What Is A Utopia?

“Utopia” is a frequent word in our daily work. This is used as an argument or counterargument when discussing idyllic or hypothetical societies. But the term “utopia” has a greater depth than what society shows us or manages. For this reason it is important to ask yourself a question: What really is a utopia?

First of all, we can go to the etymology and origin of this concept. The term utopia comes from the Greek and literally means “no-place”, which represents a place that does not exist. The first time it was used was in the novel Utopia  by Thomas More. This famous story takes place on an island with a peaceful and idyllic government and constitutes a critique of the political organization of the 15th and 16th centuries.

Throughout the article, to fully understand the concept of utopia, we are going to focus on both its definition and its usefulness. This will help us to manage the term and not fall into that line that claims utopia as a synonym for the impossible.

Definition of utopia

For a long time, society has dreamed of an idyllic world and a way to run the perfect society. Hence the use of the term utopia was born. This consists of a theorization about how a society, state, community or part of them should be perfectly organized. An important aspect is that this hypothetical world does not seek immediate utility, it does not seek to find a political system that can be applied in the current context.

When you build this theorizing, what you are looking for is the form of the best possible system. It only seeks to shape the idea from theoretical terms, without taking into account the degree of difficulty when translating that idea or scheme into reality. In this way a perfect society can be hypothetically created. Now, the idea of ​​the perfection of society is somewhat ambiguous and interpretive; a fact, throughout history and according to the individual has been changing almost constantly.

We can find many examples of utopias throughout history. Perhaps one of the oldest is Plato’s utopia. In it, society would be divided into three classes assigned by their skills and abilities: the political class, the military class, and the producer class. Thus, the proper functioning and management of these classes would ensure a perfect and peaceful society.

We can also find more modern utopias, such as utopian socialism. Which was created as a critique of capitalism and the exploitation of individuals through the appropriation of their workforce. This utopia is based on a cooperative and self-managed society. Through mutual support, collective work and assembly decision, the optimal functioning of society would be achieved.

The utility of utopia

Utopia is a broad and deep concept, widely used by philosophers, thinkers and politicians. But the next question posed to us is:  what is the use of creating a perfect society in the abstract that can meet many resistance in the event of a serious attempt to bring it to reality?  Many of us can fall into the error of thinking that utopias lack pragmatism or have only a literary or hobby utility, but this is not the case.

When assessing the usefulness of a utopia, we can find 4 different functions. These will depend on what the author was looking for when creating that idyllic society. These functions are as follows:

• Criticism function : a utility of utopias is as a criticism of the current social organization. Building a utopian system serves to see / measure how far the current social organization is from it. Which serves to question the validity of the present social system and assess the need for political change.

• Evaluative function : another function, closely related to the previous one, would be the one that highlights the influence of utopia in the study of different societies. Utopias can serve to reflect on the different methods of social organization and thus better understand our political and social system.
• Hopeful function : we can also go to a more humanistic position of the term. We can find that some utopias have the function of generating hope in the human being. Trying to convey to individuals the idea that a better society is possible.
• Guiding function : last, and perhaps the most useful function, is to use utopia as an objective or goal. Setting something perfect and ideal as a goal serves to maintain continuous progress and not get bogged down in the delusion that we live in the best possible system.

The term utopia is used many times as a synonym for impossible. It is even attributed an idealistic and unhelpful character. But this conception is still a mistake:  utopias allow us to identify the objective to be achieved, they act as a compass. And this is not trivial, since one of the most powerful motivations that human beings have is to seek the best.