first book on utopian socialism in Europe, and it was the first complete picture of utopian socialism.

For the first time in the history of socialist thought, it criticized the evil of primitive accumulation of capital, put forward the principle of public ownership and equality based on organized production and universal labor, laid the foundation of utopian socialism, and provided valuable ideological materials for the development of scientific socialism in the future.