In this final article exploring philosophy through the Dune franchise, we ask what is utopia? The understanding of utopia doesn’t require knowledge of the term’s etymology, though it is amusing.
Supposedly, St. Thomas More coined the term in order to describe a non-existent and ideal theoretical society. His work, titled Utopia, describes what he considered the ideal society. He describes their customs and political systems, which isn’t terribly surprising as he made them all up. Utopia, taken from Greek, literally means nowhere. From the inception of the term, it has included an element of impossibility.
Utopia is of course impossible and any reasonable individual can see that. Perfection is unachievable in all things, particularly a thing so complex and personal as political systems and laws. But this hasn’t kept a veritable army of historical would-be despots from attempting to inflict their fever-fueled fantasies on the rest of us.
Plato’s Republic
U…
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