乌托邦是人类对美好社会的憧憬。
乌托邦是人类思想意识中最美好的社会，如同西方早期“空想社会主义”。西方一位学者提出的空想社会主义社会：美好、人人平等、没有压迫、就像世外桃源。乌托邦式的爱情也是美好至极的。
乌托邦主义是社会理论的一种，它试图藉由将若干可欲的价值和实践呈现於一理想的国家或社会，而促成这些价值和实践。一般而言，乌托邦的作者并不认为这样的国家可能实现，至少是不可能以其被完美描绘的形态付诸实现。但是他们并非在做一项仅仅是想像或空幻的搬弄，就如乌托邦主义这个词汇的通俗用法所指的一般。如同柏拉图《理想国》（Republic）（它是最早的真正乌托邦）中所显示的，通常某目的是：藉由扩大描绘某一概念（正义或自由），以基於这种概念而建构之理想社群的形式，来展现该概念的若干根本性质。在某些其他的场合，例如摩尔（Sir Thomas More）的《乌托邦》（Utopia，1516），其目标则主要是批判和讽刺：将乌托邦中的善良人民和作者当时社会的罪恶作巧妙的对比，而藉之谴责后者。只有极少数的乌托邦作者––贝拉密（Edward Bellamy）的《回顾》（Looking Backward，1888）即是佳例––企图根据其乌托邦中所认真规划的蓝图来改造社会。就其本质而言，乌托邦的功能乃是启发性的。
直到十七世纪之前，乌托邦一般均被置於地理上遥远的国度；十六与十七世纪欧洲航海探险的发现，使人们大为熟悉这个世界，因而使此一有用的设计销声匿迹。自彼时起，乌托邦所处的空间或移到外太空（十七世纪开始有月球之旅）、或海底（像经常发现的传说中沈没於大西洋的大陆文明）、或者地壳底下的深处。然而渐渐地乌托邦就由空间的转置变成时间的转置，这一进展最初是由十七世纪的进步观念所鼓舞，之后则被李尔（Lyell）的新地质学和达尔文（Darwin）的新生物学中钜幅扩张的时间观念所鼓舞。乌托邦不再是较好的空间，而是较好的时间。威尔斯（H.G.Wells）乘著他的时光旅行家航向数十亿年后的未来，史德普顿（Olaf Stapledon）在《人之始末》（Last & First Men，1930）中，则用二十亿年的时间比例来表示人类朝向全然乌托邦境界的攀升。
从空间到时间的转置也使乌托邦中产生了一种新的社会学的现实主义。乌托邦此时被置於历史中，然而无论距离乌托邦的极致之境是何等遥远，它至少可呈现出：人类或许是无可避免地正朝向它发展的光景。十七世纪科学和技术的联结加强了这个动向，例如培根（Bacon）的《新大西洋大陆》（New Atlantis，1627）和康帕内拉（Campanella）的《太阳之都》（City of the Sun，1637）中所表现者。随著十九世纪社会主义（它本身即深具乌托邦色彩）的兴起。乌托邦主义便逐渐变成关於社会主义之实现可能性的辩论。贝拉密以及威尔斯的乌托邦（《现代乌托邦》〔Modern Utopia，1905〕）皆是为正统社会主义辩护的有力著作；但是摩里斯（William Morris）则在《来自乌有之乡的消息》（News form Nowhere，1890）中提出了另一种吸引人的讼法。这个异种的替代说法乃因“反乌托邦”（dystopia 或 anti utopia）的发明而出现，此乃对所有乌托邦希望的逆转和猛烈的批评。这个观念由巴特勒（Samuel Butler）反达尔文主义的《鸟有之乡》（Erewhon，1872）一书所预示，而在1930和1940年代达到了顶点，尤其表现於赫胥黎（Aldous Huxley）的《美丽新世界》（Brave New World，1932）和欧威尔（George Orwell）的《一九八四》（Nineteen Eighty-Four，1949）这两本书中。在这暗淡的年代理，只有史基纳（B.F.Skinner）的《桃源二村》（Walden Two，1948）维护著乌托邦的火炬使之不熄，然而仍有许多人在这个行为工程（behavioural engineering）的，乌托邦中察觉到比最黑暗的反乌托邦更可怕的梦魇。但是乌托邦主义却在1960年代强而有力地复活，例如像马孤哲（Herbert Marcuse）的《论解放》（An Essay on Liberation，1969）这样的著作；而在未来学和生态学的运动中也可见其蓬勃的生气。
或许乌托邦主义是人类情境所固有的，也许它只内在於那些受古典和基督教传统影响的文化之中；但是我们大可同意王尔德（Oscar Wilde）的话：一张没有乌托邦的世界地图是丝毫不值得一顾的。
1.Utopia
Utopia is a name for an ideal community, taken from the title of a book written in1516 by Sir Thomas More describing a fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean, possessing a seemingly perfect socio-politico-legal system. The term has been used to describe both intentional communities that attempted to create an ideal society, and fictional societies portrayed in literature. "Utopia" is sometimes used pejoratively, in reference toan unrealistic ideal that is impossible to achieve, and has spawned other concepts, most prominently dystopia.
The word comes from Greek: οὐ, "not", and τόπος, "place", indicating that More was utilizing the concept as allegory and did not consider such an idealplace to be realistically possible. It is worth noting that the homophone Eutopia, derived from the Greek εὖ, "good" or "well", andτόπος, "place", signifies a double meaning that was almost certainly intended. Despite this, most modern usage of the term "Utopia" assumesthe latter meaning, that of a place of perfection rather than nonexistence.
Related terms
Dystopia is a negative utopia:a totalitarian and repressive world. Examples: Jack London's The IronHeel, George Orwell's 1984; Aldous Huxley's Brave New World; RayBradbury's Fahrenheit 451, Anthony Burgess's A Clockwork Orange; AlanMoore's V for Vendetta; Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale; EvgeniiZamiatin's We; Ayn Rand's Anthem; Samuel Butler's Erewhon; ChuckPalahniuk's Rant; Cormac McCarthy's The Road; Terry Gilliam's Brazil,Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira
Eutopia is a positive utopia, different in that it means "perfect" but not "fictional".
Outopiaderived from the Greek 'ou' for "no" and '-topos' for "place," afictional, this means unrealistic or directly translated "Nothing, nomatter what" This is the other half from Eutopia, and the two togethercombine to Utopia.
Heterotopia, the "other place", with its realand imagined possibilities (a mix of "utopian" escapism and turningvirtual possibilities into reality) — example: cyberspace. Samuel R.Delany's novel Trouble on Triton is subtitled An Ambiguous Heterotopiato highlight that it is not strictly utopian (though not dystopian).The novel offers several conflicting perspectives on the concept ofutopia.
Some questions have arisen about the fact that writers andpeople in history have used utopia to define a perfect place. Utopia isa perfect but unreal place. A proper definition of a perfect and realplace is eutopia.
Moore's utopia is largely based on Plato'sRepublic . It is a perfect version of Republic wherein the beautiesof society reign (eg: equality and a general pacifist attitude),although its citizens are all ready to fight if need be. The evils ofsociety, eg: poverty and misery, are all removed. It has few laws, nolawyers and rarely sends its citizens to war, but hires mercenariesfrom among its war-prone neighbors (these mercenaries were deliberatelysent into dangerous situations in the hope that the more warlikepopulations of all surrounding countries will be weeded out, leavingpeaceful peoples). The society encourages tolerance of all religions.Some readers have chosen to accept this imaginary society as therealistic blueprint for a working nation, while others have postulatedMoore intended nothing of the sort. Some maintain the position thatMoore's Utopia functions only on the level of a satire, a work intendedto reveal more about the England of his time than about an idealisticsociety. This interpretation is bolstered by the title of the book andnation, and its apparent equivocation between the Greek for "no place"and "good place": "Utopia" is a compound of the syllable ou-, meaning"no", and topos, meaning place. But the homonymous prefix eu-, meaning"good," also resonates in the word, with the implication that theperfectly "good place" is really "no place."
Economic utopia
Theseutopias are based on economics. Most intentional communities attemptingto create an economic utopia were formed in response to the harsheconomic conditions of the 19th century.
Particularly in the earlynineteenth century, several utopian ideas arose, often in response tothe social disruption created by the development of commercialism andcapitalism. These are often grouped in a greater "utopian socialist"movement, due to their shared characteristics: an egalitariandistribution of goods, frequently with the total abolition of money,and citizens only doing work which they enjoy and which is for thecommon good, leaving them with ample time for the cultivation of thearts and sciences. One classic example of such a utopia was EdwardBellamy's Looking Backward. Another socialist utopia is William Morris'News from Nowhere, written partially in response to the top-down(bureaucratic) nature of Bellamy's utopia, which Morris criticized.However, as the socialist movement developed it moved away fromutopianism; Marx in particular became a harsh critic of earliersocialism he described as utopian. (For more information see theHistory of Socialism article.) Also consider Eric Frank Russell's bookThe Great Explosion (1963) whose last section details an economic andsocial utopia. This forms the first mention of the idea of LocalExchange Trading Systems (LETS).
Utopias have also been imagined bythe opposite side of the political spectrum. For example, Robert A.Heinlein's The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress portrays an individualistic andlibertarian utopia. Capitalist utopias of this sort are generally basedon free market economies, in which the presupposition is that privateenterprise and personal initiative without an institution of coercion,government, provides the greatest opportunity for achievement andprogress of both the individual and society as a whole.
There isanother view that capitalist utopias do not address the issue of marketfailure, any more than socialist utopias address the issue of planningfailure. Thus a blend of socialism and capitalism is seen by some asthe type of economy in a utopia. For example, one such idea is to havesmall, community-owned enterprises working under a market-based modelof economy.
Political and historical utopia
Politicalutopias are ones in which the government establishes a society that isstriving toward perfection. A political or historical utopia isbasically impossible to find.
A global utopia of world peace isoften seen as one of the possible endings of history. Within thelocalized political structures or spheres it presents,"polyculturalism" is the model-based adaptation of possibleinteractions between different cultures and identities in accordancewith the principles of participatory society.
Sparta was amilitaristic eutopia founded by Lycurgus (though some, especiallyAthenians, may have considered it a dystopia). It was a Greek poweruntil its defeat by the Thebans at the battle of Leuctra.
Religious utopia
NewHarmony, a utopian attempt; depicted as proposed by Robert OwenTheseutopias are based on religious ideals, and are to date those mostcommonly found in human society. Their members are usually required tofollow and believe in the particular religious tradition thatestablished the utopia. Some permit non-believers or non-adherents totake up residence within them; others (such as the Community at Qumran)do not.
The Islamic, Jewish, and Christian ideas of the Garden ofEden and Heaven may be interpreted as forms of utopianism, especiallyin their folk-religious forms. Such religious utopias are oftendescribed as "gardens of delight", implying an existence free fromworry in a state of bliss or enlightenment. They postulate freedom fromsin, pain, poverty, and death, and often assume communion with beingssuch as angels or the houri. In a similar sense the Hindu concept ofMoksha and the Buddhist concept of Nirvana may be thought of as a kindof utopia. In Hinduism or Buddhism, however, utopia is not a place buta state of mind. A belief that if we are able to practice meditationwithout continuous stream of thoughts, we are able to reachenlightenment. This enlightenment promises exit from the cycle of lifeand death, relating back to the concept of utopia.
However, theusual idea of Utopia, which is normally created by human effort, ismore clearly evident in the use of these ideas as the bases forreligious utopias, as members attempt to establish/reestablish on Eartha society which reflects the virtues and values they believe have beenlost or which await them in the Afterlife.
In the United States andEurope during the Second Great Awakening of the nineteenth century andthereafter, many radical religious groups formed eutopian societies inwhich all aspects of people's lives could be governed by their faith.Among the best-known of these eutopian societies were the Shakers,which originated in England in the 18th century but moved to Americashortly afterward. Other good examples are Fountain Grove, Riker's HolyCity and other Californian eutopian colonies between 1855 and 1955(Hine), as well as Sointula in British Columbia, Canada.
[edit] Scientific and technological utopia
Seealso: hedonistic imperative, transhumanism, technological singularity,abolitionist society, techno-utopia, and Technocracy movement
Utopianflying machines of the previous century, France, 1890-1900(chromolithograph trading card).These are set in the future, when it isbelieved that advanced science and technology will allow utopian livingstandards; for example, the absence of death and suffering; changes inhuman nature and the human condition. These utopian societies tend tochange what "human" is all about. Technology has affected the wayhumans have lived to such an extent that normal functions, like sleep,eating or even reproduction, has been replaced by an artificial means.Other kinds of this utopia envisioned, include a society where humanshave struck a balance with technology and it is merely used to enhancethe human living condition (e.g. Star Trek). In place of the staticperfection of a utopia, libertarian transhumanists envision an"extropia", an open, evolving society allowing individuals andvoluntary groupings to form the institutions and social forms theyprefer.
Buckminster Fuller presented a theoretical basis fortechnological utopianism and set out to develop a variety oftechnologies ranging from maps to designs for cars and houses whichmight lead to the development of such a utopia.
One notable example of a technological and libertarian socialist utopia is Scottish author Iain M. Banks' Culture.
Avariation on this theme was found earlier in the theories of eugenics.Believing that many traits were hereditary in nature, the eugenistsbelieved that not only healthier, more intelligent race could be bred,but many other traits could be selected for, including "talent", oragainst, including drunkness and criminality. This called for "positiveeugenics" encouraging those with good genes to have children, and"negative eugenics" discouraging those with bad genes, or preventingthem altogether by confinement or forcible sterilization.
Opposingthis optimism is the prediction that advanced science and technologywill, through deliberate misuse or accident, cause environmental damageor even humanity's extinction. Critics advocate precautions against thepremature embrace of new technologies.
Utopianism
Utopianism refers to various social and political movements.
Inmany cultures, societies, religions, and cosmogonies, there is somemyth or memory of a distant past when humankind lived in a primitiveand simple state, but at the same time one of perfect happiness andfulfillment. In those days, the various myths tell us, there was aninstinctive harmony between man and nature. Men's needs were few andtheir desires limited. Both were easily satisfied by the abundanceprovided by nature. Accordingly, there were no motives whatsoever forwar or oppression. Nor was there any need for hard and painful work.Humans were simple and pious, and felt themselves close to the gods.
Thesemythical or religious archetypes are inscribed in all the cultures andresurge with special vitality when people are in difficult and criticaltimes. However, the projection of the myth does not take place towardsthe remote past, but either towards the future or towards distant andfictional places, imagining that at some time of the future, at somepoint of the space or beyond the death must exist the possibility ofliving happily.
These myths of the earliest stage of humankind have been referred to by various religions:
TheGolden Age by Lucas Cranach the Elder.Golden Age The Greek poet Hesiod,around the 8th century BC, in his compilation of the mythologicaltradition (the poem Works and Days), explained that, prior to thepresent era, there were other four progressively more perfect ones, theoldest of which was the Golden age.
Plutarch, the Greek historian and biographer of the 1st century, dealt with the blissful and mythic past of the humanity.
Arcadia,e.g. in Sir Philip Sidney's prose romance The Old Arcadia (1580).Originally a region in the Peloponnesus, Arcadia became a synonym forany rural area that serves as a pastoral setting, as a locus amoenus("delightful place"):
The Biblical Garden of Eden The Biblical Garden of Eden as depicted in Genesis 2 (Authorized Version of 1611):
"Andthe Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put theman whom he had formed. And out of the ground made the Lord God to growevery tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the treeof life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge ofgood and evil. [...]
And the Lord God took the man, and put him intothe garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the Lord Godcommanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayestfreely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thoushalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shaltsurely die. [...]
And the Lord God said, It is not good that the manshould be alone; [...] And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fallupon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up theflesh instead thereof; and the rib, which the Lord God had taken fromman, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man."
The Land ofCokaygne The Land of Cokaygne [also spelled Cockaygne or Cockaigne] (inthe German tradition referred to as "Schlaraffenland") has beenaptly called the "poor man's heaven", being a popular fantasy of purehedonism and thus a foil for the innocent and instinctively virtuouslife that is depicted in all the other accounts mentioned above.Cockaygne is a land of extravagance and excess rather than simplicityand piety. There is freedom from work, and every material thing is freeand available. Cooked larks fly straight into one's mouth; the riversrun with wine; sexual promiscuity is the norm; and there is a fountainof youth which keeps everyone young and active.
There is a medieval poem (c. 1315) written in rhyming couplets which is entitled "The Land of Cokaygne":
"Far in the sea, to the west of Spain,
Is a country called Cokaygne.
There's no land not anywhere,
In goods or riches to compare.
Though Paradise be merry and bright
Cokaygne is of far fairer sight...."
Finding utopia
Thesemyths also express some hope that the idyllic state of affairs theydescribe is not irretrievably and irrevocably lost to mankind, that itcan be regained in some way or other.
One way would be to look forthe "earthly paradise"—a place like Shangri-La, hidden in the Tibetanmountains and described by James Hilton in his Utopian novel LostHorizon (1933). Such paradise on earth must be somewhere if only manwere able to find it. Christopher Columbus followed directly in thistradition in his belief that he had found the Garden of Eden when,towards the end of the 15th century, he first encountered the New Worldand its indigenous inhabitants.
Another way of regaining the lostparadise (or Paradise Lost, as 17th century English poet John Miltoncalls it) would be to wait for the future, for the return of the GoldenAge. According to Christian theology, the Fall from Paradise, caused byMan alone when he disobeyed God ("but of the tree of the knowledge ofgood and evil, thou shalt not eat of it"), has resulted in thewickedness of character that all human beings have been born with since(original sin).
In a scientific approach to finding utopia, theGlobal Scenario Group, an international group of scientists founded byPaul Raskin, used scenario analysis and backcasting to map out a pathto an environmentally sustainable and socially equitable future. Itsfindings suggest that a global citizens' movement is necessary to steerpolitical, economic, and corporate entities toward this newsustainability paradigm.
[edit] Examples of utopia
See also utopian and dystopian fiction
Plato'sRepublic (400 BC) was, at least on one level, a description of apolitical utopia ruled by an elite of philosopher kings, conceived byPlato. (Compare to his Laws, discussing laws for a real city.)
TheCity of God (written 413–426) by Augustine of Hippo, describes an idealcity, the "eternal" Jerusalem, the archetype of all Christian utopias.
Utopia (1516) by Thomas More a Gutenberg text of the book
ReipublicaeChristianopolitanae descriptio (Beschreibung des Staates Christenstadt)(1619) by Johann Valentin Andreæ, describes a Christianutopia inhabited by a community of scholar-artisans and run as ademocracy.
The City of the Sun (1623) by Tommaso Campanella depicts a theocratic and communist society.
The New Atlantis (1627) by Francis Bacon.
Zwaanendael Colony (1631) by Pieter Corneliszoon Plockhoy in Delaware.
Newsfrom Nowhere by William Morris (1892), Shows "Nowhere", a place withoutpolitics, a future society based on common ownership and democraticcontrol of the means of production.
Gloriana, or the Revolutionof 1900 (1890) by Lady Florence Dixie. The female protagonist poses asa man, Hector l'Estrange, is elected to the House of Commons, and winswomen the vote. The book ends in the year 1999, with a description of aprosperous and peaceful Britain governed by women.
H. G. Wells's A Modern Utopia (1905) is half fiction and half philosophical debate.
Islandia(1942), by Austin Tappan Wright, an imaginary island in the SouthernHemisphere, a utopian containing many Arcadian elements, including arejection of technology.
Island (novel) (1962) by Aldous Huxleyfollows the story of Will Farnaby, a cynical journalist, who shipwreckson the fictional island of Pala and experiences their unique cultureand traditions which create a utopian society.
Ecotopia: TheNotebooks and Reports of William Weston (1975) by Ernest Callenbach,ecological utopia in which the Pacific Northwest has seceded from theunion to set up a new society.
Woman on the Edge of Time (1976) byMarge Piercy, the story of a middle-aged Hispanic woman who has visionsof a utopian society.
The Probability Broach (1980), by L. NeilSmith, presents both utopian and dystopian views of present day NorthAmerica, through alternative outcomes of the American War forIndependence.
Always Coming Home (1985), by Ursula K. Le Guin, acombination of fiction and fictional anthropology about a society inCalifornia in the distant future.
2.an ideal place or state