{"id":225,"date":"2012-09-18T14:35:05","date_gmt":"2012-09-18T18:35:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/quallsk\/?p=225"},"modified":"2012-09-18T14:35:05","modified_gmt":"2012-09-18T18:35:05","slug":"comparing-the-genesis-and-content-of-morality-in-plato-and-mores-utopias","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/quallsk\/2012\/09\/18\/comparing-the-genesis-and-content-of-morality-in-plato-and-mores-utopias\/","title":{"rendered":"Comparing the Genesis and Content of Morality in Plato and More\u2019s Utopias"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thomas More\u2019s Utopia<\/em> and Plato\u2019s The Republic <\/em>both address morality in the context of ideal civilizations.\u00a0 Similarities arise when each novel describes its people, and how they come to be functioning and ideal members of Utopia or the perfect State.\u00a0 Each author describes some sort of conditioning process that each society\u2019s residents must go through.\u00a0 However, Plato\u2019s subjects are closely inculcated with specific information and preplanned cultural influences from birth; thus, they know nothing other than their enforced goodness.\u00a0 More\u2019s Utopia was first populated by \u201crude and uncivilized\u201d(p. 28) people, who, through generations of residing in their perfect civilization, came to be virtuous citizens.\u00a0 The only true morality is that which is displayed by someone who has been presented with the opportunity to be dishonorable.<\/p>\n

Book VII of The Republic<\/em> features Socrates\u2019s description of the perfect society.\u00a0 To build it, Socrates suggests that everyone over the age of ten be expelled from the city, and those remaining\u2014who possess the most potential\u2014will be trained until the age of fifty to be perfect citizens or Philosopher Kings.<\/p>\n

Similarly, in books II-IV, Plato describes that guardians of another perfect society, the Luxurious State, must be specifically taught what is and isn\u2019t appropriate to do and think.\u00a0 The populace is told fictitious stories of its gods and rulers to instill respect.\u00a0 Various information, both true and false, is strategically fed to and withheld from the citizens of the Luxurious State to ensure that they unknowingly grow to be dignified, trusting, and most importantly, moral\u2014 but is accidental morality actual morality?<\/p>\n

The answer is no.\u00a0 More\u2019s Utpoia<\/em> was founded by one man who created an artificial island away from the rest of society, and used its old, corrupt inhabitants to populate his new city, Utopia.\u00a0 When Utopia\u2019s government and laws were established, the new citizens could choose to either follow or break the law, and accept the consequences.\u00a0 Through generations, Utopians grew to appreciate their lifestyles, and became exceptionally virtuous people.\u00a0 They witnessed acts of evil, saw their consequences, then often chose not to commit them for the benefit of society and themselves.\u00a0 Plato\u2019s people are made \u201cmoral\u201d by masterminds, while More\u2019s people are made moral by the community.\u00a0 Plato\u2019s citizens are characterized by a fictitious and enforced integrity, whereas Utopians are truly moral, because they are exposed to evil, and choose to be honorable.<\/p>\n

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Thomas More\u2019s Utopia and Plato\u2019s The Republic both address morality in the context of ideal civilizations.\u00a0 Similarities arise when each novel describes its people, and how they come to be functioning and ideal members of Utopia or the perfect State.\u00a0 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1367,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37387],"tags":[67924,1650,67920,67921,67927,51883],"class_list":["post-225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fys","tag-comparison","tag-morality","tag-more","tag-plato","tag-the-republic","tag-utopia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/quallsk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/quallsk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/quallsk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/quallsk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1367"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/quallsk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/quallsk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/quallsk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/quallsk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/quallsk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}