In Thomas More's
Utopia, there are many hints at what he considers to be the "perfect society." These characteristics shown in book one are as follows along with my opinion on each:
- Thomas More said that everything great is a monarch. I believe that more than one person should have control of a country so that there are different points of views on every situation. With one ruler, he may not be able to see every side of a problem while with two or more that is made easier.
- More also believed that if you have great knowledge about the world that you should share it with the king and his people. He also said that this is the only way he can truly be useful. I disagree because no one should be forced to tell what he knows. He may find that his knowledge is best used to help only him and that if he shares it he will be of absolutely no use afterwards. After everyone knows everything he tells them his existance may be lessened in his own eyes.
- More tells that farmers, or the lower class, are treated poorly and given the bad end of the deal. If you can't help them they turn into thieves and shouldn't be punished for it. I agree with this because they are people too and shouldn't be given any worse treatment than anyone else. If they are struggling to survive and can't get any help from their king, they will go to great lengths to support the ones they love.
- More says that thieves shouldn't be punished to death but rather that the king should take precautions to prevent thievery in the first place. I agree with this. It is not a thieves fault that he had to turn to stealing just to survive. If the king would help everyone in the beginning equally, there would be no need to steal. Also, death for something that can be changed is a bit harsh.
- More believes that a king that has two kingdoms will cause both to fail. I agree because one king cannot do the work of two if he wants to do well. His abilities would be best served if he could apply them to a smaller amount of people and towards one country.
- More says that if a man has nothing to look forward to, he will ont work. Therefore, he needs a reward for doing hard work. I agree with this because no one works hard unless it benefits them in some way. People work to make money so they can survive. If a worker is garaunteed this, they have no reason to do the work.
3 comments:
You had many of the same concepts that I found. I agreed with you in that the society works better with more than one person in charge and monarchy should not be used. However, from reading book 2, we find out that Utopia is a democracy not a monarchy. I also agreed with you that death should not be the punishment for thievery. It is up to the king to make sure that it does not happen in the first place. I also agreed with you on the topic that a king should be concerned with the land that he has rather than try to rule two lands. Your last bullet seemed more of a philosophical concept rather than one of More's concept of the perfect society. However, I do agree with your idea.
1. I agree here. Democracies have been shown to be much more effective than monarchies.
2. I agree with you on your second point also. However, I think that you shouldn't have to share knowledge only because people should be free to choose what they do with their lives, not because sharing knowledge would somehow make a person useless.
3. I'm not sure where you got this point from because I don't remember seeing it in the reading. Is there a page number I could look for?
4. I agree with you here also. Prevention is definitely a much better way to fix a problem than trying to punish those who have already committed crimes.
5. This is another point I agree on. A king should be focused on making his kingdom the best it can possibly be, and if his resources are split between two countries it will be much harder.
6. I can't recall seeing this one in the reading either. Assuming that it was in there, I would agree. If people aren't compensated for their hard work like in Communism, the society will fail.
We seem to have found many of the same things although i do not completely disagree with more that in our day in age a monarchy could be the best form of gov't for an utopian society, but we do seem to agree on the other topics because they seem morally right and I like being cool with god
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