Filozofska istraživanja, Vol. 37 No. 2, 2017.
Review article
https://doi.org/10.21464/fi37203
Mediterranean Utopias
Mislav Kukoč
; Sveučilište u Splitu, Filozofski fakultet, Sinjska 2, HR–21000 Split
Abstract
Although the notion of utopia, entitling Thomas More’s representative work, was coined in the European West, and far from the Mediterranean, the first utopian dreams about the prefect human community were dreamt in the Mediterranean cultural environment. Plato’s construction of the ideal state, as well as the Atlantis myth vividly represented in dialogues Timaeus and Critia, served as inspiration and layout to the entirety of utopian constructions devised afterwards, including the paradigmatic vision of Thomas More’s perfect island state. Moreover, we can find the Mediterranean roots of utopian thought in Hellenistic utopias by Euhemerus and Iambuls, and these ideas partially contain elements from the Mediterranean Middle Age and Renaissance utopias as well. After critical examination of utopian thoughts and worldviews, at the end of this paper a dilemma will be discussed on whether Patricius’ The Happy Town belongs to the corpus of Mediterranean utopias or not.
Keywords
Mediterranean; utopia; eschatology; Hellenism; cosmopolitanism; Renaissance; Franciscus Patricius
Hrčak ID:
188004
URI
Publication date:
23.8.2017.
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