Immersed within the writings of Sir Thomas More and Henry David Thoreau is a depiction of a world challenged by limited natural resources, sustainability, overpowering religious views, and governmental constraints. It is within their everyday lives that they observe this land; therefore they must provide ideas for preventing these problems. However, More and Thoreau have different methods to solving these problems. More stresses the need for social reforms, whereas Thoreau emphasizes the need for humans to take responsibility for their actions, thus both have constructed guidelines of an ideal society.
In Thomas More’s Utopia, agriculture is the foundation of the economy. The agricultural system embodies all citizens, men and women, to cultivate crops. Utopian agriculture is very industrious and according to More, the Utopians produce enough to supply their own nutritional needs as well as a reserve of food in case of hard times. More views the land primarily as an economic resource, although it is not to be taken for granted. Therefore, he designs his economy in a way that will not put strains on the limited resources of nature. The way he accomplishes this is simply by limited population growth. Although, More does not commend birth control, he establishes a city capacity. Thus, by avoiding concentrations of population, the Utopians are guaranteed to have even economic growth throughout the island. This in turn ensures that resources will be equally distributed between economic divisions and that not one piece of agricultural land will be subjected to more economic pressure than another.
The Utopian political structure, which is democratic in nature, is drastic compared to European governmenta...
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...erize his Utopia. Its population achieves pleasure and religious fulfillment through harmony with nature, devotion to a strict work ethic, as well as strict moral and ethical standards.
After viewing both concepts of an ideal society and comparing them to the current sociological debate, it’s clear that present day society emphasizes the need for individual action, instead of integrated and far-reaching reform. Thus, the Thoreauvian idea of individual reform encompasses modern society, unlike the integrated, comprehensive social actions as More describes.
WORKS CITED
More, Thomas, and Clarence Miller. Utopia. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2001. Print.
Thoreau, Henry David. Walden, and other writings. New York: Modern Library, 1950. Print.
Thoreau, Henry David. Civil disobedience. Raleigh, N.C.: Alex Catalogue;, 199. Print.
When thinking about the transcendental period and/or about individuals reaching out and submerging themselves in nature, Henry David Thoreau and his book, Walden, are the first things that come to mind. Unknown to many, there are plenty of people who have braved the environment and called it their home during the past twenty years, for example: Chris McCandless and Richard Proenneke. Before diving into who the “modern Thoreaus” are, one must venture back and explore the footprint created by Henry Thoreau.
To conclude, Thoreau believed that people should be ruled by conscience and that people should fight against injustice through non-violence according to “Civil Disobedience.” Besides, he believed that we should simplify our lives and take some time to learn our essence in the nature. Moreover, he deemed that tradition and money were unimportant as he demonstrated in his book, Walden. I suggested that people should learn from Thoreau to live deliberately and spend more time to go to the nature instead of watching television, playing computer games, and among other things, such that we could discover who we were and be endeavored to build foundations on our dreams.
One way that Thoreau urges his readers to find their true selves is making one's self the most important aspect of one's life. He does this by disregarding public opinion in favor of private opinion. He says, "Public opinion is a weak tyrant compared with our own private opinion. What a man thinks of himself that it is which determines, or rather indicates his fate (110)." In other words, soci...
Even though it passed more that a hundred of years after Thoreau posted his essay, his ideas are still germane today. I can relate Thoreau’s concept not only to American government, but also to authorities all over the world. It doesn’t seem that the people rule the country anymore; the authorities are led by few individuals who have the most influence. Even though this is very visible, people don’t do anything about that, they are just some marionettes in the hands of the ones who rule the system. Many parliaments from the world lost the notion about making the laws to protect the people, but not themselves as the higher class of the country.
In Utopia the citizens rely on each other because although thy all have the same work load they do not all grow corn well, some may grow carrots better than others. This benefits everyone because they can do what they do best, “many who have a natural bent for agricultural ...
Additionally, Emerson and Thoreau both warn the reader of the dangers when individuality is marginalized. Emerson views society as a “conspiracy against the manhood of every one of...
...at I think is the best part of More’s utopia is that it is an equal society that has no money or currency. Since every member of the society is working simply for the common good, there being no belief in luxury, and everyone knowing how to grow food, there is no need to have a currency system. Since there is no system or currency, then there is no place for wealth to manifest thus one less prompter of greed. There is also no system of trading in Utopia, so truly everyone is one equal grounds, with the same capabilities and possessions as everyone else. This helps to eliminate the many causes of inequality, so the society that is presented in Utopia is an ideal society.
Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “Remember always that you not only have the right to be an individual, you have an obligation to be one.” In this quote, Eleanor is expressing that you should always take advantage of the universal human right to be an individual. From time immemorial, many of those who have led meaningful and enjoyable lives have shared one particular trait in common: individualism. Chris McCandless and Thoreau were no different, they both embodied individualism and as a result they have unknowingly inspired generations.
The core belief was that society, and its organized religion and political parties, contaminates the pureness of the individual. Transcendentalists believe people are at their best when they are truly independent, and self-reliant. In his book “Walden; or Life in The Woods” Thoreau stresses the idea of self-reliance and independence. The first few chapters in Thoreau 's, "Walden; or Life in The Woods" Thoreau’s experiment of living without the government and still maintaining a stable lifestyle is attainable. The first chapter in Thoreau 's, "Walden; or Life in The Woods" is entitled Economy. Thoreau starts off by introducing
Imagine a world with no crime, greed or poverty. In the past, many people have had the same dream and have strived to achieve a perfect world. The specticality of society’s thoughts on a perfect world made it difficult to achieve this. However, with religion at the side of the majority of these early perfect cultural dreamers, the idea of an utopia was created. A religious or secular community, forming a community life inspired by religion is the exact definition of a utopia today (“Utopian Societies”). But like many old day ideas, the idea of a perfect society was quickly ignored. However, Despite the cultural changes made throughout the ages, utopias have kept their original core beliefs through dedication, isolation from society, and their lasting effects on other communal societies.
Benjamin Franklin and Henry David Thoreau have been thought of as two powerful philosophers in history. Both men were alive centuries ago, but their unique ways of life and ideas still exist in some of history’s most admirable figures. Each man had a judgment that went beyond the era they existed in, but is still obvious in today’s culture. Even though both men are credited for their wise principles, their beliefs do not always coincide with one another. However, one thing they do have in common is that they both revolutionized America through their thoughts, actions, and distinctive opinions on how to improve the world around them.
Virtually every culture has strived to achieve a Utopian society. A Utopian society is basically a society, which has surpassed aggression, war, hate, and crime while establishing “peaceful” and orderly communities. A Utopian society could not exist with the individuality that nature has bestowed on the human race. So long as humans remain unique in their state of mind, utopia is a mere fantasy. To work around this problem a society must adapt itself to achieve a utopian-like state. This can be achieved by one of two ways.
More delivers a concept called Utopia, which explains an ideal way of substantiality. One and all in Utopia has individual trade to do and that trade is agriculture. In addition, Utopians are educated on an additional trade to go along with agriculture. They each labor the same quantity of hours, which essentially equals a limited work day. There is no currency accepted for goods in Utopia, instead goods are provided for Utopians. Furthermore, Utopians all possess identical beliefs, including dress, education, and worshiping god. This within itself is a virtuous society that is extremely self-sustaining. Essentially, the whole world living in peace and harmony. In addition to this, the diseased, disabled,
To explore the concepts of Utopian theory, both political and social, one must first engender a concrete definition of what Utopia means. Sir Thomas More, the original creator of the term Utopia, signifies it as “no place”. However, More’s clever play on words seems ultimately to suggest that ”no place” is just no place right now. That is to say that Utopia is “an ideal place that does not exist in reality” yet (Murfin and Ray 529).
...y, considering citizenship and working for the benefit of society, while Henry Thoreau emphasizes the illusory nature and imperfection of the state and sees individual freedom in unity with nature and rejection of pseudo-needs enslaving people.