Kyle Sheehan

FYS 100 Section 50 – Social Utopia

Dr. Watts

October 6, 2015

Question: How does this exhibit source provide evidence that helps me better understand More’s critique of sixteenth century society and politics?

After reading the exhibit source it is obvious that More is very grateful for the thorough education he received. Due to his personal experience with liberal studies, More seeks to impart his wisdom upon others. Erasmus writes that More was not pleased with being just a “good scholar”. He instead goes even further and “gives generous support to all other scholars”. He influenced his entire household and gave each of his daughters a liberal education. Education played a key role in More’s life and made him a “man for all seasons”. More claims that he owes his “health, his popularity, and influence with an excellent prince and men both friends and strangers, his easier circumstances, his own greater happiness and the happiness he gives his friends” all to his liberal studies. His passionate appreciation toward his liberal education plays a major role in his construction of Utopia.

More believes in both a classroom as well as a hands on approach to education. He explains that in Utopia, “they are all trained in it, partly by instruction in the classroom, partly by being taken out to play at it.” This provides the children with a more well-rounded approach to education. More chooses this well-rounded approach to education for the Utopians due to his satisfaction with his own liberal education. Education is so important in Utopia that the citizens’ free time are “not wasted in debauchery and idleness… many devote these intervals to intellectual activities.” Even in their free time, the Utopians focus on education. This is More’s way of saying that he wishes his own society would spend their free time more wisely or productively. More puts a large emphasis on education both education as well as morality in Utopia. He critiques his own God oriented society of the sixteenth century by creating this fictional world. In Utopia, “lunch and dinner always begin with some reading that concerns morals… the elders begin the discussion.” However, the elders do not simply lecture the students but rather interact in a form of discourse. The elders would “rather listen to the young people, and they deliberately challenge them so as to learn about the temperament and intelligence of each of them.” This strong emphasis on morality is obviously something More would like to see implemented in his own sixteenth century society.