Hedonism in Sir Thomas More’s
Utopia
Paper to be given at Midwest Political Science Association on April 20
th
, 2006
Gabriel Bartlett, University of Toronto
Almost everyone knows that Sir Thomas More went to his death in 1535 after a
principled stand against Henry VIII; that he was subsequently held to have been a martyr;
and that he was canonized, four hundred years later, by the Catholic Church. Almost
everyone also knows that he also wrote a little book called Utopia in which he depicts a
“state based directly upon reason alone.”
Almost no one, however, believes that More
could have actually agreed with the full implications of what he wrote in Utopia, or that
More could have thought that human reason was sufficient for enabling human beings to
live well. Being more impressed by his final actions than by his quiet thoughts, even most
Thomas More scholars simply read his martyrdom and sainthood into Utopia.
A recent biographer of More, however, suggests that it may not be so simple, or
even possible, to draw “a straight line…between More’s education and his execution.”
agree with this judgment: whatever Thomas More may ultimately have believed, I do not
think that Utopia should be read in light of his martyrdom and sainthood. I make no
claim to understand More’s ultimate intentions.
I limit myself here to a brief
consideration of certain aspects of his Utopia that seem to me to indicate a primarily
philosophic concern.
Since Utopia is such a mysterious book, and so rarely seriously
studied, I will, however, supplement my consideration of Utopia with reflections on some
of the larger issues and questions that I believe need to be reflected on in order to
understand Utopia.
In Utopia – indeed in the book’s very title – Thomas More raises the old question
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