Looking for Utopia: The Role of Government

Paper Summary:

This essay discusses the shape and nature of a potential utopian society by examining briefly three concepts hotly debated by philosophers and political scientists. These topics are personal property, social classes, and the distribution of wealth. The paper concludes by saying that the best society closest to utopia will be the one in which the government plays the least significant role.

From the Paper:

"The Shape of Utopia Philosophers have examined and proposed ideal societies for thousands of years, with written examples as old as Plato's Republic. Despite this preponderance of theory, the practical realization of the utopian ideal has remained fleetingly out of reach. To presume to have the ability to imagine a utopia, where so many others have failed, might betray one's own arrogance. Nonetheless, the promise of a finer world is too enticing to ignore. In "Civil Disobedience" Henry David Thoreau wrote, "There will never be a really free and enlightened state, until the State comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power, from which all its own power and authority are derived, and treats him accordingly" (Thoreau 31). It is with this statement in mind that we shall visit the possibility of a utopian society. "

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