Human Nature And State Theory In Thomas More's Utopia

When Europe entered the 16 th century,the strength of religion declined,and people's spiritual world gradually departed from God's control,Religion gradually withdrew from the public domain of the country,which raised a question for everyone-what should the country do to reshape the public life after leaving the church?To this,More threw himself into the situation and gave his answer in utopia.In the 16 th century,Britain is in the primitive accumulation stage of capitalism.The rapid development of trade,the intensification of the enclosure movement,and the self-interest had become the highest pursuit of the individual.These growing contradictions were tearing the entire society.For all the ills of British society,More traced the roots from the surface,and finally set his sights on the main body of society-people.Combining his knowledge of classical philosophy and his insights into social reality,he set out to reflect on human nature,and attributed the root cause of social problems to human nature.More believes that man is born with the original sin,and arrogance is the basic sin of human nature,which leads to greed and laziness.It is these three aspects of human nature that make private property a tool for social differentiation.At the same time,More also realized that human nature is established,but it is the social environment that promotes the wanton spread of human nature.Therefore,if we want to restrain human nature,restrain the evil of human nature,and guide the development of human nature toward goodness,A good environment must be rebuilt.Utopia is such a new environment.From this point of view,this paper explores the relationship between More's view of human nature and the state theory of utopia by means of causal analysis and historical analysis on the basis of literature research.In addition,in order to restrain the evil of human nature,More designed from the aspects of ethics,morality,social system and religion,and constructed an ideal country where people do not want to be evil,cannot be evil or even dare not be evil,thus forming the national theory of utopia.In terms of ethics,More inspired the politics of virtue in classical philosophy,and used education to create an atmosphere in utopia.Utopia has a moral education system.Everyone is cultivated and educated from birth to form personal virtues and cognitive rationality.It seeks noble joy and happiness and makes people not want to do evil.At the same time,More also gave Utopia a strong color of power and built a new social system that people can not do evil.These systems mainly include: all systems,labor systems,and distribution systems.First of all,Utopia implements a strict system of productive labor.Everyone's compulsory labor can restrain people's lazy thinking and cultivate diligence and diligence.This will eliminate the“parasitic”phenomenon of society.Second,the system of on-demand distribution guarantees life for all,so greed is gone.Finally,Utopian ownership—public ownership—points directly at the worst evil of human nature—arrogance.More recognized the impact of the economic system on people,and expounded public ownership from the perspective of human nature and needs.He believed that public ownership can truly eradicate all evils under private ownership and provide an institutional environment for Utopians to form basic selfishness,justice,and simplicity.It makes people unable to do evil.More hoped to achieve a comprehensive transformation and shaping of personal qualities through the power of social systems,and to completely change the gap between the rich and the poor at the bottom of the population and the aristocracy during the original accumulation of British capitalism.In terms of spiritual order,More did not completely abandon the guiding role of religion in human spirit and character.Utopia has three main religious beliefs: the existence of God,the immortality of the soul,and the reward and punishment of others.In the personal development of the people,More believes that religion is still an indispensable spiritual support.It is these religious beliefs that guide people to strictly abide by the new social system and cause people to fear the fate of the afterlife,and thus dare not do evil.It can be seen that the whole state theory of utopia is based on More's understanding of human nature.Utopia's theory of state is ideal,but more's view of human nature is extremely realistic.This tension between the ideal and the reality is the embodiment of the limitations of The Times,which also left the latter endless reverie.Since then,the Utopian thought has spread as an ideological system,providing the ideological source for the later socialists.Many socialists after More conceived the social system of utopia as the embryonic form.Marx and Engels also criticized innovation on the road of More's criticism of capitalism and continued to move forward,creating scientific socialism and realizing the leap of socialism from fantasy to science.