Thus Plato’s “Republic” is commonly described as theįirst philosophical utopia. Utopia is often spoken of in a general, imprecise way, to characterize any conception of the state that is considered an unrealizable ideal.

Insofar as they involve the status of utopia. Here I should like to reflect on that beginning and that end, Modernity came to a close with the collapse of all those attempts, both collective and liberal, that had been made to bring utopia about in history. The modern world was inaugurated by two books with opposing perspectives, published at the same time in the early years of the 16th century: Machiavelli’s “The Prince” and Thomas More’s “Utopia.” The category of the Utopian, then, besides its usual and justly depreciatory meaning, possesses this other meaning – which, far from being necessarily abstract and turned away from the world, is on the contraryĬentrally preoccupied with the world: that of going beyond the natural march of events.Įven among bourgeois economists, there is hardly a serious thinker who will deny that it is possible, by means of currently existing material and intellectual forces of production, to put an end to hunger and poverty,Īnd that the present state of things is due to the socio-political organization of the world. The Stone is a forum for contemporary philosophers and other thinkers on issues both timely and timeless.

Marcuse the end of utopia pdf