There's this belief among many that Utopian thinkers are ungrounded idealists — starry-eyed dreamers with their heads in the clouds and no grasp of how the world really works—spaced-out hippies and weird university professors who sit in lotus and hover above their desk.

That’s just not true.

Utopian thought is not a fringe, anti-science, activity. It is not the province of spaced-out idealists or starry-eyed dreamers. On the contrary, Utopian thinking is one of the oldest, most persistent, and I would argue most respectable intellectual traditions on the planet. There’s been so much of it that we can speak of “waves” of Utopian thought. It has been with us for centuries, millennia, really, carried forward by philosophers, scientists, psychologists, sociologists, artists, and mystics alike. Indeed, some of the world’s most rigorous and influential minds in human history, and to be fair some of the world’s not-so-rigorous mind, in have devoted serious effort to imagining and designing the Good Society.

In this forum category we'll consider and discuss Utopian thought, what it is, why it emerges, it's content, etc. I'll develop a short reading, viewing, and listening lists to go along with this area. Feel free to suggest books for those interested in getting grounded in this area.

For the academically inclined, let us briefly consider the purpose and structure of Utopian thought. (the below is draft)

The Purpose of Utopian Thought

Widdicombe, 1992

The Structure of Utopian Thought

• Superior - creation of new social orders and governmental structure (Mohl)
• Inferior - reform of said social order
• Political (Kleinwachter)
• Economic