Thomas Moore: Utopia

1. Christian Synthesis

1.1. The Christian aspect of the synthesis is Christ's gospel of caring for the poor, the oppressed and the downtrodden

1.2. The Platonic, Republican tradition is the Greek aspect of the synthesis

1.3. More wrote Utopia with a comedic tone, allowing him to speak his truth while telling a deeper story

2. Divided Utopia

2.1. Thirty households are grouped together and controlled by a Syphograntus ("Styward"), and 10 Stywards are overseen by a Traniborus ("Bencheater").

2.2. Each town has a mayor elected from among the ranks of the Bencheaters.

2.3. Every household has between 10 and 16 adults and people are re-distributed around the households and towns to keep numbers even.

3. Slavery

3.1. Slavery is a feature of Utopian life and it is reported that every household has two slaves.

3.2. The slaves are either from other countries or are the Utopian criminals.

4. Happiness

4.1. People find happiness through religious practice and working.

5. Overview

5.1. Thomas More's is a Christian humanist view of an ideal society.

5.2. More does not simply offer a theoretcial view, but provides specifics for how to create this world.

5.3. Utopia offers a Christianized form of Plato's Republic

6. Humor and Parody

6.1. The Utopia means nowhere

6.2. Each community government group is called sty.

7. Working Life

7.1. All able-bodied citizens must work; thus unemployment is eradicated, and the length of the working day can be minimised:

7.2. the people only have to work six hours a day (although many willingly work for longer).

7.3. More does allow scholars in his society to become the ruling officials or priests, people picked during their primary education for their ability to learn. All other citizens are however encouraged to apply themselves to learning in their leisure time.

8. Government

8.1. Other significant innovations of Utopia include: a welfare state with free hospitals, euthanasia permissible by the state, priests being allowed to marry, divorce permitted, premarital sex punished by a lifetime of enforced celibacy and adultery being punished by enslavement.

9. Social Critique of Great Britain

9.1. The first discussions with Raphael allow him to discuss some of the modern ills affecting Europe such as the tendency of kings to start wars and the subsequent bleeding away of money on fruitless endeavours.

9.2. He also criticises the use of execution to punish theft saying that thieves might as well murder whom they rob, to remove witnesses, if the punishment is going to be the same

9.3. He lays most of the problems of theft at the cause of enclosure—the enclosing of common land—and the subsequent poverty and starvation of people who are denied access to land because of sheep farming.