Socjalizm "Utopii" Tomasza More'a
Streszczenie
1. The tvord utopia is used to denotes 1) projects of perfect
sobial systems ensuring happy life, but impracticable because of
suggested limitations in a given period or at all timesj 2 ) a
philosophical-political work, usually a treatise which presents
a project of this kind; 3 ) a work of fiction whioh presents a
model of utopia in an artistic form evoking an impression of
reality whioh helps to make the model popular. Sir Thomas More's
"Utopia" is a work of utopian fiction whioh presents a socialist
model of a rational, happy, developing society.
2. F. Engels, who classified varieties of Socialism as Utopian
and Scientific (or Marxist), oonsidered Utopian Sooialism
as a progressive approximation towards Marxism. K. Kautsky called
Socialism as presented in "Utopia" "modem in majority of its
trends, but old in many of its means".
3. The purpose of this paper is to define exactly the m o d e m
and the obsolete aspects of the model of Sooialism in Utopia
and its author's attitude towards it.
4. Sooialism in Utopia is based on common property and consumption,
but also on common duty to work, common production and
education of the whole nation for labour and oo-operation.
These are principles of modern Socialism.
5. The system eduoates highly humane, open, and responsible
people and is actively and willingly acoepted and supported by
the people.
6 . The historically necessary absenoe of meohanized industry
the treatment of the family-household as the basic productive
and political unit, and the intolerance of atheists oertainly
belong to the medieval and partly Renaissance heritage.
7. Another important differenoe between Sooialism in "Utopia"
and Marxism lies in the Utopian attitude towards religion
oonsidered a cornerstone of suooessful socialization in Utopia.
8. While Raphael Hythloday was an enthusiastic exponent of
Sooialism, what was Sir Thomas More's own attitude towards Sooialism?
R. W. Chambers's epoch-making book "Thomas More" (1935)
has oleared away many prejudices and we know from it that More
as a young man defended Plato's communism; that he lived for four
years as a lay inmate of London Charterhouse in a model religious
community - a cosnmune; that A. Vespucoi and Peter Martyr's
writings confirmed the existence of communism in large West Indian
sooieties. Besides, More was critical of rising Capitalism and this criticism wae based on the experience of a judge and
a diplomat. Did he want Sooialism or not? If he did not, why
did he write "Utopia"? If he did, why did he introduce - in his
own person - objections and doubts in the book? The answer lies
in the faot that "Utopia" is a discussion between Raphael and
More on the chances of the practicability of building Sooialism
in Europe in his own times.
9 . Being a realist, More did not expect any government or
class of the 16th century to be either willing or able to introduce
the system. His doubts, found both in the text of "Utopia"
and in other texts, allegedly anti-communist, collected by
Paul Turner in a reoent edition of More's principal work turn
round the problems of economic, politioal, and moral unpreparedness
of the contemporaneous world in building a Socialist society.
In those times Socialism oould not be established either by
foroe or by general will. One had to look forward to the future.
10. More was not a Utopist, therefore, though he was the
author of utopia. His Socialism was utopian, but built on
many basic principles of modern scientific Sooialism. But to
define its author, a paradoxical' formula is necessary. In his
oase to be a utopian socialist is not the same as to be a Utopist. His evolutionary Socialism was a result of a realistic
assessment of possibilities and if Thomas More had been a revolutionary
Sooialist, that would have made him a Utopist.