Imagining a perfect society. The significance of Utopia throughout history

Abstract

The objective of this work is to make a historical‑conceptual journey about what utopia has meant for humanity and what are the main motivations for it to be considered a possible response to the dissatisfaction of existing conditions. This will be done exposing through different eras and trying to follow a chronological order, showing how communities and societies found in utopias ways to imagine an ideal world where to solve their present problems by creating fictitious worlds to escape from reality or to imagine a better future. The authors of the most important utopias will be exposed, as well as the types (theological, social reengineering, political‑institutional, naturalistic, architectural‑urban, literary, revolutionary, anarchist, among others) and what they consisted of to shape Western civilization as the we know today. We will start by tracing utopia in ancient Greece with Plato's Republic, going through Thomas More's Utopia, and from there presenting the state of the art during the Renaissance, Humanism, the Enlightenment, Modernity (excepting Totalitarianism), until reaching the 21st century, where utopia continues to be a way of addressing social, political and economic problems, imagining a better future for all.