Critical Analysis of Utopia

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True happiness within a community is attainable when our enjoyment and the enjoyment of others are at the heart of the pleasures we seek. In Sir Thomas More’s Utopia, Utopia is a perfect society where everyone is treated equally and everyone is concerned about the total happiness of the entire community. In a Utopian society, all the needs (food, clothing, shelter) of the society are met. The society members’ pleasures are balanced with and connected to the pleasures of others. More wrote to the intellectuals at that time. He demonstrated the disadvantages of a hierarchical society by describing a perfect society where everyone is equal. More used deduction to clarify the Utopian society’s basic beliefs about pleasures: that the members of the society can provide pleasures for others but not at the cost of their own pleasure; that the benefit is greater than the cost when you can add pleasure or enjoyment to someone else; and that they will not seek pleasure when it ends in negative results. Providing and receiving pleasure affects relationships within the Utopian community. The Utopian belief of nature stipulates that there is a responsibility to the individual and to others. Sir Thomas More states, “After all, you’ve a duty to yourself as well as to your neighbor and, if Nature says you must be kind to others, she can’t turn round the next moment and say you must be cruel to yourself” (748). The society believes that the Utopian can provide pleasure for the others of society, but it cannot cost the individual his own pleasure. More used deduction to effectively relay his argument that we cannot be kind to others without being kind to ourselves. It is based on the premise that you have a duty to be kind to yourself and to your neighbor; therefore in More’s syllogism nature cannot call upon you to be cruel to yourself. As a result, members of Utopia must
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