Utopia: The Concept of Pleasure

The inhabitants of Utopia certainly have a very different view of the concept of pleasure than us mere fallible humans of modern day society. In this essay, I’ll be comparing society in Thomas Mores Utopia to western society of 2013.

The common belief amongst Utopians is that the main way to happiness is pleasure, as it says on page 7 in chapter VI: ”They seem, indeed more inclinable to that opinion that places, if not the whole, yet the chief part, of a man’s happiness in pleasure.” So, what is the common Utopian’s idea of pleasure? First of all, Utopians do not find happiness in all pleasures. They only find virtuous,and honest pleasures pleasurable. They believe that one of the greatest pleasures of all is to help others and to ease other people’s pain – to them, it is a pleasure to engage in activities that benefit society and those around them. They strongly believe that it is unfair for anyone to seek pleasure by taking another man’s pleasure from him (ch. VI, p. 9: but they think it unjust for a man to seek pleasure by snatching another man’s pleasure from him…), and that it is a sign of a good soul if a man fairly shares his pleasure for the benefit of others. They also think that the pleasures of the mind are much greater than those of the body. That doing a favour or giving a gift and seeing the happiness in the receiver’s eyes is much more gratifying than any physical pleasure could ever be. One of my favourite quotes of chapter VI, which stands in stark contrast to society anno 2013, is this: ”They look upon freedom from pain, if it does not rise from perfect health, to be a state of stupidity rather than of pleasure.” They believe that a life of pleasure is naturally also one of pain, and that those two go hand in hand. And if they don’t go hand in hand, the Utopians believe that they’re dealing with a rather stupid person who doesn’t really register pain and who thinks that everything is fine.