The polis, or Greek city-state, according to
Aristotle, is the highest form of political association. Only by being a citizen of a polis can a person fully pursue a life of good quality, which is the end goal of human existence. Because one can only achieve this goal through political association, Aristotle concludes that "man is a political animal." As well as defending private property and condemning capitalism, Aristotle notoriously regards the institution of slavery as necessary to the workings of society.
Aristotle concludes that no present city or theory is ideal. He identifies cities with their respective constitutions and categorizes six different kinds of cities, three good and three bad. The three good kinds are politeia, or constitutional government; aristocracy; and kingship. The three bad kinds are democracy, oligarchy, and tyranny.
A good constitution is formulated according to the principle of distributive justice: equal people are treated equally and unequal people are treated unequally. People are deemed more or less valuable to society according to the contributions they make to the life of the city. Though Aristotle states that a constitutional government with a sovereign set of laws is ideal, he admits that in cases where there is an outstanding group or individual, aristocracy or kingship might be preferable.
Thomas More’s Utopia is a Christian-humanist view of an ideal society. More offers this vision not only as a mental ideal, but also as one that humans can strive to create in this world. The text is a self-conscious effort by More to offer his readers a Christianization of Plato’s Republic. More’s book, Utopia, is the last great Christian synthesis of the Renaissance. The Christian aspect of the synthesis is Christ’s gospel of caring for the poor, the oppressed, and the downtrodden.
Utopian society is characterized by the communal ownership of property. All property in Utopia was owned by the community and all production, except agriculture, was located in the household. Trades were assigned on the basis of aptitude and choice, and the householdwas the locus of all production. All houses were maintained publicly, without locks. Utopians treasured leisure—not for the sake of idleness, but to spend their ctime in hobbies and the pursuit of various avenues of self-improvement. Marriage was for love, not by arrangement.
The parliament’s function was to allocate goods and labor to the individual towns, as well as to set foreign policy and create new colonies. The parliament didn’t pass laws, because society, lacking private property, didn’t need them. Teachers, priests, and rulers were chosen from the intellectual class. Utopians fought wars for only three reasons: to defend their territory, to defend the territory of an ally, or to liberate oppressed people. Everyone, including women, is trained for combat in case Utopia must be defended.
Source credits
SparkNotes hyperlink
And
Course guidebook for The Western Intellectual Tradition, Darren Staloff City College of New York, et al
