Richard Saage: Das Erbe des Thomas Morus. Zur Gegenwart des klassischen Utopiebegriffs

Abstract

Thomas More’s Legacy. Contemporary Debates on Classical Conceptions of Utopia
In 2016, we celebrate the 500th anniversary of Thomas More’s first Basel edition of “Utopia”. This essay established not only More’s reputation as a leading authority of political thinking and as the founder of a new literary genre. Even today, “Utopia” provokes controversial discussions how an ideal human society should be constructed. This essay thus discusses the status of Mores utopian thinking in the German-speaking world today. It investigates the following subjects: 1. More’s “Utopia” as mirrored in political philosophy, 2. Virtual thinking in the area of tension between dystopia and experiment, 3. Ernst Bloch’s utopian conception in relation to More’s “Utopia”, 4. The economic dimension of political utopias.

Besprochen werden u. a.: Arnswald, U./Schütt, H. (Hrsg.): Thomas Morus’ Utopia und das Genre der Utopie in der politischen Philosophie (214); Nida-Rümelin, J./Kufeld, K. (Hrsg.): Die Gegenwart der Utopie (220); Vosskamp, W./Blamberger, G./Roussel, M. (Hrsg.): Möglichkeitsdenken (217)